Updated September 2026.
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The question, “Are email newsletters really necessary?” is asked each year. And each year, the response is, “Absolutely!”
So don’t just send out drab, robotic messages. Make the most of your digital communications by establishing a brilliant email newsletter strategy.
Email newsletters have consistently remained important for brands and businesses despite changes in digital marketing. Why? Subscriber newsletters offer personalization, control, and tailoring that other communications can’t. How? Segmenting your audience means you can send targeted engaging content. The expectation is that if you give a company your email address, you’ll receive something relevant and exciting.
Some of the most engaging emails are the ones where you feel you’re talking to an actual person over a cup of coffee.
If it’s time to improve your email newsletters, we have some advice to help you get back into the swing of things. Here are 6+ ways to boost your open and click-through rates.
1. Inject Your Brand’s Personality Into Your Email Newsletters
Why personalize your email newsletters? Some of the most engaging emails are the ones where you feel you’re talking to an actual person over a cup of coffee. Achieve this by sharing real-life experiences from you or someone on your team. Talk about yourself. Give readers a behind-the-scenes peek into your business. Don’t just reiterate content; give your thoughts and opinions. Declare your perspective and elaborate on it authentically.
2. Crowdsource Content from Your Readers
Just as much as your readers want to hear from you, you need to hear from your readers. Don’t rely on surveys measuring what people do and don’t like about your communications. Instead, create interactive forms and polls requesting input on specific topics. Repurpose this tactic on other social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram to solicit honest feedback and expand your view on different subjects and trending topics. Your readers will feel appreciated, and maybe you’ll even learn something in the process.
3. Use Your Footer to the Fullest Extent
Who says the footer of your email newsletters has to be boring? Stop underutilizing that valuable real estate. Once your readers have reached the bottom of your email, reward them with something unique, fun, and creative, not just the unsubscribe link. Are you promoting a subscription or a new service? Pop it in the footer. Do you want them to share your newsletter with their friends and colleagues? Pop it in the footer. You’re wasting that space if you don’t give subscribers one last chance to connect with you. This is a quick way to improve your email newsletters.
4. Change Your “Sent From” Name
Inboxes are flooded daily with emails from brand names, but they’re not usually inundated with emails from humans. While we want subscribers to know who is contacting them, why not add your name to the “sent from” section? For example, instead of saying “Betty Boop Boutique,” say, “Kendall @ Betty Boop.” You can switch this up with different team members depending on your email content. And don’t forget to add your icon, which appears in most email clients next to your “sent from” name. This campaign strategy tip boosts open rates with a dose of personality.
5. Plan Your Email Calendar (Seriously!)
Plans are nothing, but planning is everything, right? Improve your email newsletter strategy when you take the time to seriously think about the content you will discuss each week or month, what email segments you will send them to, the best days and times to schedule your emails, etc. It’s your chance to reduce uncertainty in your readers and give yourself room to breathe when feeling completely overwhelmed. You can always refer to your plan, take a deep breath, and focus on your email subscribers’ needs.
6. Do the Unglamorous Stuff, Too
Personality gets you opened. Authentication gets you delivered. Gmail and Yahoo have required SPF, DKIM, and DMARC since 2024, and Microsoft joined them in 2025, so if nobody at your company can tell you whether those are set up, that’s your next conversation. All three also want your spam complaints under 0.3% and a one-click unsubscribe that actually works.
Then clean your list. Segment for subscribers who haven’t opened anything in the last year and let them go. It feels backward to shrink your audience deliberately, but a smaller list of people who want to hear from you beats a big list that quietly tanks your sender reputation. Your open rate will thank you, and so will your inbox placement.
Bonus: Improve Your Email Newsletters with Snappy Subject Lines
Always test your subject lines and preview texts to get people curious about your email. Don’t give away the newsletter’s content. Instead, be mysterious and enticing, encouraging subscribers to open it. Give them a bit of the punch line, but don’t finish it.
One update since we first published this: put the whole setup in the subject line. Apple Mail now writes its own AI summary and drops it where your preview text used to appear, so a subject line that relies on the preheader to land can show up without its other half. Write the subject line to stand alone, then write the preview text as a bonus for the inboxes that still show it.
And don’t be afraid to experiment with emojis in your subject line, too. It can be an effective, attention-grabbing technique to boost email open rates. Because who doesn’t love a shooting star or megaphone? Try something like:
Sneak Peek đź‘€: You Don’t Want to Miss This
This Month’s Insider Tips—Just for You!
Come Back—We Saved Your Favorites.
And voilà —you’re ready to take your newsletter to the next level. Get out there, use your personality and all the underutilized resources of your email scheduling platform, and consistently connect with your email subscribers. You’ve got this.
Courtenay is the agency’s Creative Content Director. Need an Oxford comma-obsessed, track-changing wordchopper? You’ve found her.