How to turn a blog post into a newsletter

Most newsletters made from a blog post are the blog post's opening paragraph and a "Read more" button. They get opened out of habit, skimmed in a few seconds, and the button gets almost no clicks, because the email gave the reader no reason to want the rest.

A newsletter does a different job from the blog post. The blog post is for someone who searched for the topic. The newsletter lands in the inbox of someone who didn't ask about this topic today, and it has to earn a few minutes of their attention anyway. So the job isn't pasting the post into an email. It's picking the one thing in the post that reader will be glad they read, and writing it as a note from the client to them.

This guide walks through how, step by step, with a full worked example at the end. It uses the same blog post as our guide to turning a blog post into a LinkedIn post, so you can see one post become both.

The short version

1. Decide what kind of newsletter it is. One that stands on its own, or a digest that points to posts.
2. Pick one takeaway from the post. Not a summary of all of it.
3. Write the subject line and preview text after you know what the email says.
4. Open by telling the reader what they're getting, not how you hope they are.
5. Write three or four short paragraphs, one point each, using what's in the post.
6. End with one thing to do, whether that's a reply, a link or a download.
7. Check it against the source, then send it to the client for sign-off.

Before you start: what kind of newsletter is it?

There are two kinds of newsletter a blog post can feed, and they're written differently.

• A newsletter that stands on its own. The email itself is the value. The reader learns the one useful thing without clicking anything, and the link to the full post is a bonus for anyone who wants more. This is the kind most small businesses should send, because it works even when nobody clicks.
• A digest. A short list of recent posts, a line or two each, with a link to every one. It suits a client who publishes several posts a week and has readers who want to pick what to read. It only works if people click, so each line has to say what the reader gets, not just repeat the title.

Most of this guide is about the first kind. If the client's newsletter is a digest, steps 2 and 6 still apply to every line in it.

Ask the client two things before you write: who is on the list (customers, prospects, or both), and who the email is from. A newsletter from the founder reads differently from one signed by the company, the same way a founder's LinkedIn post does.

Step 1: Pick the one takeaway

Read the blog post and find the single idea a reader could use this week if it were the only thing they read. It's usually one of these:

• A practical step. Something the reader can try, with enough detail to actually try it.
• A mistake. Something they're probably doing that the post says doesn't work.
• A finding. A number or a result from the post that changes how they'd see their own situation.

The rest of the post stays in the post. A newsletter that tries to cover everything gets skimmed and remembered for nothing. One point, explained properly, is what makes a reader open the next one.

If the post has more than one strong takeaway, that's not a problem to solve in this email. Save the second one for a later issue.

Step 2: Write the subject line and preview text

The inbox shows three things before anyone opens the email: who it's from, the subject line, and a line of preview text after it. Together they decide whether the email gets opened, so write them after you know what the email says.

What tends to work:

• Say what's inside. "The 20-minute check that catches price rises early" tells the reader exactly what they'll get.
• Name the mistake. "Your monthly food cost number is a month late."
• Keep it short. Phones cut subject lines off, and where the cut falls varies by app and screen. Put the words that matter first.

What to avoid:

• The issue number on its own. "Newsletter #47" tells the reader nothing about why to open this one.
• Announcing the post. "New on the blog" makes the email sound like a notification, and readers treat it like one.
• A teaser that hides the point. "You won't believe what we found" reads as spam, and the law has a view on it too: in the US, the CAN-SPAM Act requires a subject line to "accurately reflect the content of the message".

Preview text is the line most inboxes show after the subject line. Most email tools let you set it. If you don't, the inbox usually shows the first words of the email instead, which is how readers end up seeing "View this email in your browser". Use it to finish the thought the subject line starts. If the subject line names the mistake, the preview text can name the fix.

Step 3: Open with what the reader is getting

The first two sentences decide whether the reader keeps going. Tell them what this email gives them and why it matters to them now.

• Good: "If you check food cost once a month, you're finding out about price rises a month after you could have done something. Here's the 20-minute check we use instead."
• Not good: "I hope you're having a great week! It's been a busy month here and we've got some exciting updates to share."

Skip the pleasantries, the "I hope this email finds you well", and the recap of what the company has been up to. None of it is what the reader opened the email for.

Step 4: Write the body

Three or four short paragraphs, each making one point, with a blank line between them.

• Say the idea. In a sentence or two, in plain words.
• Show it. The example, the number or the story from the post.
• Make it usable. What the reader can do with it, with enough detail that they could actually do it.
• Optionally, say why it matters. What changes for them if they do.

Keep the formatting plain. Short paragraphs read well in every inbox. Heavy designs, lots of images and text set inside images often display badly, get clipped, or never load at all for readers who block images. A newsletter that reads well as plain text will read well everywhere.

Write it in the client's voice, as one person writing to one reader. If the client says "we", say "we". If the founder signs it, write it the way they talk. The quickest test is to read it out loud as them.

Step 5: End with one thing to do

One call to action, and only one. Two buttons split the click and three make the reader do neither.

What it should be depends on what the client wants from the email:

• A reply. "Hit reply and tell me which item costs you the most." Replies are the strongest thing a reader can do with a newsletter, and the client gets a real conversation out of it.
• A link to the full post, if there's more there worth reading. Say what they'll get by clicking: "The full post has the count sheet and the list of items we track."
• A download or an offer, like a template or a call.

What doesn't work is "Read the full post to learn more" when the email gave nothing away. If the reader can't tell what clicking gets them, they won't.

Step 6: Get the basics right

These aren't about writing, but they decide whether the email arrives at all. If your agency sends email for a client, both of you are responsible for these.

• An unsubscribe link and a postal address. In the US, CAN-SPAM requires both in commercial email, and opt-outs have to be honored within 10 business days. The FTC also says that hiring someone else to send the email doesn't move the client's responsibility to them.
• One-click unsubscribe for bigger lists. Since February 2024, Google requires anyone sending close to 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail accounts to support one-click unsubscribe, authenticate their domain and keep their spam rate low. Most email tools handle the unsubscribe part, but the domain setup is something the client or the agency has to do once.
• Don't trust open rates. Apple's Mail Privacy Protection loads email content in the background, so senders can't see whether someone opened an email. Opens from those readers get counted whether they read it or not. Clicks and replies are the numbers worth reporting to a client.

Step 7: Check it and send it to the client

Read the newsletter next to the blog post and check:

• Every number, name and claim is in the blog post. Not rounded up, not stretched.
• It sounds like the client, or like the person signing it. Would they use that word?
• The subject line is true. The email delivers what it promises.
• The call to action works. If it says "hit reply", someone at the client reads replies. If it links somewhere, the link goes there.

Then send it for sign-off. A newsletter goes to the client's customers under the client's name, so it needs a yes before it goes out. Send it with the blog post it came from, so they can check the facts quickly, and tell them what to look at: facts, names, and anything they'd rather not say. If approvals are where things stall, our guide to getting client sign-off without chasing covers how to keep them moving.

A worked example, start to finish

Here's the whole process on one blog post. It's the same made-up client as in the LinkedIn guide: a bookkeeping firm that works with restaurants, run by its founder, Dana. The newsletter goes to the firm's clients and to restaurant owners who signed up on its website, and Dana signs it.

The blog post (an excerpt)

Most restaurant owners I work with look at food cost once a month, on the P&L. The trouble is that by the time that number arrives, the month's waste is already paid for.

Last March I sat down with the owner of a 60-seat bistro. Her monthly report put food cost at 29%, which looked fine. Her walk-in told a different story: her beef supplier had raised prices twice since the last invoice she'd checked closely.

We set up something small. Every Monday, someone counts the ten most expensive items on the shelves and writes down what they paid for each. It takes about twenty minutes.

Three weeks later, the Monday count caught the next price rise, a month before it would have shown up on the P&L.

The rest of the post covers how to set up the count sheet, which items to include and how to compare against invoices, and ends with a free template to download.

Picking the takeaway

The post has a mistake (reading food cost monthly), a practical step (the Monday count) and a finding (it caught a price rise a month early). For a newsletter to restaurant owners, the practical step is the takeaway: it's the one thing a reader can start doing on Monday. The mistake becomes the opening and the finding becomes the proof.

The subject line and preview text

Subject: The 20-minute check that catches price rises early

Preview text: Why I stopped trusting the monthly food cost number on its own.

The email

If you check food cost once a month, on the P&L, you're finding out about price rises a month after you could have done something about them. Here's the 20-minute check I've started asking every restaurant I work with to do instead.

Every Monday, someone counts the ten most expensive items on your shelves and writes down what you paid for each one. That's it. Ten items, one sheet, about twenty minutes.

Last March I set this up with a 60-seat bistro whose monthly report said food cost was 29%, which looked fine. Her beef supplier had actually raised prices twice since she'd last read an invoice closely. Three weeks after we started the Monday count, it caught the next price rise, a month before the P&L would have.

The ten items are simply the most expensive ones on your shelves. Each week, compare what you paid against the last invoice, and a price rise stands out straight away.

I've put the count sheet we use into a free template. Hit reply and I'll send it over.

Dana

Everything in it comes from the blog post: the monthly P&L habit, the ten items, the twenty minutes, the bistro, the 29%, the three weeks, the invoice check and the template. Nothing was added, so there's nothing new for Dana to check except that it sounds like her.

Two choices worth noticing. The close asks for a reply rather than a click, because a reply starts a conversation with a restaurant owner, which is what a bookkeeping firm wants. And it doesn't link to the blog post at all, because the email already gave the reader the useful part. Dana could add a link to the full setup for anyone who wants the detail. Either works, as long as the email is worth reading without it.

One blog post, more than one email

A strong blog post often has more than one takeaway. Each can lead a different issue:

• This week: the Monday count, as above.
• A few weeks later: which ten items to count and why, as its own short email.
• Later still: the bigger idea, that monthly numbers arrive too late to act on, as a short note in Dana's voice.

Space them out and keep each one useful on its own, so a reader who missed the first still gets something from the second.

The mistakes that get a newsletter sent back

• It's the blog post's introduction with a button. It promises the rest of the post and gives none of it.
• It covers everything. Five points, none of them explained well enough to use.
• The subject line oversells. The reader opens it, doesn't find what was promised, and opens the next one less often.
• It has more than one call to action.
• It adds a number that isn't in the blog post. The client's readers include people who know the numbers.
• It doesn't sound like whoever signed it.

Doing this for many clients every week

One newsletter is a pleasant hour. Fifteen clients, each publishing a couple of posts a month, each with their own list, voice and person who signs off, is where it stops being pleasant. Every email means remembering who that client's readers are, how the client sounds and what they'd never say.

What makes it manageable is one record per client that every newsletter starts from:

• Their real published posts, so whoever writes the email can read how they actually sound.
• Who the list is and who signs the email.
• The call to action they prefer: replies, clicks, or calls booked.
• Words they use and words they'd never use.
• Who approves, and how quickly they usually reply.

Where GoMimic fits

GoMimic does this for agencies with many clients.

• A newsletter section from every published post. Paste the post, and the newsletter comes back with an opening, a body built around one takeaway and one call to action, alongside the LinkedIn posts, X threads and other formats you picked for that client. If the client runs a LinkedIn newsletter, it can write that too.
• In each client's voice. GoMimic learns how each client writes from their own published posts, and a habit only counts once it shows up in three of them. Your team never has to rebuild a client's voice from scratch.
• Built to the conventions above. One takeaway, short paragraphs, plain formatting, no "I hope this email finds you well", and only facts that are in the post.
• Sign-off included. Your client approves the set from a link, with no login.

It doesn't send the email. You write the subject line and send it from whatever email tool the client already uses, which also means a person reads every newsletter before it reaches a subscriber. You can try it on one of your client's blog posts without creating an account.

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