Which Type of Email Newsletter Should I Use For My Association?

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Email is the best medium for sharing news, content, and upcoming events for associations. In the past year, with more and more people working from home, the association newsletter has been more relevant than ever. But what format is best for your association? Let’s take a look at several styles of the best newsletters for associations.

Letter-From-The-editor Style Newsletters for Associations

A letter-from-the-editor style newsletter is a fantastic way for a board member, president, or CEO to create a personal feel when reaching out to members. Written in a professional but conversational style, a letter from a person of authority shares information that is both accurate and relevant to everyone.

You might choose to talk about cool stuff that the association has done in the last month, fun upcoming events, or highlight a member. This newsletter style is ideal for someone who wants to be seen as passionate and informed about their industry – a thought leader, who can guide the association and its members to new heights.

Curated Content Newsletters for Associations

A curated content newsletter consists of external or internal content that pertains to your association that has been gathered or “curated” for members to peruse. The important thing to remember is to keep the information relevant and of interest to your base.

Offer links to articles or content that span a variety of topics that relate to your association, and be sure to write a line or two of explanation for each one – sort of like a caption. A bit of visual interest is especially good for this style, as you aren’t offering a block of text, but a series of links and captions. Formatting is important to land a punchy aesthetic, which is why it’s best to use a professional email marketing service like rasa.io when creating an association newsletter.

Hustle Style Newsletters for Associations

A hustle style newsletter is best used by an association with a dedicated content team and one or more talented writers. The hustle style is essentially a string of “letter from the editor” type entries that cover a variety of topics that can be loosely gathered under a main topic heading related to your association’s niche.

Newsletter templates offered by professional email marketing companies make it simple to create the appropriate blocking to make this style of newsletter shine. With the format taken care of, your only job is to create the right content. Hustle-style newsletters are very much a method of storytelling. You want to take a moment to think about what your audience wants to see, then write a headline that grabs your reader immediately, triggering an emotional response and forcing them to read on.

Blog-Style Newsletters for Associations

A blog-style newsletter is simply written to encourage recipients to click on a newly written blog post, or a series of blog posts, that share news or information that is relevant to your community of readers. You want to entice recipients to click and read on by sharing how the post can benefit them. A blog-style newsletter can be written informally, as a letter to a friend, or in a more professional style. In any case, find exciting and engaging words to pique interest in the topic, including a punchy email subject line. Members receive tons of email every single day – be sure that your email stands out so they are compelled to click it.

You want to captivate your audience, so be sure to come out of the gate explaining why your reader should take a look at this particular blog post. Make sure that the information has some benefit to them, and that it relates to the niche of your association. For an online version you may just include the entire blog entry, for easier access. Each blog post shared should have an easy to access link, a quick blurb, and even an image to increase visual interest. Blog posts may be internal posts, or occasionally external posts that are relevant to your association’s brand.

Wrap Up

The best way to boost engagement is to give a trial run to each of these styles, and then use analytic tools to determine which is hitting strongest with your reader base, so it can then be used as the main style. If you don’t have an in-house writer, you may choose to vary between the styles to mitigate the cost of hiring a writer. A monthly round up of links can work nicely for a particularly busy month where writing takes a back seat.

Email marketing is extremely important for associations. By giving your members a consistent stream of relevant and interesting content, you show them that you’re not only a group of experts, but an interesting group of experts as well. This drives membership like no other marketing channel.

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