Did you know the average person receives 120-140 emails a day? So those meticulously crafted newsletters sit in a subscriber’s inbox competing with an avalanche of messages. Between convincing AI-generated phishing attempts and endless promotional blasts, your content risks getting lost in digital purgatory – or deleted without a second glance.
Most people are looking for reasons to delete your email, not read it.
It’s not personal. It’s just survival in the age of inbox fatigue. Creating that must-read message isn’t about clever hooks or growth hacks, it’s about becoming the newsletter that makes people think oh, this is going to be good, when they see your name.
Every great newsletter has a heartbeat. A rhythm of authenticity that pulls people in and keeps them coming back. We want people to open our emails and be excited to see you in their inbox, even when they haven’t in a while.
We know our names can be automatically inserted into emails. What feels personal is when you write like you’re talking to one person, not pitching to a crowd. When someone replies (and they will), respond like a real human, not an auto bot. I’ve had deeper connections sparked by replying to readers who took the time to say, I really enjoyed your perspective on this.
While everyone else is playing it safe in their inboxes, dare to write the emails you wish would land in yours. Ask the questions that have you curious, even if you haven’t reached any conclusions. Share a story that didn’t end the way you expected.
Authority Without the Eye Roll
The newsletter challenge isn’t only about being interesting enough to get eyeballs on it – it’s being trusted enough to be opened. Even your promotional emails should share something valuable.
Trust builds like sediment. Through the courage to share the light and shadow of your experiences over proclamations of expertise. Layer by layer, message by message. Each email either adds to these careful layers or creates the current that erodes them.
Nobody wants another self-proclaimed guru in their inbox. Rather, it’s the coffee date with a bright friend who actually knows their stuff and wants to muse on the less-talked about deets.
Readers are curious about the messy middle, the last-minute pivots, and the real story behind your latest launch.
Share those I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but… moments.
Pull back the curtain on your process and progress (or lack of it).
Share the real numbers behind your wins.
Subject Lines That Actually Work
Here’s some good examples of being interesting and genuine and avoiding sounding desperate or phony.
Service Business
—Your Q4 strategy is missing this pivotal point
—I told my client to stop doing discovery calls
—The shift in approach that saved my business
—Why I’m raising my prices (and you should too)
—3 clients I should have turned down last year
—The exact words that transformed my client calls
—Unpopular opinion: Stop offering payment plans
—My unpaid workload dropped 30% using this boundary
Product Business
—We pulled our bestseller (here’s why)
—The product review that changed our entire packaging
—Why we’re ditching Black Friday sales this year
—Our ugly product photos outperformed professional ones
—The supply chain secret we’ve never shared
—What 1,000 product returns taught us
—The small batch experiment that transformed our business
—We broke our own pricing rules (the surprising results)
Common Elements That Scream Spam
—Excessive punctuation (!!!)
—ALL CAPS SENTENCES
—Multiple emojis in subject line
—Words like urgent, important, amazing
—Commanding language (must, need, now)
—Fake scarcity (last chance, closing forever)
—Unbelievable claims (life-changing, revolutionary)
In the tango between authenticity and strategy, choose to be the one who brings light to the shadows, who transforms uncertainty into insight, and who makes every open feel like we’re gladly making time for a conversation worth having.