Why has the humble newsletter come back into favour in 2025? From a creator’s point of view, it’s all about control and ownership.
It’s strange how things go in cycles. Or maybe it’s not surprising at all. I spent a lot of time last month reading through many expert predictions of marketing trends in 2025, and although there was a predictable emphasis on ‘AI’, the other tip for effectiveness was… newsletters.
This made me smile, not just because it’s 25 years since I set up a business to write email newsletters for companies – and I’ve been recommending everyone has a regular newsletter ever since. Companies that created one many years ago now often have huge circulations and an awesome, low-cost promotional resource.
So why has the humble newsletter come back into favour? From a creator’s point of view, it’s all about control and ownership. Businesses that invested hugely in building circulations on third-party platforms are finding that these can go sour very quickly. A newsletter is something we own in its entirety. Even if we use a third-party distribution service, we can take our custom elsewhere.
What’s different this time is that many top-class journalists and authors are moving to this model. Making a living as a salaried writer or reporter is becoming increasingly difficult, but it’s not that hard to get a few hundred (or several thousand) people to subscribe to a newsletter for a few pounds a month. Do the maths. I guess it’s taken this long to happen because there were always easier alternatives (working for a journal, building a social media presence that could be monetised in other ways, and the like). Now these newsletters are proving so successful, readers are adapting to them as being a good way to get trustworthy and entertaining information on a regular basis.
As businesses, we can jump on this trend. People are prepared to find the time to read emailed information if it’s in a predictable form. You’re reading this, right? And it’s never too late to start. Be proactive – perhaps even get someone to cold call prospect lists to get them signed up. We did this a few years back and our brilliant sales guy sailed through 50–100 calls a day, getting over 50% to agree to receive the daily email. Adding to our circulation at £5 a name was a bargain.
I’ll come up with a list of tips for a newsletter in 2025 and let you have it tomorrow. Even if you’ve got one, it might provide some ideas for a relaunch!