When you search Free Email Newsletter Templates in Google, what you’ll typically find are “pretty” templates.
Templates created by designers. Sure, they look nice. They’re responsive, so they look good on any device.
But as a direct response marketer and an affiliate marketer… all I care about is whether or not they make me money.
Call me greedy if you want. It’s okay. You won’t hurt my feelings. Lol!
Seriously though… if you’re a marketer, “prettiness” shouldn’t be a determining factor of whether or not you use something.
Your marketing decisions should typically be based on numbers. In this case, the questions you should ask are…
“Will this email template generate more clicks to my offer?”
“Will it get my message across?”
“Will my subscribers be able to easily consume my message?”
If the answers to those questions are YES… then you’re good to go.
The Bane of Hopeful Email Marketers
I promise I’ll give you a download link for the free email newsletter template in a second. I just figured I’d give you some free advice to go along with it first.
There’s one thing that I always tell my Newsletter Academy students about running an email newsletter business…
“If your only focus was to deliver valuable content to your subscribers on an ongoing basis, you could make as much money as your little heart desires.”
-Duston McGroarty
That’s a true statement.
Too many email marketers wake up in the morning and ask themselves, “how can I make money today?”.
The answer is usually to send a promotional email to their list because it’s quick and easy.
They can go find the latest and greatest offer… navigate to the affiliate page… copy an email swipe that the product owner created… and blast it out to their list.
That’s the lazy way to make money as an email marketer. It’s also a very short-term approach.
Unless you’re adding hundreds of new subscribers to your email list every single day… you’re gonna burn through your list in no time.
Click through rates will drop first. Then open rates will start to dwindle. Until finally, you’re no longer making any money when you send an email.
It’s sad but true. It happens every day.
Every email you send should deliver value FIRST. It’s okay to include an ad or a pitch too.
But no one ever wants to open an email to look at a pitch (except internet marketers—we’re a weird bunch).
Your email needs to be useful, relevant, and of interest to your subscribers or it’s not gonna get opened.
Think about it… what makes you want to open an email? Could be one of two things… the sender or the subject line, right?
Well, actually it could one of three things… the sender, the subject line, or now, the preview text. Take a look at the screenshot from my phone below…
The first email is very well done. AWAI is a company that offers training and resources for copywriters, so I guess they should have well-crafted emails!
But look at the subject line. Very appealing if you’re a freelance writer. And if the subject line didn’t do the job of getting you to open the email, read the preview text (in the red box).
Now, technically their preview text is just the first few lines of copy from the email which is what the default preview text usually is.
Some email programs even offer a specific field for preview text that only gets displayed as a preview, not inside the actual email.
Preview text is becoming more and more important since most people are consuming emails on their mobile devices.
Here’s a good read from Litmus on preview text and how to actually hide it inside your email so it only gets displayed as a preview.
By the way, I subscribe to a bunch of newsletters in many different niches so I can study their content, their advertisers, and also their products.
Agora Publishing is a direct response powerhouse and their email newsletters are very well done. Their email newsletters actually inspired the design of my winning email newsletter template.
Anyhoo, I have filters set up in Gmail so they automatically get a “Newsletter” label added to them, they get marked as Read, and they get archived so they don’t clutter up my inbox.
I’ll go in and browse through them once or twice a week just to stay on top of the email newsletter game.
Your Free Email Newsletter Template
Here’s an example of this free email newsletter template in use:
Again, this email newsletter template is designed to deliver CONTENT. Not to pitch products.
There is an ad location slapped right in the middle of the content… and that’s done on purpose.
The subject line for this email was… Rustic Patio Cooler Plans Inside.
Because people subscribed to this email newsletter to receive woodworking tips, tricks, and plans.
That being said, the location of that ad spot gets plenty of clicks because it’s right in the middle of the content.
That’s how you run an email newsletter business… deliver useful, relevant content and include ads to generate revenue.
Now, I’m not saying to NEVER send a promotional email. Part of running an email newsletter business is selling advertising.
When you’re just starting out though, and your email list isn’t big enough to warrant selling advertising, you can just send your own promotional emails promoting affiliate products.
Here’s an example of a promotional email that was sent to the same email list as the newsletter above:
These emails should not be sent very frequently. How often? It really depends on the niche. Some niches are more receptive to receiving these types of offers than others.
Just be mindful of your subscribers. Also, make sure the offer you’re mailing is useful and relevant to your subscribers.
Sending a weight loss offer to a woodworking list isn’t very useful or relevant and will likely cause a spike in unsubscribes.
Okay, here are the download links for both of these templates:
Download: Free Email Newsletter Template for Direct Response Marketers
Download: Free Promotional Email Template
How to Edit the Free Email Newsletter Template
Don’t worry, if you’re not comfortable editing raw HTML code there are free online tools you can use to easily edit these email newsletter templates.
Step #1: Open The HTML File In A Text Editor
I use Sublime Text Editor on my Mac to edit HTML files.
Step #2: Copy The Entire HTML File
Just highlight all of the code in the HTML file and copy it to your clipboard. Alternatively, you could open the HTML file in your web browser, right-click and view the source code, and copy the HTML code from there.
Step #3: Paste It Into An Online HTML Editor
This is a good online HTML editor to use.
The first thing I like to do is to maximize the editor window by clicking the button that has the four arrows pointing in all different directions.
Then, click the Source button at the top left of the editor.
This switches the editor to a screen where you can paste your code. Now, highlight all of the code inside the editor and replace it with the newsletter code that you copied to your clipboard.
Step 4: Edit Your Email Newsletter Template
Now you can click the Source button again to switch the editor back to the visual editing mode.
From here, you can edit the email newsletter just like you would edit a Word document.
When you’re happy with the way it looks, click the Source button, copy your finished HTML code, and paste it right into your email management program.
You’re done!
I like to create starter templates like these that I can just copy and paste and write up a quick email newsletter. It’s way easier than hand coding it every time.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this free email newsletter template is responsive. Here’s how it looks on my phone:
Hopefully, this is helpful. If you want to learn more about the email newsletter business, check out my Newsletter Academy training.