What makes a strong newsletter introduction and how to write one

Key Takeaways:

• Use your introduction to immediately signal what is inside and why it matters. By linking to your top stories or guides right at the start, you provide instant utility and increase the likelihood that readers will engage with the rest of the content.
• Always write from a specific person, such as an editor or reporter, rather than a nameless brand. This builds a personal relationship with the audience, fostering long-term loyalty and trust.
• Keep the layout visually accessible by avoiding dense blocks of text. Use frequent paragraph breaks, bold text for emphasis, and emojis to guide the reader’s eye through the section quickly.
• Don’t get stuck in a repetitive routine. Match your introduction style to the day’s content—using bulleted lists for heavy news days, a single-story “deep dive” for major impacts, or a narrative style for personal reflections.

If you produce a newsletter you should definitely have an introduction section.

Even if your newsletter is mostly just headlines and summaries, introductions play an important role in setting things up for your audience, creating a connection with them and linking to some of the most important things in that day’s newsletter.

Since it’s the first thing that a reader sees when they open your newsletter, it’s important that you create value right away. If you intrigue them in that space, there’s a higher likelihood they will stay with the rest of the newsletter.

I’m going to spend today’s newsletter talking about what makes for great introductions and how to write them.

Here are tips to keep in mind

You need to first make sure that readers know what they are going to get in that day’s newsletter and why it’s worth their time to stick with it. Maybe that’s an incredible story or a guide that is going to help them plan their month. Whatever you have that you think they’re going to get value from, explain it, and link it in your introduction.

Don’t get into a routine where it’s the same format every time. If it’s a big news day, maybe use a bulleted list of stories in that day’s edition and if you have a great personal connection to a story, then go with a paragraph or narrative style.

This brings me to who it’s written from and it should always come from a person (the editor, the beat reporter). This creates a relationship with the reader and builds loyalty.

The last point I’d make is that you want to make this area as skimmable as possible, include returns (not one long paragraph) and find avenues to use emojis and bolds to move the reader throughout this area of the newsletter.

6 interesting introductions to use

I’ve got some ideas below on how you could create variety as you think about how to write your introduction each week:

• Bullet format: In this format, you would lay out the key stories in short, one sentence explanations of what someone would get in the newsletter. You would create a little bold header in front of each. This works really well if there is a lot of news you are covering in a newsletter.

• Questions: Use this when readers are already asking “what does this mean?” Start with a quick setup, then lay out the key questions you’re answering (maybe three) or answer a few of them right there in the intro. Keep the answers short.

• Emoji-led: This is basically the same idea as the bullets, but you’re using emojis as visuals to guide the reader. It is important, especially if you are a news site, that the style of emojis you are using isn’t offensive to your audience based on the content you’re featuring.

• Section headers: You would use this if you have a lot of different topics in that newsletter. You would have a sentence or two under each one. The topics need to be very specific like “this weekend” or “city council decision.” I would have no more than 4-5 of these.

• Single-story focus: You would focus on one big story that has real impact and use headers like “what happened, “why it matters” and “zoom out.” Just make sure that you aren’t duplicating what the reader might find in the actual newsletter below about that story.

• What we’re watching: This is used to show you as an expert around something that is developing and what you’re watching for around that topic. You could include numerous topics in this kind of set up and would be perfect for a week recap or preview of the week.

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