5 Differences Between A Newsletter & An Email List

Before we even get started, one thing has to be extremely clear:

1. All newsletters are emails.
2. But not all emails are newsletters.

This goes deeper into newsletters VS. email lists as well.

There are tons of different types of email lists, and if you've been reading any of my deep dives, you also know there's varying different newsletter business models as well.

So let's start there...

Newsletter Business Models:

1. Media Brand Newsletters
2. Creator Newsletters
3. Hybrid Newsletters

You can read more about each one of these business models in my full deep dive here.

There are also a ton of different types and styles for newsletters, and SO many different routes you can go with your core content and unique differentiator.

And, of course, there are tons of different forms of email lists and email marketing as well.

Email Marketing and Email Lists:

• Plain Text
• E-Commerce
• Corporate Blasts

(And there are many more that could be named.)

With each of them having their own specific style and structure.

As we make our way through we'll take a look at the types of email lists and email marketing that have the closest overlap to newsletters, and see the clear differences between the two.

The one I want to point out ahead of time is plain text email that is sent daily or sporadically that you may have seen from a lot of creators.

This type of email marketing is extremely popular, and has the most overlap with what would be considered a newsletter; depending on the style and creator.

I will be pointing out very specific differences between newsletters and plain text, so keep that in mind as we move forward.

It's extremely important to know what you're building.

Are you building a newsletter or an email list?

 Branding

The image above is showing you some of the differences between branding in a newsletter VS. plain text email marketing.

But there are actually a couple different things I want to discuss here:

1. Newsletter VS. Plain Text Branding
2. Newsletter VS. Ecom & Corporate Branding

There's a happy middle ground you're going to want to hit with your newsletter and as we go through I will be sharing other resources to make sure you have all the details needed to level up your newsletter branding.

 Newsletter VS. Plain Text Branding

I'm starting with newsletter VS. plain text because it's the biggest differentiator early creators will face when starting their list.

(I'm pretty sure if you're trying to build an Ecom business it'll be fairly apparent what the differences are).

On the left side of the image above you can see my email with my header branding and branded signature (which matches the image I use on social media and across my personal brand).

On the right you see a plain text email from Ben Settle who is an email marketing plain text wizard/copywriter known for his daily emails that always end in some sort of sales pitch.

As you can see, the difference in branding between the two is night and day.

You can also see some more of my branding with my colors, dividers, and more.

The Header Branding and Signature Branding are two sections of the newsletter that showed up right in our Top 5 Sections Of Every Creator Newsletter deep dive as well.

And we also covered these two sections, as well as colors, branded emojis, and a ton of other details if our Ultimate Guide To Branding Your Newsletter.

I could do a full deep dive on the importance of branding, but I truly shouldn't have to.

If you're reading this, you should likely already know just how vitally important it is to have a strong brand.

Though there are a few things I'd like to remind you...

The only things I will make mention to here are:

1. Newsletter Bubble: You may hear people say we're in a "Newsletter Bubble" due to the popularity around building newsletters. It's harder than ever to stand out. Which means it's harder than ever to be remembered. Your BRANDING will help you be remembered, build trust, authority, and expertise.
2. Your Audience's Attention: Your audience is being asked to sign up for dozens of newsletters per day. Sometimes they sign up to 3-5+. Do you think they can remember every single newsletter they signed up for the next time they hear from you? It doesn't matter if you have the best Welcome Flow in the world; branding will help you stand out and be remembered.

My biggest recommendation is that you go read through the deep dives on the different styles, sections and branding of newsletters and creator newsletters and begin implementing them as soon as possible.

  Newsletter VS. EComm & Corporate Branding

If you've received any ecommerce or big brand email you probably noticed the whole thing can sometimes look like one big image.

These emails definitely still use powerful branding, but the difference really comes back to the branding as it pertains to the newsletter core content and how it is shared.

You'll see more of the differences when we get to our section on core content below, the goals of your emails, and some more nuances - but the branding should be pretty clear for this category.

Both newsletters and ecom emails use branding, and know the power of branding, but newsletters find the mix of building around a powerful brand and keeping the core content still centered around problem solving value.

 Specific Send Time(s)

Do you know when your favorite podcast is released?

How about your favorite TV show or YouTuber's videos?

I definitely do, and I know a lot of other people do as well.

This is another big differentiator between newsletters and email lists.

This ties into branding, of course (though, basically everything we cover will, and should); and will send us into a common theme throughout the rest of our deep dive.

Specific Send Times:

• Newsletters: Have a very specific send time per week or day.
• Email Lists: Can be sporadic and/or random.

For example, I send out my newsletter every Saturday afternoon.

I know that Morning Brew will be in my inbox 6 days a week before 6 am to be ready to read with my morning cup of coffee (branding, anyone..?).

Morning Brew is an example of a Media-Brand Newsletter business model that revolves around a habit-building structure, but if you go back through our deep dives and look through the rest of the creators we have discussed, you'll notice just about all of them follow a very specific send structure.

Landing Page and Welcome Flow

If you think back to our deep dive on The Ultimate Guide to Newsletter Landing Pages you'll remember that mentioning our send time was one of the components of our 4x4 landing page structure.

And guess what...

It's also one of the core things we mention within our Welcome Flow that I mentioned earlier.

We're building on our very specific brand, and teaching our audience when to expect us in their inbox to open the incredible value we'll be sending.

 Structure & Formatting

Structure and Formatting is another thing that is going to have a big overlap with branding, but it's another big differentiator between newsletters and some email list formats and business models.

The big thing you need to know here is that newsletters stick to a very specific structure and format in each one of their emails.

The same way you wait for for the newsletter to hit your inbox at a specific time each day or week, you also learn to recognize the type of content that is hitting your inbox as well.

There is a generally a very specific structure and format that is built around the newsletter core content.

This ties back to our top 5 sections within our Creator Newsletters, but it's also a commonality among all the different newsletter business models that we see.

When I open Morning Brew each morning, I am familiar with the structure of the email, and the format they take me through (as you can see in the image to the right).

This is the same for creator's newsletters, like Codie Sanchez, and you can see in the image on the left side, that she even starts her newsletter with "Today In 5 Minutes Or Less, You'll Learn", which tells you exactly what you'll get throughout the rest of the newsletter.

If you're reading this, that means you're likely already subscribed to my newsletter, in which case you're used to my format being:

• Header Branding
• Introduction Section
• Sponsorship Section
• Core Content Share
• Weekly 3-2-1 Creator Content
• Signature Branding
• PS Section
• PS Outro Box
• Referral Section

Which may seem like a ton, but this is a full breakdown of exactly how I structure my newsletter every single week, and what you can expect to get from me.

 The Core Content

If you're writing a newsletter you'll quickly begin to realize that subject lines matter far less for us than they do for a lot of other email lists.

People open because they recognize our "From Name"; AKA who the email is coming from (whether that is your name or a brand name).

If you need to come up with click-bait style subject lines (or worry about subject lines to be a massive factor in your open rate in general), then you may either not have a newsletter, or may have an issue with your core content.

This is something you'll hear from tons of newsletter operators and creators, and you can see a few of them chiming in about this on this Tweet from Louis Nicholls, co-founder of SparkLoop.

Katelyn Bourgoin, who we have seen in a ton of different deep dives for her incredible newsletter "Why We Buy", chimes in, agrees, and also mentions that the amazing Ann Handley once said: "Your from line is more important than your subject line."

How Do We Accomplish This?

Again, this comes right back to the branding we're building and the trust, authority and expertise that is coming from everything we're discussing within this deep dive.

The core content of your newsletter should be geared towards providing problem solving value, not specifically selling something.

Here's a quote I come back to a lot from Katelyn Bourgoin, which she shared on the Send & Grow Podcast:

I had been subscribed to, over the years, probably hundreds. And they all follow the same playbook. They were often these long meandering stories from whoever the author was…I wouldn’t be reading newsletters, I’d get stuck in email funnels. You sign up for X freebie and suddenly for the next 2 weeks you’re going to get this drip sequence that’s pushing you towards buying a thing. And I was like I don’t want to buy your thing, I just wanted that cheat sheet, or I just wanted that PDF. So I was subscribed to many, and I was reading almost none."

If the core content within your newsletter is a "long meandering story" that really only serves to attempt to sell your audience on something, then you may not have a newsletter...or you may need to rethink your core content.

The core content of your newsletter should be geared towards providing problem solving value, not specifically selling something.

When you provide tons of value in every single newsletter, your reader will be opening your emails knowing they can trust to receive that value, already being ready for the content, the structure and the specific send time.

See the trend here that has been sticking all the way through this deep dive?

 Value > Sales

What is your goal when you send an email?

Is it to provide an insane amount of value to your list, or is it to make sales?

This is a big difference between newsletters and a lot of email lists and overall email marketing.

Another quote I love to share is from Dan Koe because it tells a bit of a story from when Dan changed over from trying to sell with his "email list" to delivering value with his newsletter.

Here's what Dan shared in a Tweet about his monetization strategy:

I've had people (mainly marketers) laugh in my face when I mention my monetization strategy which is...So I ask what their numbers are with all of the spamming and hard selling they are doing... and I can confidently say they would make 2-4x more if they ditched what they are doing.

(Because that's what happened when I switched from hardcore marketing to something where I didn't feel like a used car salesman).

Their brand perception would increase.

The newsletters would build trust.

Their audience would grow faster. More traffic.

And there's one specific section I want to hone in on there and reiterate.

Yes, Dan says their brand perception would increase (empowering what we have been talking about throughout this deep dive), and yes he talks about the trust you can build.

But let's pull this specific part out:

"So I ask what their numbers are with all of the spamming and hard selling they are doing... and I can confidently say they would make 2-4x more if they ditched what they are doing.

(Because that's what happened when I switched from hardcore marketing to something where I didn't feel like a used car salesman)."

So the next time someone tells you that you need to send more emails and hard sell....remember Dan Koe.

 What Type Of Email List Are You Building?

I will start this section by telling you this: you CAN make money with all of the different types of email lists we've discussed throughout the course of this deep dive.

If I were to sit here and tell you that the newsletter model is so superior that it's the only way you'll make money online, I'd be lying.

BUT, if your goals are to:

1. Provide incredible problem solving value to your audience.
2. Make tons of money without having to use pushy sales tactics.

Then there's nothing better than a newsletter.

And whether you're just getting started or looking to scale and learn more about the proven blueprint to building a 6+ figure creator newsletter, I'd highly recommend checking out my course.