What Is a Newsletter? Definition, Types, and Why They Matter for Deals

A newsletter is a scheduled, opt-in email sent to subscribers. This guide covers newsletter types, effectiveness stats, and why retailer newsletters are the fastest route to exclusive coupon codes and subscriber-only discounts.

Our team regularly tests the deals and codes mentioned in our articles. This piece covers newsletter basics from both a marketing and a savings standpoint.

Email has outlasted every platform that was supposed to kill it. Social algorithms changed, organic reach dropped, and paid ads got expensive. But 4.59 billion people globally still use email as of 2025, and that number is set to grow to 4.73 billion by 2026. Newsletters are thriving because they sit in a channel brands actually own. So here’s what matters if you shop online: if you’re not subscribed to the right retailer newsletters, you’re seeing deals that everyone else already passed on.

What Is a Newsletter?

A newsletter is a regularly scheduled email sent to an opted-in subscriber list. The key phrase is “opted in.” The reader chose to receive it. That consent is what separates a newsletter from spam, and it’s also why newsletter readers tend to be more engaged than social media followers who never signed up for anything.

Newsletters can take almost any shape:

• A weekly digest of company news
• A monthly roundup of industry articles
• A daily deal alert with current promotions
• A product launch announcement whenever something new drops

What ties all of them together is regularity (sent on a schedule), a subscriber list (opted-in readers), and a defined topic (readers know what they signed up for). The format can vary a lot. Some newsletters run 200 words. Others push 5,000. Some are plain text. Others are designed with product images and clickable section headers. A newsletter is NOT the same as a one-off promotional email, though the two often get confused.

Newsletter vs. Promotional Email: What’s the Difference?

This trips people up more than you’d expect. Under CAN-SPAM Act guidelines, emails broadly split into two categories.

Newsletters are relationship-focused. They provide ongoing value, content, tips, updates, and curated deals. The goal is to stay connected and build trust over time.

Promotional emails are transaction-focused. They push a specific offer: a sale ending tonight, a new product launch, a limited-time code. The call to action is direct and usually urgent.

Most businesses send both. A clothing retailer might run a weekly style newsletter AND fire off a flash sale announcement on Tuesday morning. These serve different purposes.

For deal hunters, the distinction really matters. Promotional emails are time-sensitive and expire. But newsletters build the relationship that gets you those promotional emails in the first place. Subscribe to the newsletter and you start seeing the promos.

Types of Email Newsletters

Knowing the different types helps you figure out what’s worth subscribing to.

Promotional newsletters are the ones deal hunters care most about. These carry sales announcements, coupon codes, member pricing, and event access. Most major retailers use this format to push weekly or biweekly offers.

Informational newsletters cover company news, product updates, and educational content. Less deal-focused, but useful if you want to know when a brand releases new products or expands its lineup.

Transactional newsletters get triggered by an action you took. You made a purchase, created an account, or abandoned a cart. That abandoned cart email in particular frequently includes a discount code as an incentive to complete the checkout. Worth watching for.

Curated digest newsletters pull together content from across the web around a specific theme. Think personal finance newsletters, deal roundup newsletters, and industry-specific digests. They’re useful for staying current without hunting for content yourself.

What most guides miss is that from a coupon standpoint, the most valuable newsletter type is the hybrid: a store that sends regular content AND embeds exclusive discount codes in those emails. These codes often carry higher face value than what’s publicly listed on deal aggregator sites. Across the stores we monitor, subscriber-only codes regularly run above the publicly available rate at the same retailers.

How Effective Are Email Newsletters?

The numbers make the business case obvious. Email marketing ROI averages $36 per $1 spent, with the retail and ecommerce sector seeing $45 per $1, per the Litmus 2025 State of Email Report. That makes it one of the highest-return marketing channels available, ahead of paid search and social.

The scale is enormous. 4.59 billion email users globally as of 2025, projected to grow to 4.73 billion by 2026.

Open rates for newsletters average 21.3-21.5% across all industries, per Campaign Monitor’s 2025 benchmark. That compares favorably to organic social media reach, which typically lands under 5% for business accounts. Click-through rates average 2.3-3.2%.

For businesses, those stats justify the investment. For shoppers, those stats mean businesses will keep investing in their email programs, which means the coupon codes and exclusive offers will keep flowing.

Creating a Newsletter: Step-by-Step

If you’re building a newsletter from scratch, the process is more straightforward than it looks.

1. Define what you’re sending and to whom. Weekly industry insights for professionals? Monthly deal roundups for bargain hunters? The sharper the focus, the better the subscriber retention.

2. Choose an email platform. Mailchimp and Klaviyo are the most widely used commercial options. Beehiiv and Substack work well for creator-style newsletters. Most offer free tiers to start.

3. Build your subscriber list. The most reliable method is to put a signup form on your website with a clear value proposition. “Get weekly deal alerts” outperforms “Subscribe to our newsletter” every time. Offer something specific in exchange for the signup.

4. Write the content. Keep it consistent with what you promised. If subscribers signed up for coupon codes, don’t pivot to company news without notice.

5. Set your schedule and stick to it. Weekly is the standard. Daily can work for deal-focused content. Monthly works for deeper editorial material. Predictability matters more than frequency.

6. Track your metrics. Open rate tells you if the subject line worked. Click rate tells you if the content matched subscriber expectations. Unsubscribe rate tells you if you’re sending too often or the wrong stuff.

Growing Your Email List

Building a subscriber base takes consistent effort. Here’s what actually works.

Lead magnets with concrete value. “Get 15% off your first order” converts better than “Join our mailing list.” Vague promises produce vague results.

Opt-in forms at high-intent moments. The checkout page, the product page, the cart. Readers who are already actively shopping are your best subscribers. They’ve self-selected as buyers.

Social media promotion, done right. This works when you share a sample of what the newsletter contains. A preview converts better than a generic “sign up” ask.

Referral programs. Existing subscribers referring new ones tends to bring in higher-quality subscribers, pre-vetted by someone who already likes the content.

What about paid ads? They work, but the cost-per-subscriber tends to be high unless your lead magnet is strong. Organic methods take longer but produce more engaged lists with better redemption rates.

Measuring Newsletter Success

Tracking the right metrics keeps you from making changes based on the wrong signals.

Open rate (21-26% average across industries): Measures how many subscribers opened the email. Influenced most by subject line and send time. A drop usually signals subject line fatigue or frequency creep.

Click-through rate (2.3-3.2% average): How many openers clicked a link. A low CTR with a high open rate means the content doesn’t match subscriber expectations. The subject line promised one thing, the content delivered another.

Conversion rate: The percentage of subscribers who completed a desired action: a purchase, a signup, a download. This is the metric that ties directly to revenue.

Unsubscribe rate: A healthy range is 0.08-0.17% per send. Most unsubscribes happen for one main reason: 46% of people unsubscribe from email newsletters because they receive too many, per GetApp research. The second most common reason is irrelevant content.

Bounce rate: Hard bounces (invalid addresses) should be cleaned immediately. Letting them accumulate damages your sender reputation with email providers.

Here’s something worth knowing: automated email sequences generate 320% more revenue than regular broadcast emails per Campaign Monitor. These are emails triggered by what a subscriber does, not sent on a fixed calendar. A welcome sequence that drops a discount code at the right moment beats a general weekly newsletter in raw conversions. Timing beats consistency.

Subject Line Best Practices

The subject line determines whether your email gets opened. Everything else is secondary.

Specificity works. “Save 25% on shoes this weekend” outperforms “Weekend Sale.” Numbers and timeframes create urgency without sounding desperate.

Curiosity without clickbait. “We found something unusual in your cart” can work. “YOU WON’T BELIEVE THIS DEAL” doesn’t. The distinction is whether the promise is honest.

Short and mobile-ready. Under 50 characters usually fits on most mobile screens. The majority of email opens happen on mobile, so desktop-length subjects get truncated right where the key information lives.

What doesn’t work: vague teasers, too many punctuation marks, and subject lines that sound like spam. Gmail and Outlook filters have gotten good at catching those. Personalization, like using the recipient’s name, still helps a bit. But the effect has shrunk since every brand does it now.

Why Retailer Newsletters Are Worth Subscribing To

For shoppers, retailer newsletters serve one primary function: early access to deals.

Stores use their email list as a loyalty reward. Subscribers typically get promotional codes before they go public (often 24-72 hours early), subscriber-exclusive discounts that never get posted to aggregator sites, and early access to sales events like Black Friday and end-of-season clearances.

And 77% of US adults say email is how they prefer to get ecommerce coupons, per a 2024 Ascend2/ActiveCampaign report. SMS comes in at 31%. Mobile apps at 30%. Direct mail trails at 19%. It’s not close. Email is where shoppers want their deals.

Looking at our deal data from the past year, subscriber codes from retailers like Kohl’s, Sephora, and Best Buy regularly run 10-15% above the publicly available rate on aggregator sites. These aren’t marginal differences. On a $150 order at Kohl’s, a subscriber-exclusive 30% code versus a publicly listed 20% code is a $15 swing. The email subscription pays for itself in a single purchase.

The downside is inbox clutter. Subscribing to 15 retailer newsletters means a lot of email you don’t always want. The practical fix is a separate email address dedicated to deal subscriptions. You check it when you’re actively shopping, ignore it otherwise. It keeps the offers accessible without polluting your main inbox. Our DontPayFull extension also surfaces verified coupon codes at checkout automatically, so you catch deals even when you haven’t had time to check the inbox.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I include in a newsletter?

It depends on your audience and goal. For a business newsletter, the most useful content mixes practical updates (new products, pricing changes), educational material relevant to your product category, and periodic promotions. For a deals-focused newsletter, the main draw is codes and early access. Either way, include something the reader can act on in every issue.

How often should I send a newsletter?

Weekly is standard for most businesses. Daily can work if you’re sending deal alerts or time-sensitive content. Monthly works for deeper editorial content. The key factor is predictability. Readers tolerate almost any frequency as long as they know what to expect.

What is the difference between a newsletter and email marketing?

Email marketing is the broader category. Newsletters are one type within it. Email marketing also includes transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates), behavioral trigger emails (abandoned cart sequences), and one-off promotional blasts. A newsletter is specifically the scheduled, subscription-based publication that delivers ongoing content to an opted-in audience.

How do I get people to subscribe to my newsletter?

The fastest path is offering something specific and immediately valuable in exchange for the subscription. A percentage-off coupon, a free guide, or early access to content all convert better than a generic “subscribe for updates” ask. High-intent touchpoints work best: checkout pages, product pages, and post-purchase confirmation screens convert better than homepage popups.

What is a good open rate for a newsletter?

Industry averages sit at 21-26% across all sectors, per Campaign Monitor and Litmus 2025 benchmark data. Niche newsletters with tightly targeted subscriber lists often hit 35-50%. If your open rate is consistently under 15%, the issue is usually subject lines, list quality (disengaged subscribers you haven’t cleaned), or both.

Sources

1. Statista: E-mail Marketing Worldwide: Global email user count (4.59 billion in 2025, projected 4.73 billion by 2026) and email marketing trends (2025)
2. Litmus: The ROI of Email Marketing: Email marketing ROI data, $36 average and $45 in retail/ecommerce per $1 spent (2025)
3. Campaign Monitor: What Is an Email Newsletter: Open rate benchmarks and newsletter effectiveness data (2025)
4. Campaign Monitor: 24 Email Marketing Stats: Automated email sequences generate 320% more revenue than broadcast emails
5. GetApp: Why People Unsubscribe from Email Newsletters: Survey data on unsubscribe behavior, 46% cite too many emails
6. Ascend2/ActiveCampaign: Email Marketing as a Growth Driver: 77% of US adults prefer email for ecommerce coupons (2024)
7. FTC: CAN-SPAM Act Compliance Guide: Email categorization and compliance standards

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