The question comes up regularly, usually phrased as though the answer is obviously yes and the only issue is finding the time. It is worth slowing down on, because a newsletter is one of the few marketing commitments that gets worse if you do it badly.
The case for
A mailing list is the only audience you actually own. Social platforms change what they show and to whom, search rankings move, but an email address is a direct line that nobody can take away or throttle.
It also suits long sales cycles. Someone who is not ready to buy now but hears from you usefully every few weeks is far more likely to remember you when they are.
The case against, which nobody makes
A newsletter that arrives twice and then stops is worse than no newsletter. It tells everyone who signed up that you start things and do not finish them, and that impression attaches to the business rather than the mailing list.
It is also a genuine ongoing commitment. Not the sending, which is quick, but having something worth saying on a schedule. Most abandoned newsletters were abandoned because the author ran out of things to say, not out of time.
The honest test
Write four issues before you set anything up. Do not send them. Just write them.
If that is difficult, the newsletter will fail, and finding out now costs a few evenings rather than your credibility. If it is straightforward and you find yourself with ideas for the next six, you have your answer and a buffer to start with.
If you go ahead
- Pick a frequency you can survive. Monthly done consistently beats weekly abandoned by March.
- Use double opt-in. A confirmation click before anyone is subscribed. It is a GDPR requirement in practice, and it keeps the list to people who actually want it.
- Make unsubscribing effortless. Someone who leaves easily thinks well of you. Someone who has to hunt for the link marks you as spam, which damages delivery for everyone still on the list.
- Never buy a list. It is illegal under GDPR, it does not work, and it will get your domain blocked.
- Update your privacy notice to cover what you store and why. This is routinely forgotten and it is the part with actual legal weight.
What to measure, and what to ignore
List size is the least useful number. Two hundred people who read what you send are worth more than two thousand who do not.
Watch replies instead. A newsletter that prompts people to write back is doing the job. One that produces silence and a respectable open rate is decoration.
If you are weighing this up, say what you are trying to achieve and you will get an honest answer, including when that answer is that your effort is better spent elsewhere.
There is a reason this question has become more serious than it used to be. Search increasingly answers people without sending them anywhere, which means a business whose enquiries arrive only through Google depends on a channel it does not control and cannot appeal to.
A list you own is the standard answer to that, and it is the strongest argument for a newsletter that has nothing to do with marketing fashion. It is worth pairing with the other half of the problem, which is whether the people already arriving are being given any reason to get in touch.
If you are weighing it up and suspect the honest answer is that you would not keep it going, that is a legitimate conclusion. If you would, and the question is what to actually send, describe who your customers are.
Common questions
Should a small business bother with a newsletter?
Only if you would keep it going. A newsletter is one of the few marketing commitments that gets worse if you do it badly, and an abandoned one is a visible signal you gave up.
How often should we send it?
Less often than most advice suggests. Occasional and worth reading beats weekly and padded, and it is the schedule you can actually sustain alongside the work that pays.
Why does this matter more than it used to?
Because search increasingly answers people without sending them anywhere. A business whose enquiries arrive only through Google depends on a channel it does not control and cannot appeal to.