“I know I should send a newsletter - but it never happens”
You collect emails at checkout and events, then never write. Meanwhile competitors show up in inboxes weekly, so when a customer finally needs the thing you sell, they think of the business they hear from. Social followers are rented; the list is yours.
What modern businesses do instead
Modern businesses treat email as their home channel: one welcome sequence that sells the first purchase on autopilot, one simple weekly or biweekly note that stays useful ("what we learned, what’s new, one recommendation"). AI drafts; the owner adds the one paragraph only they could write.
The bar is lower than you think: a plain, useful email from a real person outperforms a designed corporate newsletter almost every time.
The prescription
Kit
The creator-grade email platform (formerly ConvertKit) - newsletters, automations, and paid subscriptions.
Why for this problem: The creator-grade standard: gorgeous simple editor, automations, landing pages, and a free plan to 10,000 subscribers. We run our own newsletter on Kit - this is the one we use.
The honest downside: Deliberately simple - heavy e-commerce segmentation is not its game. For that, look at Keap or GoHighLevel.
Free up to 10,000 subscribers with a Creator Network profile; paid from $25/month.
Try Kit → Our full takeCapsule (+ Transpond)
A clean, simple CRM your team will actually use - with Transpond for email campaigns.
Why for this problem: If your contacts live in a CRM, Capsule’s sibling Transpond turns the same list into a campaign channel - CRM and email finally in one place.
The honest downside: Deliberately light on automation - if you need complex workflows, that’s Keap territory.
Free for 2 users; paid from $18/user/month.
Try Capsule (+ Transpond) → Our full takeGoHighLevel
One platform that replaces your CRM, funnels, email, SMS, booking, and follow-up.
Why for this problem: If you adopt GoHighLevel for lead follow-up, its email campaigns are included - one platform, one list, no extra bill.
The honest downside: It does so much that the first week feels like a cockpit. Budget a weekend to set it up, or start with one workflow (lead follow-up) and ignore the rest until it’s running.
From $97/month; the $297 plan adds unlimited sub-accounts (that’s the one agencies use).
Try GoHighLevel → Our full take Disclosure: I am an independent entity from HighLevel. I am not an agent or employee of HighLevel and have no authority to make binding contract or represent HighLevel. I receive referral payments from HighLevel.
Common questions
How often should a small business send a newsletter?
Whatever frequency you can sustain forever - for most owners that’s biweekly or monthly. A short useful email every month for a year beats a burst of weekly sends that dies in February.
What should a small business newsletter actually say?
The evergreen formula: one useful thing (a tip, a lesson, an answer to a common customer question), one human thing (behind the scenes, a win, a mistake), one offer or call to action. 150–300 words is plenty.
Is email marketing still effective compared to social media?
Email consistently returns the highest ROI of any owned channel - commonly cited around $36–$40 per $1 spent - because you reach people who already chose you, without an algorithm in between.
Is this really your biggest leak?
Take the 2-minute checkup and find out what to fix first - the answer surprises most owners.
Start the free checkup →