Draft a monthly email newsletter
A practical way to use AI for this job in a small business, with a prompt you can copy.
You promised yourself a monthly newsletter. It's been four months. Every time you sit down to write it, the cursor blinks and you remember three other urgent jobs.
The prompt
Write a short monthly newsletter for my customers. Business: [business]. This month's news: [3-5 dot points]. One helpful tip about [topic]. One call to action: [book/visit/call]. Keep it under 300 words, friendly and plain, with a subject line and 2 alternatives.
Replace everything in [square brackets] with your own details. Don't paste in anything you wouldn't want stored by the AI provider.
Steps
- Jot down your dot points first; that's the real work.
- Run the prompt and pick a subject line.
- Edit so it sounds like you.
- Paste into your email tool and send a test to yourself.
A worked example
Take a Hobart cafe. The owner's dot points for October: new spring menu, Sunday trading from 8am, a staff member's barista win, and a tip about storing coffee beans. Call to action: 'Book the back room for your Christmas party'.
ChatGPT turns that into a 250-word email with three subject lines: 'Spring's on the menu', 'We're open earlier on Sundays' and 'Your Christmas party, sorted'. The owner swaps a couple of phrases that don't sound like her, adds a photo of the new menu, pastes it into MailerLite and sends a test to herself. Done in under 40 minutes, and it actually goes out this month.
Time saved
Most owners I talk to take one to two hours per newsletter when they start from scratch. With your dot points ready, 30 to 45 minutes is realistic. These are my estimates for a typical small business, not measured results.
What it costs (AUD)
Email tools have their own costs. Mailchimp and MailerLite both offer free plans for small lists, with paid plans starting around A$15 to A$40 a month depending on list size (approx., October 2026, check the vendor).
The free plans of ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini handle this fine. If you end up using AI every day, the paid plans are roughly: ChatGPT Plus approx. A$30 a month, Claude Pro approx. A$29 a month billed monthly (US$20, or about A$24 a month if you pay yearly), and Google AI Pro approx. A$33 a month through the App Store. Prices approx., October 2026. Some are billed in US dollars, so your bank may add a foreign transaction fee. Check the vendor's pricing page before you buy.
Australian notes
Spam Act 2003: you need consent to send marketing emails, every email must clearly identify your business, and every one needs a working unsubscribe link that's honoured within five working days. Don't buy lists or add people just because they once emailed you a question.
Privacy: the Privacy Act and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) cover most businesses turning over more than $3 million, plus some smaller ones such as health providers. Even if you're under the threshold, treat customer details with care: strip names, phone numbers and addresses before you paste anything into an AI tool.
Want this to happen automatically? See the step-by-step guide on our sister site: How to set up a website lead capture and newsletter bot.
My verdict
Worth it. The dot points matter more than the AI, so don't skip them.
Common questions
How long should a small business newsletter be?
Short. Two to four short sections and one clear call to action. People read these on their phones.
Which subject line should I pick?
The plainest one usually wins. If your tool supports A/B testing, try two.
Can AI write it without my dot points?
It can, but it'll be fluff. The dot points are your real news; that's why people open it.
Do this today
Write five dot points about what's happening in your business this month. That's the hard part done. Run the prompt tomorrow.
More marketing use cases
- Write a month of social media post ideas
- Turn one blog post into five social posts
- Write Google Business Profile updates
Next: Write Google Business Profile updates · All marketing · Want a bot to do this automatically? See bot setup guides.