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What's the best way to end your email? Copy these killer closers

What's the best way to end your email? Copy these killer closers

Brad Wolverton
August 26, 2024

👋🏻 Welcome to Newsletter Examples, where I highlight the most innovative features I’m seeing in newsletters to help you improve your newsletter.

This week, I’m sharing examples of 5 killer closers, from WBUR, The Austin Business Review, Rules of Thumb, The Will Leitch Newsletter, and Fintech is Femme. Total reading time: 3 minutes.

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🎙️ WBUR

This Boston public radio station—famous for producing Car Talk, a former nationally syndicated show—has a lively daily newsletter highlighting all things Boston. Its closing section always leaves me smiling.

What I love about it: Most news outlets still live by this motto: “If it bleeds, it leads.” WBUR closes with an uplifting story and a funny tweet or video.

See for yourself: Boston’s eighth wonder.

🏠️ The Austin Business Review

My former colleague Ethan Brooks writes a weekly roundup of local events and insights for Austin business owners. He closes some of his emails with profiles of local establishments.

What I love about it: It leans into local hooks. People love knowing what’s going on in their own backyards.

See for yourself: Don’t miss Ethan’s piece on the above 1920s Craftsman, “The Luckiest 2,000 Square Feet in Austin.”

🩻 Rules of Thumb

Reader Nick Golinvaux, an orthopedic surgeon who writes the Rules of Thumb newsletter, has one of the best closing sections I’ve seen, in which he shares actual X-rays from his medical practice.

What I love about it:

Dr. Golinvaux has a file of “literally thousands” of X-rays from all the injuries he’s seen, giving him a huge batch of ready-made content.
This section inspires his readers to open his email: “My readers do seem to love seeing ‘behind the curtain’ at what we treat day in and day out,” he says.

See for yourself: Want to see what an arthritic knee looks like? Check this out!

Will is one of America’s most talented—and prolific—writers, yet somehow still finds time to write hand-written letters to his readers. I love this standing section that runs near the bottom of every issue.

What I love about it: If I got a hand-written letter from Will Leitch, I would repay him by clicking on every email he ever sent me.

Nicole Casperson, who has built an audience of 50k subscribers to her fintech newsletter, closes every issue with her favorite tune of the week, cleverly labeled “FINTUNES”.

What I love about it: I don’t need to know what happened in fintech every day, but I love Nicole’s new music recs—and often open just for those. It’s the ultimate example of habit-forming content.

See for yourself: This Chappell Roan track is 🔥…

Hope you enjoyed this week’s examples. I’ll be back in two weeks with a new set.

☮️ -Brad

P.S. I’m taking off next week to celebrate my wedding anniversary. My wife and I are visiting Fallingwater, “one of the greatest architectural triumphs of the 20th century.”

P.P.S. I switched up my format (and delivery day) this week. What’d you think? Hit reply and let me know—or take the short survey at the bottom and share your thoughts anonymously. 🙏

ICYMI: Links to past issues

🔉How The Hustle thinks about voice
🏅How Yahoo Sports AM reimagined the sports page
👟How The Kicks You Wear became a community hub for sneakerheads
💒How Marriage Minute became a must-read for marrieds
🎒How After School capitalizes on youth trends
🥾How Huckberry reimagined the marketing email
🗞️How Semafor reinvented the news brief
😂How SatPost’s meme-ified business news
✍🏻6 things I learned at The Newsletter Conference
🩺How Expert Witness protects doctors from lawsuits
🌐How International Intrigue grew 750% in 2023
🪧5 native ad formats that crush
🦐How The Infatuation upended restaurant reviews
🥼How Are You Okay? personalizes medical care
📈How Chartr reimagined visual storytelling
🌈Inside the comedic genius of Smart Nonsense
🔥3 dope welcome emails worth copying
💥How Cyber Patterns built a business on memes
🎤How The Grudge Report moves its audience with voice
💰️How The Generalist grew revenue 20% in one week
🥇How Yahoo Sports AM turned the Paris Olympics into newsletter gold
🍻How the Fingers “boozeletter” mastered audience engagement

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