10 Formulas to Brainstorm Newsletter Names

A newsletter is a great way to build a list of subscribers and nurture them. But getting people to sign up for your newsletter is hard.

Most blogs and businesses know the importance of building a list. When you visit their websites, you see popups and other calls to action asking you to sign up.

People are overwhelmed with all these prompts and inboxes overflowing with emails. So, just calling yours a newsletter won’t always cut it if your goal is to get more subscribers. You need to brand it with a creative name to generate the most attention.

To help you get this right, we’re sharing some newsletter name formulas and tips below.

10 newsletter name formulas

Here are some newsletter formulas that will help you quickly develop creative newsletter names that get subscribers.

1. [Business/brand name] Newsletter

If you’ve built a well-known brand by regularly publishing quality content. Then simply adding your name to your newsletter will generate subscribers. People will look at it and go, “Oh! They have a newsletter. I like the free content they share, I wonder what special stuff they have behind the curtain”.

This is why a simple newsletter name like Smashing Magazine’s The Smashing Newsletter works.

Smashing Magazine has a strong reputation in the design niche. So, placing the brand name in the newsletter works. If you aren’t well known, it might be better to avoid this formula and go with some of the latter options we’ll highlight.

2. [Your Name]

If people recognize you more by your personal name than your company’s, or if you are a solopreneur, you can give your newsletter your name. It can simply be your name, like Austin Kleon’s newsletter.

Austin is a New York Times bestselling author, so branding his newsletter with his name helps attract subscribers.

You could also add a synonym to “newsletter” at the end. For example, Ann Friedman’s newsletter’s name is The Ann Friedman Weekly as she sends the newsletter once a week.

3. [Play around with synonyms]

An easy way to brainstorm a creative name is to make a list of synonyms for your niche or newsletter topic and then play around with them. The TLDR newsletter from Messaged.com is an excellent example of word play around synonyms.

The newsletter shares links and summaries from stories in tech, science, and coding. TLDR is an acronym for “too long; didn't read,” so this fits in perfectly for a newsletter that shares small bits of information.

You don’t have to always use synonyms; you can also play around with the main keyword and construct a creative name. One of my favorite email newsletter names is Writamins.

It is a newsletter that dishes out writing tips. The name is a combination of writing and vitamins.

4. [Keyword] [Time frame]

A simple formula for coming up with a newsletter name is to combine a keyword related to your newsletter’s niche and the frequency at which you send out the newsletter. An example is SaaS Weekly from Hiten Shah.

As the newsletter name suggests, this one goes out weekly and contains links for people interested in SaaS businesses.

Depending on the time frame your newsletter could also be daily, bi-weekly, or monthly.

If you send the email on a certain day, you can add the day to your newsletter’s name as in the name of The Sunday Dispatches newsletter (now closed).

5. [Power word and keyword] Newsletter

Combining a power word and keyword is a common formula you see in headlines as it makes them appear more attractive. You can try this formula with your newsletter name to generate more attention. It will even make a nice headline for the newsletter’s landing page.

An example is this newsletter from Creatiwitt called The Innovative Designers Newsletter.

Innovative is the powerword that gives a bit of a kick to the name and Digital Designers is the keyword. The keyword attracts only people curious about digital design.

6. [Number] [keyword/brand name]

Numbers work in headlines. Studies like this one from Hubspot confirm that the most shared headlines contain numbers.

This is why you should try out a newsletter name with a number like Tim Ferriss’ 5 Bullet Friday.

In this newsletter, Tim Ferriss shares a list of five things he’s “enjoying and pondering.” These could range from listening to, watching, reading, to even installing.

Another similar one is Tom Morkes’ newsletter, where he follows a “3 things” theme.

Here he shares three things in every newsletter. This could be something he created, discovered, or something else. It varies in every newsletter.

You can also use numbers to come up with creative names like the 3-2-1 Newsletter from James Clear.

It’s called the 3-2-1 Newsletter because in each email James shares three short ideas from him, two quotes from others and one question.

7. [Synonym to summary]

Summary newsletters are popular these days as they offer quick information on the latest news that people want to read. This is one of the reasons why the above-mentioned TLDR newsletter has over 165,000 subscribers.

Developing a creative name for a summary newsletter is easy as you simply need to come up with a synonym to summary. TLDR is an excellent example.

Another good one is The Daily Skimm.

It is a morning newsletter that goes out to millions of people! It shares the latest news.

One more similar newsletter is The New York Times Today’s Headlines which shares headlines and links to some of the most important and popular articles from its website.

It informs me of the things I need to know for the day. Its name isn’t a synonym to a summary, but it does the job.

8. [Keyword] Reviews

If you are launching a reviews newsletter where you share reviews of products, you can simply add the keyword or the niche of the product reviews you will share. You can follow this with the word “review” or a synonym like “reports,” “critiques,” or “analysis.”

A popular one is The New York Times Book Review. It is a bi-weekly newsletter that shares book news and reviews.

You don’t have to be too rigid while choosing a name for your review newsletter. Give yourself the freedom to assemble something creative like The Picky Glutton. It is a blog that shares reviews of restaurants in London. It also has a newsletter.

9. [Location] Newsletter

If you are sharing tips and news for a specific location, you can add the name of that place to your Newsletter’s name. It will help you keep unsubscriptions low as only people interested in learning more about news or tips in that location will sign up.

A good example is the Secrets of Paris Newsletter. It informs travelers about everything they need to know about Paris.

10. [Synonym for a reading list or book club]

If you want to launch a reading list or book club you can simply call it a reading list or book club and brand it with your company name. You can also use a synonym like The Ryan Holiday Reading Recommendation Email.

You can even play around with words and develop something creative like the Off the Shelf mailing list.

Bonus: 9 tips for naming your newsletter

The above formulas should help you quickly brainstorm some newsletter ideas. But if you want to invest just a little bit more time and make your newsletter name better,  follow the below tips.

1. Include words that the target audience understands

You can use keywords and synonyms to construct creative newsletter names. But don’t just use any word you like. Choose words that your audience knows and uses. If you use fancy words they don’t understand; they won’t sign up for your newsletter.

A good example is the UX Design Weekly from Kenny Chen.

The average person might not understand what UX stands for, but web designers know that UX is short for user experience. Therefore, this name will attract the right audience.

2. Keep it short and memorable

Your newsletter name should be short and memorable for two reasons.

1. If people can remember your newsletter name, they will recollect it later and share it with their friends both online and offline. This word-of-mouth referral will likely get you a lot of subscribers.
2. If they remember your newsletter name, they will be more likely to open the newsletters you write to them. If you use some long-winded name that is hard to remember, they might not remember signing up and unsubscribe from your list.

You will find that most of the examples in this post have short names that are only a few words long.

3. Be unique

Having a unique name will help you stand out from the other newsletters. Plus, choosing the same name as an already existing newsletter can make you seem like a copycat, which can negatively impact your brand.

So, before naming your newsletter, search the name on Google and content research tools to check if others have the same name.

4. Brainstorm several names at a time

The above formulas might help you come up with a name you like instantly. But don’t stop there. Instead, experiment with a few formulas till you come up with at least 10 names. You can then pick your favorite. This is the same tactic top content writers use. For example, the writers at Upworthy write 25 headlines and then pick their favorite.

A better name will help your opt-in forms attract more attention. It will also drive more traffic to your newsletter landing page when people share it on social media.

5. Ask your readers to pick one

If you find it hard to single out a name from the newsletter names you brainstormed, you can ask your blog readers or social media followers to do it for you.

You can either create a poll with a survey software like Survey Monkey or directly publish one on social media like LinkedIn and Facebook and ask readers to choose the name they like most. Here’s an example where Pam Neely asked her readers to name a newsletter.

This will help you promote your newsletter before you launch, as many poll participants will want to sign up.

If you create a survey, you can also ask people to leave their email addresses, so you can email them a link to your newsletter’s landing page when you launch.

6. Try branding it as something other than a newsletter

As I mentioned before, there are too many newsletters out there. This is why you might want to try branding your newsletter differently to get people to sign up. Instead of calling it a newsletter, you could call it a report, daily, weekly, or use another word that is synonymous with newsletter.

7. Split test names

To confirm if using a word other than a newsletter will get you more sign-ups, you can split test newsletter names. You can label one opt-in form as a newsletter and one daily or use another synonym and split test them. You can also throw in a few other newsletter names you brainstormed to see which one works best.

To split test names, you can use a tool like Sumo or newsletter software. You can create different popups, welcome mats, and sliders and A/B test them to see which name gets the most sign-ups.

You can use landing page software like ClickFunnels or Google optimize to split test the newsletter landing pages.

8. Avoid words that could land your email in the spam folder

Certain words can land your emails in the Gmail’s Promotions Tab or, even worse in the spam folder of most email platforms. These include cheap, $$$, medicine, prize, trial, warranty, win, and casino. Here’s a list of 394 spam trigger words.

Avoid using them if you want to land in the inbox and keep your open rates high.

9. Pay attention to open rates from past subject lines

If you have sent emails to your list before, you might want to analyze the subject lines and topics you used to see which got the highest opens. You can use these words in your newsletter’s name.

Effective subject lines can also come in handy while choosing the newsletter topic. Since your audience is interested in those keywords, using them will improve open rates.

Did you brainstorm a catchy newsletter name?

Every blog has a newsletter these days as it is easy to set up.

‍Email service providers like Mailchimp and other software make it simple for anybody to set up a newsletter, capture subscribers, and manage their list. But not all newsletters will generate thousands of subscribers and achieve high open rates as there’s too much competition.

Those who take the time to understand their audience and come up with clever newsletter names will get the most sign-ups. If they continue to nurture these subscribers with quality content regularly, they will generate more sales too.

If you’re looking for some tools to capture subscribers, nurture them, and boost sales, you might want to check out the AppSumo store. We regularly have deals for email service providers, landing page software, and email templates.