In Quebec French the word is infolettre. The Usito dictionary lists it as a local usage, feminine noun, and the Office québécois de la langue française publishes its own under that name. This page uses the English word, newsletter, but everything in it was written for businesses here. Most pages on the subject explain why you should have one. This one assumes you are already thinking about it, and answers the next question: how to make one people still open six months from now. That is the work we do every week for businesses here, and that is what this is about.
“The email list is the only channel you can export and keep when a platform changes its rules.”
What it is for: the only channel where you own the list
On social media you rent access to your audience. The platform decides who sees what, changes the rules when it wants, and the day it closes your account or cuts your reach, your followers go with it. In advertising you buy access every single time. The email list is the only thing you can export, move from one tool to another and keep when everything else changes.
That gives it three jobs no other channel does as well. Staying present with people who already know you, without paying for every reminder. Selling to an audience that raised its hand, at a cost that does not depend on today's auction. And learning what your customers actually care about, because what they click on does not lie.
What it does not do: find people who have never heard of you. A newsletter works on a list that exists. If the list is empty, the problem is upstream, and acquisition fixes it, not a better template.
Before writing a line: three questions
First question: what is it supposed to produce? Sales, appointments, store visits, job applications, or simply being top of mind at the right moment. A newsletter that tries to do everything at once does nothing measurable. Pick one result, and that is what you will look at in three months.
Second question: who are you writing to? Not a persona sheet, a real person you know who represents your customers well. When you hesitate on a topic, ask whether that person would read it to the end. It is the most reliable test we know.
Third question: what pace can you hold for a year? Not the ideal pace, the one you will keep during the rush when nobody has time. A monthly newsletter that goes out every month beats a weekly one that stops in February. Consistency is what makes people recognize you in the inbox.
The list: where the addresses come from, and what the law requires
A newsletter is built on people who said yes. Not on a purchased list, not on contacts from an old system nobody can trace, not on customers quietly added because they filled in a contact form. The practical rule: one checkbox per use, unchecked by default, with a label that says what will happen.
In Canada, the Anti-Spam Legislation governs commercial messages. The text of the law asks three things of every send: the person's consent, identification of who is sending with a way to reach them, and an unsubscribe mechanism. That mechanism has to be free of charge, reachable by email or by a link, and the request has to be honoured without delay, at the latest ten business days after it is received. The unsubscribe address or page has to stay valid for at least sixty days after the send.
In Quebec, Law 25 adds to that. It covers personal information rather than messages. The two laws stack, they do not replace each other, and a Quebec list has to satisfy both. We detailed what that changes in a website and its forms. We are not a law firm, and for a compliance question a lawyer will answer better than we will. But the principle comes down to this: every address on your list should be able to answer the question "when and where did this person say yes?".
To grow the list, the places that work are the ones where people are already trusting you: the order confirmation, the site footer, the checkout counter in store, the end of a useful article. Promise something specific in exchange for the address, and keep that promise from the very first send.
The tool: keep it simple, and look at four things
The question we get most often is "which platform?". It is rarely the right first question. Every serious platform sends email properly. What sets them apart for a business here comes down to four points.
First, consent handling: the tool has to record the date, the source and the exact label shown at sign-up, and process unsubscribes on its own. Second, French: interface, templates and support in the language of the team that will use it every week. Third, segmentation: being able to send a different message to customers and prospects without rebuilding everything. Fourth, the exit: being able to export the full list with its consents the day you switch tools.
The same names always come up: Cyberimpact is Quebec-based and built for small businesses here, Mailchimp is the best known, Klaviyo is built for online stores and plugs straight into the shop, Brevo covers email and SMS. None is right for everyone. A service business with a list of a few hundred people and a Shopify store with thousands of customers do not have the same needs, and the choice rests on the four points above, not on the tool's advertising.
The content: one idea per send
The most widespread mistake is the catch-all newsletter: three news items, two promotions, a word from the president and the opening hours. Nobody reads that, because nothing in it is important enough to deserve attention. Every send should fit in one sentence you could say out loud: "this week, I'm showing you this".
What gets read, in our experience, falls into four families. Concrete news, a product, a service, a location, when it really concerns the reader. Behind the scenes, how you work, what went wrong, what you learned. Advice the reader can apply without buying anything. And subscriber-only offers, because they justify being subscribed.
The structure that works is short: a subject line that says what is inside, a first sentence that makes you want to read the second, the content itself, and a single call to action. One. Two competing buttons lower the clicks on both. We published a zone-by-zone checklist for writing each part of the email.
Write the way you talk to a customer at the counter. The tone has to be a person's, not a press release's. Emails that look like advertising get treated like advertising.
Subject line and sender: what decides the open
Before reading anything, the person sees two things: who it is from, and the subject line. If either is off, the rest does not exist.
The sender name has to be recognizable and stable. The company name, or a first name followed by the company name if a person genuinely carries the relationship. What not to do: change the name from one send to the next, or send from an address that refuses replies. Replies to a newsletter are among the most useful things it produces, and a no-reply address tells the reader you do not want to hear from them.
The subject line has to say what is in the email. Not sell it, say it. Capital letters, strings of exclamation marks and vague promises have two effects: filters distrust them, and so do readers. Reread the subject on a phone before sending: that is where most people will see it, and it will be cut off well before the end.
The send: the technical part nobody sees
A well-written email that lands in spam was useless. Before the first send, your domain has to be authenticated with the mailbox providers, which is done through three technical records at your domain registrar. Your platform will give you the values to copy. We wrote a complete deliverability guide for those who want to understand each step.
Then, test. Send the email to yourself on Gmail, on Outlook and on a phone before sending it to the list. Images that do not load, buttons too small for a thumb and broken links show up in thirty seconds in a test, and never before that in the editor.
Finally, clean. A list where half the addresses have not opened anything in a year hurts delivery for everyone else, because mailbox providers judge a sender on everything it sends. A reactivation send, then removing those who do not react, protects the people who read.
Measuring without fooling yourself
The open rate is the number everyone looks at and the least reliable of all. Several mail apps load an email's images before the person even opens it, which counts as an open. It can serve to compare two subject lines against each other, at a stretch. It does not tell you whether the newsletter works.
What does: clicks, because a click is a deliberate act. Replies, because they are proof a person read you. Unsubscribes, because a spike after a send tells you exactly which topic missed. And the result you chose at the first question, sales, appointments or visits, tracked with identifiable links so the sale is attributed to the right email.
Look at those numbers once a month, not after every send. A single send varies for a thousand reasons. The trend over a quarter tells the truth.
Where to start this week
Write in one sentence what the newsletter has to produce, and the name of the person you are writing it to. Stick that sentence above your screen. It is what decides when you hesitate on a topic.
Open your forms and check where the addresses already in your tool came from. One unchecked box per use, an honest label, and an answer to "when did this person say yes?" for every segment of the list. Whatever cannot answer should not receive the first send.
Authenticate your sending domain before writing anything. It is an hour of work, once, and it decides whether the rest reaches its destination.
Write the first send around a single idea, with a single call to action, and send it to yourself on a phone before sending it to the list. Then put the next one in the calendar, on a date you will keep even during the rush.
If you want us to look at your list, your tool and your last three sends before you start, that is what we do. And if you would rather do it all yourself, this page is enough to begin.