This job is writing one email newsletter issue from material your week already produced. It is a Skill and Tech job that takes one sitting: the AI drafts the issue, and your newsletter tool, such as Kit or Mailchimp, sends it. You give the AI your notes from the week, a few past emails in your own voice and the one thing you want readers to do next. It gives back a subject line, a preview line and a short issue with one main story. You spend about ten minutes judging and editing it, then paste it into your newsletter tool, send yourself a test and schedule it.
- Shape
- SkillTech
- Sitting
- one sitting
The shape: Skill and Tech
The Skill half is the writing. A newsletter issue is a small, repeatable piece of writing with a known structure, and that is what an AI does well when it has real material. Once you have a brief that works, you reuse it every week and only the material changes. That is why this is a skill and not a one-off: the second issue is faster than the first, and the tenth is faster still.
The Tech half is the sending. The AI writes, but it does not hold your list, your unsubscribe link or your sending reputation. Your newsletter tool does. So the job ends inside Kit, Mailchimp or whatever tool already holds your subscribers, where you paste, preview, test and send.
What this means for you: you need two things open, the AI chat and your newsletter tool, and the hand-off between them is a copy and paste. If you do not have a list in a newsletter tool yet, setting one up is a separate job that comes first.
What you give the AI
Gather these before you open the chat. The issue can only be as specific as what you hand over.
- Your notes from the week, as they are. A finished job, a new product on the shelf, a change in hours, a question three customers asked, something you learned. Bullet points and half sentences are fine. Do not tidy them first; that is the AI's part.
- Two or three past emails you wrote yourself. A past issue, a long reply to a customer, a note to your team. These teach the AI how you sound, which matters more than any tone instruction.
- The one next step you want readers to take. Book the spring slot, reply with a question, come to Saturday's event, read the new page on your site. One step, with its exact link.
- Dates, prices and names that must be exact. List them separately and mark them as facts not to change.
- Who reads this newsletter. One or two lines: past customers, local neighbors, other businesses you work with.
- Anything off limits. Customer names you do not have permission to use, a project you cannot talk about yet, a topic you never touch.
- Last issue's subject line. So the new one does not repeat it.
Leave out private customer details. If a story involves a customer, describe the job without their name unless they have said yes.
What comes back
Paste this brief, then your inputs underneath it.
You are drafting this week's email newsletter for a small business.
Write it from the material below only. Do not add news, offers, numbers or events that are not in the material.
Readers: [one or two lines on who reads it]
The one next step we want: [the action and its exact link]
Facts that must stay exactly as written: [dates, prices, names]
Off limits: [anything not to mention]
Last issue's subject line, do not repeat it: [paste it]
Return:
1. Three subject lines, each under 50 characters, plain and specific. No clickbait, no all caps.
2. One preview line, under 90 characters, that adds to the subject instead of repeating it.
3. The issue, 150 to 300 words:
- Open with the main story in the first sentence. No greeting paragraph, no "hope you are well."
- One main story from the material, told with one concrete detail.
- At most two short extra items, one or two sentences each.
- End with the one next step and its link, once.
- Short paragraphs. Write the way we write in the past emails below.
4. A list of every claim in the draft that we should check, with where it came from in our material.
5. Any material you left out, and why.
Our past emails, for voice:
[paste two or three]
This week's material:
[paste your notes]What comes back is a short draft you can read in a minute, three subject lines to pick from and a checklist of claims. The checklist is the part that saves you, because it shows where each sentence came from. If a claim has no source in your notes, the AI made it up, and it goes.
To move the draft into your newsletter tool, ask for it once more as plain text with the link written out, then paste it into a new email or campaign in Kit or Mailchimp. Set the link on the button or the linked words inside the tool's editor rather than trusting pasted formatting. Send yourself a test before anything else.
How to judge it
A good draft sounds like you on a clear day and tells one story a reader could repeat to someone else. A bad draft is easy to spot in a minute. Reject it, or push back in the same chat, when you see any of these.
- It invents something. A sale you are not running, a number you did not give, an event that is not on your calendar. This is the most serious failure, and the claims list should catch it.
- It opens with a greeting or the weather. "Hello friends, it has been a busy month" wastes the one line most readers see. The main story belongs in the first sentence.
- It sounds like nobody. Words you would never say, stacked adjectives, a closing line about "your journey." Compare it with the past emails you gave it; if it does not sound like them, say so and ask again.
- It asks for three things. Book, follow, refer and reply in one issue means none of them happens. One next step.
- It is too long. If the issue runs past what fits on one phone screen or two, cut the extra items first, not the main story.
- The subject line promises more than the email delivers. A reader who opens and feels tricked unsubscribes. Pick the plainest of the three.
- It changed a fact you marked exact. A shifted date or rounded price is a reason to reread every line.
If the draft fails on voice, the fix is usually better inputs, not a better instruction. Give it a longer past email and try again.
What stays with you
The AI does the drafting. These parts stay yours, and no AI does them for you.
- The material itself. The AI cannot know what happened in your week. A thin week makes a thin issue, and the honest move on a quiet week is a shorter issue, not an invented one.
- Every fact. Dates, prices, hours, names and links get checked against the source before sending, every time.
- Permission. Whether a customer is happy to be named, whether a partner wants the mention, whether a photo is yours to use.
- The list. Who is on it, how they joined, and that every email carries an unsubscribe link and your mailing address, which your newsletter tool usually adds for you. The AI never touches your subscriber list, and it should not.
- The test and the send. Read the test email on your phone, click every link, then press send or schedule yourself.
- The replies. When a reader writes back, that is a real person, and the answer is yours to give.
An editorial example
This is an invented example, not a customer. Say you run a small bike repair shop with a newsletter that goes to past customers.
Your notes for the week say: rebuilt a 1980s road bike for a retired teacher, the original brake levers took two weeks to find, three people asked about winter storage, the shop is closed the Monday after next for a family event, the fall tune-up slot list opens Friday. You paste them in with two past emails, the closing date as an exact fact and the booking page as the one next step.
The first draft opens with "Fall is here and the leaves are turning." You reject that line and ask for the main story first. The second draft opens with the rebuilt road bike and the brake levers that took two weeks to find. It mentions winter storage in two sentences, gives the closing date exactly as written, and ends with the tune-up booking link. The claims list shows every sentence tied to your notes.
You cut one adjective, change "folks" to "you," pick the plainest subject line and paste it into your newsletter tool. You send yourself a test, click the booking link on your phone and schedule the issue for Thursday morning. That is the job.
Which tool sends it
The sending tool is the Tech half, and the best one is usually the one that already holds your list.
| If you already have | Send with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A list in Kit | Kit | Your subscribers, forms and unsubscribes are already there |
| A list in Mailchimp | Mailchimp | Same reason; moving a list is its own project |
| A newsletter tool built into your website platform | That tool | Sign-ups from your site land in it already |
| A handful of contacts and no tool | Pick one tool and set it up first | Bulk email from a personal inbox lacks unsubscribe handling and can land in spam |
Plans and prices change, so check each tool's own pricing page before you sign up.
Once an issue is sent, it can keep working. Our note on turning marketing emails into searchable assets covers putting a good issue on your website, and turning one useful idea into a post, an email and a week of social shows how the same story feeds your other channels. When this one is done, the full list of DIY marketing jobs has the next one.
Of every job on this list, social media is the one that comes back every week, and Boomp is software that does that one for you. See ten posts made from your website, free
