What’s Your Newsletter Archetype?
The 4 newsletter archetypes
Of the 570 people on the waitlist for my upcoming Magnetic Emails course, 48% are yet to start a newsletter.
The most common reason? They don’t know what to write.
It’s funny because you see the email marketing experts pump out effortless daily emails yet many of us struggle to rub two ideas together for one per week.
So instead of doing what’s important—getting good at writing and building relationships with your audience—you end up freezing like a deer in headlights. Except in this case, you’re perpetually stuck creating content for social media. Which is fine to begin your business, but not a viable long-term strategy.
Why?
Because you don’t own your audience, nor do you get to express yourself like in emails.
A newsletter is great because you can share stories, interesting ideas, and your philosophy without worrying about ‘what the algorithm wants’.
This helps you grow as a writer much faster.
But deciding what to send can be overwhelming, so here are the 4 newsletter archetypes to help.
- The curator
A curator gathers interesting things for his or her audience.
This might be current topics like the news, or rare and interesting finds. You save your audience valuable time and effort by doing the leg work for them. The better you are at discovering gems, the more popular your newsletter becomes.
Example: Josh Spector’s For the Interested
- The reporter
Whilst curators focus on finding, reporters focus on analysing.
Some go deep in one topic, others report broadly on many. Can be a great way to demonstrate authority, particularly if you enjoy research.
Example: Chennel Basilio’s Growth In Reverse
- The thought leader
This is for experts with specific knowledge.
People read these newsletters to extract wisdom: ideas from experience.
A great thought leader focuses on storytelling, opinions, predictions, and problem-solving (or, problem highlighting—your products do the solving).
Example: John Bejakovic’s fantastic daily emails
- The explorer
This is where most of you will start.
The explorer uses their newsletter to share what they are learning, doing, and thinking.
This ‘guide-not-guru’ approach attracts an engaged audience as you build. The more results you get, the better stories you tell, and the more your business grows. The cool part about being an explorer is that you accelerate your authority by building in public.
Example: Me 😄
Which archetype do you think suits you best?
Pick a lane, set constraints, and start hitting send.
You won’t regret it.
Hope this helps,
Kieran
But being an explorer or thought leader is less so. You have so many ways to present ideas, and you’re competing with many people in your space. That’s why I’ve spent years testing email ideas and analysing the best in the game.
I’ve found 10 ‘angles’ work best.
I break these down in module 2 of Magnetic Emails, including templates and examples of each so you can quickly grasp these concepts without wasting years fumbling around in the dark.
This email uses the 2nd angle, the ‘Objection’ approach.
If you struggle with what to write about, this course will be helpful.
Launch is 1st September. Come join 600 people on the waitlist here:
Sign me up
![Kieran Drew](/assets/kieran-avatar.png?v=cddfc38073)
About Kieran
Ex dentist, current writer, future Onlyfans star · Sharing what I learn about writing well, thinking clearly, and building an online business