What to put in a small business newsletter: ideas by industry for Australia

The one rule

Write about what your customers need to know, not about you. The newsletters people open are the ones that save them from finding something out the hard way: a rule that changed, a deadline that moved, a product that was recalled, a price that is about to rise. The ones people ignore are the ones about the business’s new ute.

A useful way to find material is to keep a list of the questions customers asked you this month. Each one is an item. If three people asked whether the new minimum standards apply to their granny flat, that is the lead of the next issue, and the answer with a link to the state tenancy authority is worth more to your list than anything else you could write.

The second source of material is whatever your industry publishes: the federal regulator, the state regulator, the council, the industry association, the suppliers, the trade press. Australia has two layers of government that both publish constantly, which is more material than New Zealand or the UK and more than enough for three items a fortnight. It also means the state matters: a tenancy rule in Victoria is not the rule in Queensland, and the newsletter should say which one it is talking about.

The ideas below are grouped by industry. For each there is a short list of sources that publish reliably, federal first, then the kind of state body to add. Use them as a starting configuration, not a script.

Trades and construction

Sources: Safe Work Australia and your state WHS regulator (SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, WHSQ and so on), the Australian Building Codes Board (NCC updates), your state building authority (NSW Fair Trading, the VBA, QBCC), the ACCC product safety recalls site, the Clean Energy Regulator for solar and batteries, your council for planning and DA processing times, and the merchants’ trade bulletins.

Items that work: an NCC change and what it means for a renovation planned this year. A product recall for something common in local homes. Council DA times so customers know how long to allow. A regulator prosecution that illustrates a risk your customers run on their own sites. Seasonal: pre-summer cooling and bushfire prep, pre-winter heating, pre-storm-season roofs and drainage. A licensing change with the date. Solar and battery rebate changes, which move often and generate more customer questions than anything else in the trade.

The recurring section that earns its keep: "what changed this fortnight", three lines, each with a link, with the state named.

Property: landlords, property managers, real estate

Sources: your state tenancy authority (Consumer Affairs Victoria, NSW Fair Trading, the RTA in Queensland, and equivalents), the state real estate institute, CoreLogic and the major banks’ economists, the Reserve Bank (cash rate decisions), APRA for lending rules, the ATO for investment property deductions and CGT, the state revenue office for land tax and stamp duty, and council rates notices.

Items that work: cash rate decision day, in one paragraph, with what it means for a fixed rate coming off next quarter. A tenancy rule change with its effective date and the state it applies to. Minimum standards compliance dates. A land tax or stamp duty change with the threshold. Local: median rent by suburb, quarterly. Council: rates increase announced, planning scheme amendment on exhibition.

Property newsletters drift into market commentary quickly. Resist it. Readers want to know what changed and what to do; they can get opinion about the market anywhere.

Accounting, legal and professional services

Sources: the ATO (due dates, rulings, guidance), ASIC, Fair Work (award changes, minimum wage decisions, new entitlements), the Fair Work Commission’s annual wage review, the OAIC for privacy, the ACCC, the state revenue offices for payroll tax, the Treasury for Budget measures, and the professional bodies (CA ANZ, CPA Australia, the state law societies).

Items that work: the next three lodgement dates, every issue, at the bottom. A change to a threshold or rate with its effective date. A new employment obligation with the date it starts, and which awards it touches. A privacy or ACCC decision that illustrates a mistake small businesses make. A bill before Parliament that will affect clients, with the consultation deadline. 1 July: what changes, in a list. End of financial year: what to have ready.

The reader of a professional-services newsletter is often a business owner who is not reading anything else about compliance. The value is translation: what the change is in one sentence, who it applies to in one sentence, what to do in one sentence. Skip the background.

Agriculture and horticulture

Sources: the Department of Agriculture and the state departments (DPI NSW, Agriculture Victoria, DAF Queensland), MLA and Dairy Australia and the other RDCs, Hort Innovation, the Bureau of Meteorology seasonal outlooks, ABARES for prices and forecasts, the state biosecurity authority for alerts, and the rural banks’ commodity reports.

Items that work: a saleyard or commodity price movement in one line, fortnightly. A biosecurity alert with the practical action. A drought or flood assistance measure with the eligibility and the deadline. The seasonal outlook in a paragraph. A levy or programme change. Water allocation announcements for irrigators.

Rural readers are the most reliable openers of any list, and the most unforgiving of padding. Short, factual, with the source linked, sent early in the morning.

Health and allied health

Sources: the Department of Health and Aged Care, the TGA (recalls, alerts), the PBS for listing changes, Services Australia and the MBS for item changes, AHPRA and the relevant national board, the state health department for local notices, and the professional associations.

Items that work: a PBS listing change for a medicine your patients use. A TGA recall or alert. An MBS item change that affects what patients pay. Seasonal: flu and COVID vaccination timing, hay-fever season, heat. A guideline change explained in patient terms. Practice news: new clinician, changed hours, one item at most.

Health newsletters have to be careful: nothing in them should read as individual advice, AHPRA’s advertising rules apply to anything that could be read as promoting a service, and the checking pass earns its keep here more than anywhere, because a wrong dose or date is not a small error.

Retail and hospitality

Sources: your suppliers’ trade bulletins, the ACCC (Australian Consumer Law, pricing and recalls), the state fair trading office, your local council and business chamber (events, road closures, parking), Fair Work for public holiday penalty rates and minimum wage changes, the state liquor and gaming regulator for hospitality, and the ABS retail trade release if your readers are trade customers.

Items that work: what is new this month and why you chose to stock it. A how-to using something you sell. A recall for a product you have sold. Local: an event, a road closure, a change to parking that affects visiting. Dates: public holiday surcharges and hours, before the long weekend. For trade customers: price movements and the reason.

Retail newsletters are the ones most tempted to be all offer and no information. One offer per issue, at the end, works better than an issue that is entirely offers, because readers open it for the rest.

Automotive, marine and equipment

Sources: the state transport authority (Service NSW, VicRoads, TMR Queensland) for registration, inspection and licensing changes, the ACCC and the Department of Infrastructure for vehicle recalls, AMSA for marine, the industry associations (MTAA, AADA), manufacturers’ service bulletins, and fuel price data from the ACCC or the state monitoring sites.

Items that work: a rule change with the date it takes effect. A recall for a model common in your area. Seasonal: pre-summer cooling and towing, pre-winter batteries, pre-holiday checks, boat trailers before the long weekend. Registration or toll changes with the amounts. A plain-language explanation of something customers ask at the counter.

Technology, IT support and web

Sources: the Australian Cyber Security Centre and Scamwatch (alerts, current scams), the OAIC (breach notification guidance and decisions), the major vendors’ security advisories, the eSafety Commissioner, the ACMA for telecommunications, and the Digital Transformation Agency for anything government.

Items that work: an ACSC or Scamwatch alert about a scam currently targeting Australian businesses, with what to tell staff. A vendor patch that customers need to apply, in plain language. An end-of-support date for something customers still run. A privacy obligation with its date. A short "what we saw this fortnight" from your own support desk, anonymised.

Readers of an IT newsletter want to know what to worry about and what to ignore. A confident "you can ignore this one" is as valuable as a warning.

What the Spam Act requires

The Spam Act 2003 applies to every commercial email an Australian business sends, and a newsletter with any commercial content counts. Three things: consent, identification and unsubscribe. Consent can be express (they signed up) or inferred from an existing relationship, but express consent with a record is what you want. The message must identify the business and give a way to contact it. Every message must contain a working unsubscribe that is actioned within five business days.

The ACMA enforces it and does fine businesses, usually for sending after people unsubscribed or for buying lists. The Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles govern the list itself for businesses over the turnover threshold, and are good practice below it: collect for a stated purpose, keep it secure, let people see and correct what you hold.

Double opt-in satisfies all of this comfortably and gives you the consent record. Brieva does it on every subscription, actions unsubscribes immediately rather than in five days, and does not offer a bulk import, precisely so a purchased list cannot get in.

Sections that work in any industry

What changed: three items, each with a source link and the state named where it matters. The backbone of a trade newsletter.

Dates: the next three deadlines or events that matter to readers. Always at the bottom, always the same format. In Australia the fixed ones are 1 July (new financial year and most rule changes), the quarterly BAS dates, the Fair Work annual wage review taking effect from the first full pay period in July, and the state public holidays.

One question we were asked: a customer question and its answer. The most-clicked section in most lists.

Worth reading: one link to something longer, with a sentence on why. Not five links; one.

From us: one item, at most, about the business. New service, changed hours, a job that illustrates something. Never the lead.

A number: one figure from the fortnight’s data (a price, a rate, a count) with a sentence of context. Readers remember numbers.

Subject lines and a planning calendar

Say what is in it. "Minimum standards deadline, RCD recall, DA times" will be opened by every landlord on the list. "Our September update" will not. Lead with the item that matters to the most readers and put a date in it when there is one.

A few dates recur every year in almost every Australian industry, and knowing them means the issue before each one can be the useful one. January: the year’s changes that took effect on 1 January and the back-to-work period. March: the end of the fringe benefits tax year for anyone with vehicles. May: the federal Budget, one item per relevant measure. June: end of financial year, "before 30 June" for anyone selling equipment. July: everything that changed on 1 July, the new minimum wage, superannuation guarantee changes, the new financial year. October and November: the state budgets have landed, daylight saving starts in the southern states. December: holiday trading hours, penalty rates over the public holidays, the last issue of the year, and the "what changes on 1 January" preview.

Put these in the standing notes for the newsletter and the writer will look for the relevant source material as each one approaches. That is how a fortnightly issue is always about what is coming rather than what happened.

Setting this up as a configuration

Everything above translates directly into a newsletter tool’s settings. The sources become feeds. The sections become the issue shape. The industry, the state and the audience description tell the writer who it is for. The words you would never use become the voice rules.

In Brieva that is the setup wizard: paste the sources for your industry from the lists above, describe your audience in a sentence ("landlords and property managers in Geelong"), choose the sections, set the cadence and the timezone, and run a test issue. The test is where you find out whether the sources you chose produce three good items a fortnight. If they do not, swap sources before you invite anyone to subscribe.

Then send the first issue to ten customers you know and ask them one question: what would have made this more useful? Their answers are the next three issues.