September Newsletter Ideas: 21 Ideas for What to Send Your List This Month

It’s PSL season, y’all! Grab your cozy sweaters, warm scarves, and calf boots – even you, dudes – because it’s time to go pumpkin pickin’ and leaf peepin’.

Okay, yes, it’s September – and yes it’s autumn in the Northern Hemisphere – but that’s not all you can talk about in September… despite what so many brands and companies are messaging right now. It’s also back-to-Hogwarts – I mean back-to-school – season, the last month of Q3, and the beginning of the a general decline in traffic for many blogging niches. What better time to get good at emailing your list regularly, to bring in a little traffic and to sustain yourself through the slow season?

As you know if you’ve read any past posts in this monthly series, I love to use daily, weekly, and monthly prompts to inspire my own newsletters when I’m feeling really stuck on ideas, so that’s how I’ve structured this post on September newsletter ideas too. Below you’ll find several ideas for each week, which will hopefully fill any gaps you have in your own weekly newsletter schedule.

(Yes, I’m still harping on about sending newsletters every week! It really is the right cadence to keep your audience engaged and hit the other goals you have for your email list.)

So whether you want to drive more traffic, engage with your community, or make more sales, email is a great way to do it. Let’s dive in to get you inspired and kick off the autumn with positive vibes.

Ideas for Week 1 – September 1-7

If you’re feeling stumped on ideas as September kicks off, I’ve got a lot to work with.

First off, it might still be Back to School Season in your area – if so, you can use this week’s email as a chance to check in with your audience about the annual cycle of education in your niche. Or you might start by sharing some educational tips to help your subscribers start solving whatever problem they came to your site about.

In the U.S., the first Monday in September (the 1st this year) will always be Labor Day. This is typically a holiday of rest from laboring, so you might either take advantage of the day to push harder on your business and share your goals with your audience – or to talk about how rest is really important. (You know I’ve talked about that in the past on this site!)

For a couple of other ideas, September 4th is National Wildlife Day, and September 6th is National Read a Book Day. Even if talking about wildlife doesn’t make sense for your audience, everyone reads books – and I’m sure there are great books in your niche that you could recommend (with affiliate links!).

Ideas for Week 2 – September 8-14

I’ve got a two-fer for you this week – the prompt I’m going to suggest will help you with this week’s email and next week’s email too. Score!

So this is the idea: September 10th is National Swap Ideas Day, so it seems like a good time to email your audience and ask them to send you ideas related to your niche. For some examples, you could ask what their best travel tip is, how they handle when they run low on an important ingredient, or what to do when their kids are behaving in a certain way.

Then, you can reply to their responses (this is great for showing email service providers that you’re not spammy!), collect all their ideas, and re-share them anonymously next week as part of completing the circle of “swapping ideas.”

If you’re not feeling like this makes sense for your subscribers, here are a few more ideas:

• On September 8th, the Trekkies make up for “May the 4th…” with Star Trek Day
• In the U.S., it’s Patriot Day on September 11th, marking the 14th anniversary of 9/11; while I might not personally be feeling particularly patriotic this year, it might make sense for you and your audience.
• If you’re totally stumped, the second Thursday of September (the 11th) is officially School Picture Day. Maybe you could share a few early photos of yourself to help connect with your audience – mine always loves seeing pictures of me when I was little.
• September 12th is National Day of Encouragement, so you might use this week as an opportunity to encourage your community about something.
• Finally, September 13th is Positive Thinking Day; you could send an email similar to National Day of Encouragement, if this day works better for sending your newsletter.

Ideas for Week 3 – September 15-21

If you don’t use my two-fer idea from last week, no worries – I have ideas for the third week of September too.

September 15th is National Online Learning Day which seems like a really good opportunity to send your list some educational resources you’ve shared on your blog – I’d say that 3-5 of your most value-filled informational articles is a good number to send if you use this idea.

September 15th also kicks off Hispanic Heritage Month if that’s something relevant to you personally or to your audience/niche.

Perhaps my favorite one is Talk Like a Pirate Day on September 19th. Let’s be real: this probably doesn’t relate to the niches for any of our sites, but it can be a fun way to share a few blog posts using pirate speak and show a silly side to your subscribers.

Ideas for Week 4 – September 22-28

I have one primary great idea for the final full week of September this year, and a few back-ups if you don’t love it.

September 22nd is the September Equinox; that’s the start of autumn in the northern hemisphere and start of spring in the southern hemisphere. Now you don’t need to write about astronomy like me for this to be relevant – changing seasons is always an opportunity to check in on your goals, share how you’re doing or what’s next for you, and ask your audience how they’re doing or what they’re planning in the coming months. Use this week as an opportunity to solicit replies from your audience if you haven’t done that yet in September. (Seriously, replies are really valuable for helping your deliverability and ensuring your subscribers receive future emails!)

For other ideas in this final week:

• September 22nd is also Hobbit Day, commemorating the birthdays of Bilbo and Frodo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings. My fellow nerds will find a way to spin this for their niche, I’m sure.
• If you’re feeling more serious, September 24th is National Punctuation Day. You could use it as an opportunity to improve your excessive exclamation usage… oh wait, is that just me? (No, it’s not.)
• The last Saturday in September (27th this year) is Save Your Photos Day. This could be a good time to remind people to back up their data – or to share how you manage your photos (with affiliate links to cloud services and/or hardware you use!)
• That last Saturday is also National Public Lands Day. Encourage everyone to get outside and enjoy the fall weather before it gets cold (if you’re in the northern hemisphere) – or take a stand against the attacks happening to our public lands lately.

Additional September Newsletter Ideas

September runs partway into the following week of work-days, so here are a few more ideas if you need to send a fifth newsletter this month:

• September 29th is National Coffee Day. You could talk about how essential coffee is for your success, or you could talk about your inhumanity if you somehow happen to not be addicted to it like the rest of us.
• The whole month of September is National Library Card Sign-Up Month; I personally love and support my public libraries, and they can be a great way to get extra written resources that compliment my blogs – surely the same can be said for almost every niche and website.
• Finally, September is also Self-Improvement Month. What are you doing to get better at something this month? share that with your audience – they love seeing you’re human! (Again with the exclamation points…)

Bonus: Black Friday Planning

Last but not least, Black Friday is less than three months away once September begins – while this might seem early, it’s only TWO months from the end of the month. So if you find yourself stuck for ideas one week even after all of the ones I’ve shared, start working on your Black Friday plan. One good way to do this is by taking whatever you might offer (a discount? a freebie?) and asking your audience for feedback.

If you’re not sure what to do for Black Friday, this is a great time to ask your subscribers what they would like as a Black Friday deal from you. I’m always surprised and delighted by how business-minded my community is when I ask for their input!

Okay, that’s quite enough to inspire you to put together your weekly emails this month, right? Have any other questions about coming up with September newsletter ideas? Let me know in the comments below!