Email marketing continues to be one of the most effective and profitable marketing channels. It boasts of a return on investment of 3600 percent, after all.
But to stand out in a customer’s inbox, businesses need more than just good copy and high quality visuals. For email to be effective, you need strategic insight.
For marketers, one of the most valuable ways to sharpen that strategy is by looking at what your competitors are doing.
Analyzing great newsletter examples — from direct competitors to industry leaders — can be the difference that takes your newsletter from meh to great.
This guide will walk you through how to find the best newsletter examples with the goal of improving your marketing strategy.
Why Newsletter Tracking Is Critical
Tracking email newsletters isn’t just about inspiration — it’s about giving yourself a competitive edge.
Here's why:
- Competitive Benchmarking: By studying your competitors’ email strategies, you can compare your messaging, frequency, and design with theirs. You’ll quickly spot where you’re leading and where you’re falling short.
- Trendspotting: Whether it’s subject lines, limited-time offers, or user-generated content, tracking emails helps you identify emerging trends early.
- Tactical Inspiration: Great newsletter examples can inform everything from CTA phrasing to how you structure a welcome flow or flash sale.
- Gap Identification: See what your competitors aren’t doing so you can do it better.
Which newsletters are worth tracking?
When finding newsletters, you need to identify the right ones to track. They will come from your relevant competitors and industry leaders.
Narrow down your list to the following categories:
Direct Competitors
These are brands that offer similar products or services and target the same customer base.
Aspirational Brands
These brands might not be in your niche, but they’re known for top-tier marketing — think Apple, Glossier, Airbnb, or Shopify.
Adjacent Niches
Look for brands in related industries whose tactics might translate well to your business. For example, if you have sell beddings, you can look to furniture brands for content inspiration.
The goal is to build a curated list of 10 to 30 brands that align with your competitive intelligence
goals.
How to find the best newsletter examples
Option 1: Through Manual Subscription
One of the simplest ways to gather newsletter examples is to subscribe directly.
Use a separate email address
You only need to use a dedicated inbox for newsletter signups. Create a separate email address solely for newsletter tracking. This keeps your main inbox uncluttered and makes sorting easier.
While some like the practicality and zero cost of manual signups, it doesn’t scale easily. If you want to make email newsletter tracking easier and access more than you would with an ordinary email signup, switch to email tracking tools.
Subscribe like a customer
Go through your target competitor or brand’s signup process. This way, you’ll receive onboarding sequences, cart reminders, promos, and loyalty offers — not just regular newsletters.
Organize newsletters
Use Gmail labels, folders, or rules to automatically sort incoming messages by brand or category.
This hands-on approach gives you access to more than just newsletters — you’ll see full lifecycle campaigns.
Option 2: Through Automated Tools
You can also automate newsletter research and collection with automated monitoring tools or newsletter databases.
While some like the practicality and zero cost of manual signups, it doesn’t scale easily. If you want to make email newsletter tracking easier and access more than you would with an ordinary email signup, switch to email tracking tools.
Here are the email monitoring tools we recommend.
Best Email Newsletter Monitoring Tools
Panoramata
Panoramata is your best bet for finding newsletter examples across the web from whatever industry and sector you want to monitor.
It keeps tabs on any brand– from iconic companies to niche brands–so you can get a comprehensive look at their email newsletters without clicking on a single sign-up form.
Once you start tracking a brand on Panoramata, you can receive real-time updates on its newsletter activity and access a historical database of previous emails the brand has sent to their mail list.
View each email on Panoramata as if you received it in your inbox but without the pesky clutter. You can check each email’s performance metrics, the mailing platform used, the time the email was sent, and other useful information for benchmarking.
On top of that, you can filter and sort a brand’s emails on Panoramata by typing a keyword (like Christmas, BOGO, Black Friday, etc.) to refine results and find the example you need.
The use cases are limitless because you have full control over what to do with the email examples you find on Panoramata. You can even save examples to a list for future reference or for sharing with your clients or teammates.
Panoramata doesn’t just track newsletters. You can also use it to view a brand’s email journeys such as abandoned cart email flows and welcome email flows. This gives you a closer look at how they improve conversions and engage subscribers.
Mailcharts
MailCharts is an email intelligence etool that offers access to thousands of email campaigns and full email series from top brands.
You can use this for basic marketing inspiration and competitor analysis if your focus is on email marketing in particular.
Like Panoramata, you can filter through its email database with keywords or search terms to find the examples you need. You can also browse through email marketing flows or lifecycle campaigns such as lost checkout flows and onboarding sequences.
For each email flow on MailCharts, you can see insights on the flow’s duration, time between emails, and number of triggered emails in the flow, so you can see what their strategies are for optimizing engagement.
Aside from that, MailCharts has industry benchmarks and analysis on sending behaviour that you can take advantage of with a subscription.
Milled
Milled is another popular option if you want a searchable archive of real-world emails from thousands of companies.
It’s in essence a search engine for email newsletters where you can see examples of past newsletters for inspiration and analysis.
Milled has a simple interface. You can search through their database with keywords and adjust results by holiday, date or country. Aside from a historical database, Milled also has real-time updates so you never miss a new newsletter from your competitor.
As a downside, Milled does not have advanced analytics on email performance, so you can’t get actionable data-backed insights on their basic plan. You also can’t follow a defined set of brands or newsletters or request new brands to track, as the collections are pre-defined.
Really Good Emails
Really Good Emails is a curated online email gallery that showcases only the best creative emails for each category.
This website is great for content marketers, email designers, and email strategists. The emails are curated and categorized by campaign goal such as onboarding, promotion, or newsletter.
You can also search the gallery by color, structure, or a layout element like CTA or hero image.
The categories are exhaustive, ranging from behavioral email journeys like abandoned cart or post-purchase flows, to promotion-specific email newsletters like coupon and contest emails.
Owletter
Owletter is another well-known email newsletter tracking tool that’s great for competitor analysis and benchmarking.
It monitors and archives emails sent by competitors, while tracking changes in send volume and frequency. You can also receive real-time alerts whenever a competitor sends a new email newsletter.
It’s an ideal tool if you want to pick apart a brand’s email newsletter marketing strategies and learn from their tactics. However, it does limit the number of competitors it reports on (with the lower tiered plans) and lacks extensive analytics and performance data.
Tips for Creating High Impact Newsletters
Once you've analyzed the best, here’s how to build newsletters that compete:
Nail the Subject Line
Keep it under 50 characters. Use curiosity, urgency, or personalization. Test emoji use (but avoid overuse).
Make the Preview Text Count
It should complement — not duplicate — your subject line. Use it to tease what’s inside or clarify value.
Use Strong Visual Hierarchy
Start with a bold header and clear CTA. Use short paragraphs, bullets, and whitespace for readability. Make CTAs stand out with buttons and contrasting colors.
Prioritize Mobile Optimization
About 60 to 70% of emails are read on mobile so design with mobile in mind. Use single-column layouts and tappable buttons.
Focus on One Main Goal
Don't overcrowd your message. Is your goal to drive clicks? Promote content? Announce a sale? Keep it focused.
Segment and Personalize
Send tailored emails by behavior, location, or purchase history. Even simple first-name personalization boosts engagement.
Add Value, Not Just Promotion
Include educational content, tips, or stories, not just discounts.Think long-term engagement, not just quick sales.
Track and Improve
Monitor open rates, CTR, bounce rates, and unsubscribes.Use insights to test and optimize future sends. Better yet, benchmark yourself against competitors and find out specific ways to optimize your email newsletters.
Discover the best newsletter examples on Panoramata
By tracking and analyzing competitor newsletters, you can significantly enhance your email marketing strategy, moving from "meh" to great.
Leverage tools like Panoramata to gain a competitive edge and optimize your campaigns. Sign up for Panoramata today and transform your email marketing!
Want more ideas and inspiration? Check out our email swipe file with over 100 newsletter ideas you can use for your next campaign.
FAQs
Why is tracking competitor newsletters important?
It helps you gain a competitive edge by allowing you to compare strategies, identify emerging trends, find tactical inspiration, and spot areas where your competitors are lacking.
What are some ways to find good newsletter examples?
You can either manually subscribe to newsletters using a separate email address or use automated tools and databases like Panoramata or Mailcharts to streamline the process.
What should I focus on when creating a high-impact newsletter?
Focus on elements like a strong subject line, effective preview text, clear visual hierarchy, mobile optimization, a single main goal, personalization, and consistently tracking your performance.
