Areej AbuAli started the WTSNewsletter with one goal: to amplify the brilliant work from women and people of marginalized genders in our industry.

Five years and more than 155 editions later, that purpose hasn't changed.

We’re delighted to announce that the WTSNewsletter is a 2026 Content Marketing Institute Awards Finalist for Best E-Newsletter. Being recognised as a finalist alongside newsletters from organisations as big as the AAA is a huge achievement, and we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve created together.

Transparency has always been important to us at WTS - from sharing our conference financials, to our partnership fees. Following in this vein we’ve elected to share our award entry here – you can read it in full below. We hope that openly sharing our own stats is helpful to others in the industry, plus we’d love to see others enter similar awards in the future.

WTS Newsletter: 2026 Content Marketing Institute Award Best E-Newsletter Entry

What is Women in Tech SEO (WTS)?

WTS is a free, global community centering people of marginalized genders in SEO, marketing, and tech.

Our values are:

• To be kind
• To be helpful
• To be respectful
• To be a safe and judgement-free community

Why does WTS exist?

People of marginalized genders have historically experienced a lack of belonging in our industry. We aim to change that, by creating a recipe of belonging, The WTS Way, built on centering diverse voices and providing them with:

• Opportunities
• Connection
• Amplification
• Education

Who is the WTS community for?

Our community isn’t just for tech SEO pros, and it isn’t just for women – we created WTS to be a place that celebrates and amplifies diverse voices. Our engaged members come from a range of disciplines, and all walks of life.

The WTS community groups on Slack and Facebook, as well as our in-person WTSFest events, are exclusively for people of marginalised genders — women, non-binary folks, transgender men, among many other gender expansive identities.

Our social media channels, and the weekly WTSNewsletter are open to all.

What is the weekly WTSNewsletter?

Open to subscribers of all genders, this newsletter offers readers news and insights from the brilliant people in our community, and the WTSPartners who support us.

Unlike many newsletters in this niche we exclusively platform the work of people of marginalized genders.

Sent every Wednesday it includes:

• Links to free industry articles, talks, research, and resources
• Bite-sized, actionable tip columns
• WTS initiatives and event updates

You can read a recent edition of the WTSNewsletter here.

What is the purpose of the WTSNewsletter?

The purpose of the WTSNewsletter is to:

• Support our goals of:
  • Celebrating and amplifying the work of our members
  • Providing access to free opportunities, and education
• Generate revenue for WTS (this allows us to keep our community and initiatives free for our members, and pay our conference speakers, writers, and team)

Objectives for WTSNewsletter (April 2025 - March 2026)

• Grow subscribers by 12% year-on-year, whilst maintaining 50% open rates, and 12% CTR
• Double the income generated via WTSPartner newsletter sponsorship

Our WTSNewsletter Strategy

To create a weekly newsletter that uniquely platforms, amplifies, and celebrates the work of marginalized genders in SEO, marketing, and tech; and generates revenue so we can keep our online community and initiatives free for WTS members.

In order to maximize our reach and amplification efforts, people of all genders are encouraged to subscribe.

Goals

• Amplify and celebrate our community members
• Provide access to opportunities and education
• Grow subscribers, and income

Audience

Our audience works in a range of disciplines including SEO, marketing, and tech. This is a very busy space with many newsletters competing for subscribers and attention.

Content

Each week, we aim to create a jam-packed newsletter that people are excited to open. Our newsletter content includes:

• A curated selection of articles, talks, podcasts, and resources created by our members. Members submit their own work (and other people’s) for inclusion via this Google Form.
• Messages from our headline and spotlight newsletter sponsors. E.G. free trials, resources, events, etc.
• WTSKnowledge articles. Via WTSKnowledge we exclusively publish content from people of marginalised genders. Members pitch to write for us, we provide editing support, and our writers and editor are paid for their work. You can read more about WTSKnowledge here.
• WTSInterviews. In this inspirational content series, we publish interviews with people of marginalized genders in our industry.
• Promotion of our conference, WTSFest
• Promotion of our free WTS initiatives. We run a range of initiatives including mentorships, free webinars and Slack AMAs, and WTSGlobal.
• WTSNewsletter series (sponsored content). Bite-sized, actionable, “how to”/educational content.
• Jobs (sponsored content)
• WTS Buy me a Coffee program

Promotion

• We actively promote the newsletter on the footer of our website
• Each edition is also shared via social media
• Our members also frequently amplify our newsletter

Objectives & Results for WTSNewsletter (April 2025 - March 2026)

• Objective: Grow subscribers by 12% year-on-year, whilst maintaining open rates of 50%, and CTR of 10%. Achieved. Subscribers grew by 14.5% (from 7,486 to 8,573); plus open rates of 50% and CTR of 10% were maintained.
• Objective: Double the income generated via WTSPartner newsletter sponsorship. Achieved. Income increased by 276% (from £7,300 to £20,200)

Impact Achieved Versus our Goals

Amplify and celebrate our community members

In the past year we have amplified the work of more than 250 people of marginalized genders. In many instances our initial promotion has led to further amplification. For example, Debunking and Demystifying Generative Information Retrieval: Misinformation in The SEO Space by Dawn Anderson received:

• Highly-engaged social shares, (150 likes, 32 comments, 8 reposts)
• A mention from Googler John Mueller on Google Search Central (around 5:40)
• Inclusion in SEO Roundtable’s Recap:
• Inclusion in other industry newsletters: SEOFOMO and the Moz Top 10

Provide access to opportunities and education

In the past year we’ve provided access to:

• Jobs, speaking, writing, and podcasting opportunities
• Free online courses, webinars, conferences, and networking
• Free trials and discounts

Additional Income Generated (over and above directly attributable WTSNewsletter sponsorship)

Many WTSPartners initially come on board as newsletter sponsors, and then we are able to develop those relationships into on-going financial support.

For example, withFrontier started out as a newsletter sponsor for the Jobs section. Following the success they saw with this activity, they became a Community Partner, and were able to fill a highly specialised Head of SEO role within just 15 days. In addition to this, withFrontier is now also a WTSFest Scholarship ticket sponsor, funding free conference tickets to those who could not otherwise afford to attend.

We have also generated: £25,550 via the WTS Buy Me a Coffee program.

Design Strategy

The WTSNewsletter’s design and layout works to align form and function with our values. Together, these choices don’t just make the email readable, they persuade readers that this is a welcoming, and valuable community to participate in.

You can view an example of the WTSNewsletter here.

1. Hierarchical layout = guiding attention

• Large headings and spacing create a reading path
• Bite-sized blocks reduce cognitive load, and allow skim reading

This visually communicates: “This content is curated, digestible, and worth scanning”, and matches the newsletter’s goal of delivering “bite-sized, actionable” content.

2. Chunking + whitespace = accessibility

The email uses short paragraphs, bullet points, and generous spacing

• Signals respect for readers’ time
• Makes the content usable across devices (especially mobile)
• Reduces feelings of intimidation often associated with technical content

The design enacts the organisation’s commitment to creating accessible, welcoming spaces and content

3. Call-to-action design = directing behaviour

CTAs (e.g., “Read more,” “Join,” “Book demo”) are visually distinct (buttons or bold links), placed after short persuasive blurbs

• CTA placement creates a logical persuasion flow
• Visual contrast draws the eye
• Repetition normalizes clicking as the expected behaviour

The design encourages readers to engage, not just consume.

4. Visual consistency = credibility and brand ethos

Across sections, the email maintains: consistent typography, repeated content blocks, and uniform link styling

• Consistency builds ethos (credibility)
• The structured layout suggests authority, and informal elements (emojis, tone) balance this with relatability

This duality is key: WTS is credible and expert-led, but open and welcoming

5. Use of emoji & color = emotional framing + community identity

• Emojis soften the tone and signal approachability
• Brand colors signal inclusivity, and warmth, in contrast with the typical aesthetic of tech spaces

This visually reinforces our community-first, supportive, and celebratory brand messaging.

6. Community spotlighting = visual ethos

The email frequently highlights our members’ work, community initiatives, resources, and events.

• This creates visibility and fosters belonging
• Distributed authorship signals collective authority, not top-down expertise
• The layout gives equal visual weight to multiple voices

This visually supports our goal of amplifying our members.

Final thoughts

Thank you to Areej for providing the vision we continue to follow, and for putting together the list of brilliant articles we share within it. Thanks to Hannah for helping our WTSKnowledge writers, and WTSTalk speakers create the best pieces they can. And thank you to Erin and Himee for helping curate this newsletter (and making sure it gets sent out!) every single week.

And thank you to every sponsor, reader, contributor, and supporter who has been part of the journey – we appreciate you!

If you're not subscribed yet, we promise we're worth taking up space in your inbox: click here to sign up to the WTSNewsletter.

And if you’re interested in finding out more about sponsoring the WTSNewsletter, you can read more about our WTSPartnership opportunities here.