You know how important email is. You know you should be sending them more often. But what exactly should you be sending?

That's exactly what this post covers. Because the last thing you should be worried about is what to send in your emails.

Here's the thing. As a recipe creator, you're sitting on a goldmine of content ideas.

From that viral recipe to your favorite kitchen tips, there are SO many ways to connect with your subscribers. And we've got 11 proven email types to prove it.

1. New Recipes

Launching a new recipe is the perfect excuse to reach out to your subscribers.

Michelle Hoover, aka Unbound Wellness, nails this with her homemade sprinkles email. She keeps it short and sweet and focused on her latest sprinkle recipe.

Nisha Vora, the mastermind behind Rainbow Plant Life, took a more personal approach when sharing her new Garlic Peanut Noodles recipe.

By incorporating a personal story here, she makes this recipe really memorable. Plus, it helps build connection with her audience.

Don't forget to include related recipes at the bottom of your email. These should be pretty low lift. And remember that you can also send emails as you update any of your older recipes.

2. Top Recipes and Roundups

You can also share your top recipes and roundups consistently. This can look like:

What to make for the month (What to Bake in May)
Recipes with the same ingredient (10 Easy Ground Turkey Recipes Your Family Will Love)
Viral recipes (The Viral Recipes Everyone's Talking About)
By category (30 of the Best Gluten and Dairy Free Desserts)

The options here are endless. And if you want to save people from having to scroll through a ton of recipes in your email, you can always send them to a blog post with all the info like Julie Pollitt of Back to my Southern Roots does here:

These top recipe and roundup emails are perfect if you’re feeling stuck or don’t have any new recipes to share. And the best part is you’ve already done the heavy lifting to bring these recipes to life. Now you just have to pull them into a single email.

3. Meal Plans for the Week

Sending weekly meal plans is an amazing way to build habits with your audience. Lexi Davidson (Lexi’s Clean Kitchen) sends an email every Sunday with recipe ideas for the week.

She always starts off with a quick intro, shares recent recipes, links for breakfast and dinner for the week, what’s trending and affiliate links.

There are a million different ways to nail weekly meal plans, but by keeping the formatting the same from week to week, her subscribers know exactly what to expect and where to find what they’re looking for.

Pro tip: Once you’ve put together meal plans for a full year, you can repurpose them for the next year. I promise no one will remember.

4. Holidays and Seasons

Upcoming holidays and seasonal recipes are another no brainer for your email playbook.

Here are a bunch of ideas to inspire you:

Let’s Spoil Mom With a Homemade Brunch to Remember!
25 Mexican-Inspired Recipes for Cinco de Mayo!
The Perfect Springtime Side Dishes
27 Easy Easter Recipes 🐰🥕🥚
12 Days of Spring Desserts

Take advantage of the fact that food is such a big part of holidays. Send emails for every major holiday and take the time to curate seasonal recipes your audience will love. The less work they have to do, the better. Plus, no one knows your recipes better than you do.

5. Affiliate

You definitely don’t want to overdo it here, but sprinkling in an affiliate email to your email calendar every once in a while is a great way to drive revenue.

You can send these for everything from gift ideas to highlighting some of your absolute favorite products:

The Perfect Mother’s Day Gift? 🎁 I've Got 75+ Ideas!
In my hobby era 🧶 (links to products for some of her favorite hobbies)
The Chair That Lets Me Sit Like a Pretzel 🥨

I love this one from Snejana Andreeva (The Modern Nonna):

It’s part of her Feature Friday newsletter series where she shares some of her favorite products. You can tell she actually uses and loves this chair. She’s not just pushing a product to make money. And when it comes to affiliate anything, authenticity is key. Because you need your subscribers to trust you if they’re going to make a purchase for something you recommend.

Don’t forget to incorporate your affiliate links into your other emails, too!

6. Tips and How-tos

Sending regular tips and how-tos is an incredible way to show your audience value (and keep them coming back).

And if you’re not sure what this could look like, take notes:

How to Steam (and Eat!) Artichokes
The Secret to Easy, Flavorful Meals
My Secret Weapon for Chef-Inspired Meals
Fridge staples that save my weekday meals

Here’s a killer example from Molly Thompson (What Molly Made):

I love that this one tells a story. She does an amazing job painting a picture and sharing super valuable information with her audience by sharing her secret weapon for creating recipes.

If you’re not already, start sprinkling in your favorite tips and how-tos to make your audience better cooks. As an expert, you probably have so many hacks that feel obvious to you but aren’t to your audience.

7. Behind The Scenes

There’s a reason behind the scenes content performs so well. But it doesn’t just have to be for social media. You can do the same in your emails!

Nisha Vora does this so well in this email:

By sharing what she actually eats in a day, her audience gets to know her better. And it’s a really organic way to share your favorite recipes.

You can also share behind-the-scenes content for upcoming recipes and projects, what your days typically look like, and so much more.

8. Themed Series

Who doesn’t love a good theme? A themed series can add much needed structure if you’re ever in an email rut.

Take The Modern Nonna’s “Way Back Wednesday” series where she brings back recipes that deserve love:

Not only does this give her a forum to share some of her favorite past recipes, it also creates a rhythm where her audience expects these emails every week. She does something similar with her Feature Friday series where she shares some of her favorite products.

So especially if you’re looking for a little more structure, come up with your own themed series.

9. Trends

Current events and trends might not be evergreen, but they do make great content. Here are a few trend-specific topics I’ve come across lately:

That “Perfect” Food Pic Might Be a Total Fake (how to spot AI photos from the real deal)

I'm being replaced by AI....unless you help
Grocery Prices Are High! What Can You Do To Save?

Take this email from Jordan Zelesnick (JZ Eats):

Unless you’re a creator, you might not know the ins and outs of how AI is changing the landscape. Which is why it’s so helpful to educate your audience about what’s actually going on in the space (and what they can do to make sure they’re actually getting your content).

And while trends might not be something you can fully plan around, they’re perfect filler content for your email calendar when timely topics come up.

10. Review Ask

As a recipe creator, reviews are everything. But your audience probably has no idea how helpful they are.

So every now and then, throw in a review ask email, like this one:

I love how she includes step-by-step instructions for how to leave a review and shares a little bit of background about why they matter so much.

And while you don’t want to be making too many asks of your audience, throwing one in every now and then is totally fine! Just make sure you give, give, give, then ask. Not the other way around.

11. Cookbook

If you have a cookbook, it should be a regular part of your email playbook. Share it regularly with your audience. You spent all that time bringing it to life, make sure you’re getting the absolute most out of it.

Here’s a really good one from Jordan Zelesnick:

Again, this is one where you don’t want to overdo it. But if you have a cookbook and you’re looking for email ideas, this one should definitely be on your list.

Time to Hit Send

You've got all the ingredients for email success right at your fingertips.

Your subscribers signed up because they love what you cook, but they stay because they love hearing from you. So whether you're sharing a new recipe, spilling kitchen secrets, or just letting them peek behind the scenes, remember that every email is a chance to build that relationship a little deeper.

Pick a few of these email types, add them to your calendar, and watch your open rates (and community) grow. Your subscribers will thank you.

11 Emails Every Recipe Creator Should Be Sending