While social media platforms have come and gone over the years, the email newsletter has stayed the course. And that’s because they work!
Whether you’re sharing your expertise, industry news, inspiring links or personal stories, email newsletters are a great way to connect with and grow your audience.
5 reasons to start a newsletter
You build trust and credibility.
A newsletter is a great way to share what you’re all about, how you can help people and what you stand for. By sharing your thoughts, opinions and expertise over time, your subscribers will get to know and trust you in a deeper way.You have control.
Unlike social media platforms where you’re at the mercy of algorithms and feature changes, a newsletter gives you more control. You don’t have to cross your fingers and hope your words show up in someone’s feed. Instead, it goes straight to their inbox. You also have full access to your subscriber data, so you can easily back it up or move to a different email provider at any time.It’s personal.
Away from the buzz of social media, newsletters are intimate and direct. Just like getting a letter in the post, they invite a deeper, more reflective way of communicating with your audience.It establishes your expertise.
When you generously share useful and interesting content that provides genuine value, it shows your subscribers that you truly know your stuff.It’s a great sales tool.
This doesn’t mean hammering people with Sale! Sale! Sale! emails all day long, but rather it’s seeing a newsletter as a trusty ambassador, reminding people each time you send a message who you are and how you operate. So when you do have a new offering to share, or a subscriber decides they need help in your area of expertise, you’ll be fresh in their mind.
What to write about in your newsletter
Think of your newsletter as a conversation. Picture a friendly subscriber sitting across from you with a cup of tea, ready for a chat, one human to another. What would you like them to know?
Here are some ideas…
Share something useful.
What do you know that could help your audience? Have you learned a new skill or tried a cool new tool? What do people ask you for advice about? Have a look through your emails, DMs and Facebook group interactions, there’s often newsletter gold to be found.Tell a story.
Let people get to know the human behind the keyboard! Give a behind the scenes tour of your business. Talk about the creation process of your latest offering. Share lessons learned from a recent project or your option on a hot topic in your industry.Start a conversation.
Connecting with your subscribers is arguably the best part of having a newsletter. It makes my day when someone takes the time to share a thought, ask a question, or say something wise and witty. I’ve ended up with some great buddies and clients from these lovely interactions. Starting a conversation can be as simple as writing, “Hit reply and tell me what you think about this!”.Do a link roundup.
Curate a list of links you’ve found interesting, inspiring or entertaining, such as industry news or offerings from within your community. Add your own commentary and say why it resonated with you - it all adds to the picture your reader is building about you and your values.Talk about what you do.
Don’t forget to remind people of how they can work with you! This can be direct copy about your offerings or why not share a client case study?
