Make a Newsletter
Email newsletters can be the single best way for you to connect with your customers, from the new ones to your diehard fans.
Newsletters are important and powerful marketing tools that allow you to show up in someone’s inbox to share your message. And, unlike social media services, you control the communication with your subscribers when you use a newsletter.
This privilege exists because people opt-in to receive your emails. They want to receive your emails because you give them something special in the newsletter that they can’t receive anywhere else. They want to be in conversation with you.
Newsletters facilitate a conversation with your audience. They are not, by themselves, the conversation.
They are only a tool that takes the conversation that you are already having, and shares it with those who sign up.
Why send newsletters?
Generally, email newsletters let you keep in touch with people, to be part of a community, and to build relationships.
For you personally, there may be some more specific reasons or goals that you may have in creating a newsletter. Some of those could be
You want people to know about you
You want to receive feedback
You want to sell your product
You want to keep in touch
You want to share the progress of your creations
You want to tell a story
You want to stay relevant with your customers
The upsides of newsletters
The cost of producing an email newsletter is nothing compared to the printed versions
They allow you to communicate a consistent message to many people at once
They let people opt-in to hearing from you by signing up without your intervention
They give you control of your communications with those who want to receive them, and don't leave you dependent on social media algorithms to reach your audience
They allow your super fans to receive more and deeper information
The content isn’t curated, it comes to you directly from the creator - The content can be highly specialized for a group of devoted and engaged subscribers
The downsides of newsletters
The content isn’t curated, there is no gatekeeper - Because of the low cost, anyone can send one and the content isn’t always what you may be looking for
The content may not be the same quality
For anyone creating a newsletter, you have to actually create a newsletter
Grow your newsletter
The best way to grow a newsletter is to provide value to your audience. Create a newsletter that people look forward to.
Keep your reader’s experience in mind, and focus on what’s in it for them.
Your newsletter could provide a deal that doesn’t exist anywhere else, a first view into new information, or a bit of wisdom.
Two popular ways to measure growth in newsletters are number of subscribers and subscriber engagement.
As you are building your newsletter, keep in mind that the number of people who are subscribed to your newsletter does not mean anything about you or your newsletter. In fact, depending on why you are sending a newsletter, you will probably have different goals for the size of your subscriber list.
If you are only sending a newsletter to family, you would not expect to have a large list of recipients. On the other hand, if your goal with your newsletter is to sell products, you might want to have as many active people as possible receiving your emails.
You could grow your subscriber list by asking
Friends and family
Existing customers
New customers
Peers
Social groups
Social media
Networking groups
Religious organizations
Advertising your newsletter
News organizations
A quick word of caution. While it can be exciting (and possibly validating) to have people sign up for your newsletter, please be sure to only send emails to people who have given their affirmative consent. Adding strangers to your list who didn’t opt-in could violate the terms of use of your newsletter service. It would be the equivalent of an unsolicited phone call. In other words, don’t be spammy, nobody likes that.
Subscriber engagement
Another way of viewing growth in a newsletter is by measuring subscriber engagement. At its simplest level, this is looking at how many people open any given newsletter, the newsletter’s open rate. But, this could be measured in many different ways, by looking at the number of links clicked, the number of purchases made, or the number of unsubscribes a newsletter has.
Often, a simple way of increasing subscriber engagement is to have a call to action.
This is no more than an ask of your audience. It might be an ask to click a link, to buy something, or it could even be a question that you pose asking the reader to reply to your email. Usually there is a single call to action in a newsletter, and the action should be clear to the reader. Keep it simple.
Newsletter services
If you wanted, you could send an email to a bunch of people. If you had them all on “copy”, you would share everyone’s email with each other. Some of your readers won’t like you sharing their email address with strangers, so be sure to use the “blind copy” field instead. Or, use a newsletter service.
Unlike using your email provider, you don’t have to manage the list of subscribers, as people are added and removed from your list. A service will save you time and hassle in the long run. A few popular services include
Mailchimp
Constant Contact
Klaviyo
Squarespace
Square (squareup)
GoDaddy
Many, many others
I use mailchimp.com because they are free to start using (with some restrictions), and they have helpfully written self service guides and tutorials on their website.
Commercial email regulations
I am not a lawyer. This is not legal advice. This is only my own experience. Please do your own research and seek legal advice from a qualified professional to learn what laws may apply to you.
Each country has their own email regulations. The U.S. CAN-SPAM Act is a U.S. law that sets rules for commercial and marketing emails. You could be fined if you don’t follow these rules. You can learn more at ftc.gov. The European Union has the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which may apply to you if you have customers in the E.U.
It is your responsibility to know and understand the laws that apply to you.
Content creation
Most people struggle with content creation.
It becomes the biggest reason that people stop sending out their newsletter.
If you know the reasons behind what stops content creation, you can take steps to prevent it. If your issue is a lack of time, you might need to organize your schedule to give yourself a window of time to sit down and create the content. If your issue is a lack of will, then perhaps you need to ask someone else to create the content for you. There are countless freelancers that will create content for you for a fee.
Of course, you may struggle with a different reason. If you do, try and keep an open mind to a solution that works for you.
Provide value
It’s easy to think that the things that we find interesting are the things others find interesting. This is usually not the case.
Keep your audience in mind when creating your content, and provide value wherever you can.
One sign that what you are doing is working is when your subscribers start sharing your newsletter with their friends, and you start seeing strangers subscribe to your newsletter. Treat your audience right by providing value, and they’ll help share your newsletter.
Unsubscribes
Inevitably, you will have people unsubscribe. Don’t be discouraged, and certainly, don’t take it personally.
Each person who is opting out of your list is helping you retain a group of people who like what you are sending.
Continue to create and share what is important to you (while providing value!), and you will find people who want to hear what you have to say. And, don’t be afraid to ask your subscribers for feedback.
Homework
Here are a few questions to help you craft your newsletter. It will help you get started, and help keep you on track once you are up and running.
Subscribe to some newsletters in your field to answer
How do they provide value?
What do they do well?
What are they missing?
Ask yourself what you do well, and how you can incorporate it into your newsletter (and your business). What is your comparative advantage? What is the thing that you can do in your sleep better than 90% of the people out there?
What are your goals with the newsletter? What are you trying to share?
How can you take what you do well (#2), and use it to achieve your newsletter goals (#3)?
How often will you send it out?
What calls to action will you include? (Remember, each newsletter ideally has only one call to action.)
Share some of your favorite newsletters in the comments below. (See what I did there? A call to action can be really simple.)
Final thoughts
A newsletter is only a tool that helps you communicate. The important part here is that you are in conversation with those around you.
Don’t worry about writing too much, or too little. Don’t worry about sending a newsletter too often or too infrequently. Do what works for you, be yourself, and focus on the value you bring to your audience.
Please feel free to check out northfornow.com/newsletter to see how we do newsletters.
And, if you’d like some help setting up an email newsletter, or just want someone to take care of it for you, we’d be happy to help.