6 Tips to Rock a Newsletter for Your Business
Howdy, Babes! I hope you’re having a wonderful week. We’ve been talking about goals this month since it’s a new year and we have the chance to implement some new things for our businesses. Many of us have marketing goals, including starting a newsletter. Newsletters are amazing because your subscribers have already opted in to receive messages from you & you can get information to them in a much different way than social media.
As Jenna Kutcher has reminded us, we are just leasing space on Instagram and Facebook— we don’t have as much access to those followers as we’d like to think. So having a newsletter is important because you have complete access to the list you build and you can keep your subscribers updated & pitch them on new products that they would enjoy. This will especially be important around the holidays and even at slower times to drum up sales. You can decide how often you want to email your subscribers, just make sure you share some information that they can’t get just by following you on Facebook. I’m sure at this point your excitement is quickly being replaced with feelings of doubt because adding a newsletter to your list, even if it’s once a month, is more time that you simply don’t have. I hear you! Stick with me.
I was recently having a conversation with two of our Babe Crafted members, Ann Cox & Ashlee Hamon, about their marketing goals for 2018. Ashlee mentioned that she’s been trying to get a newsletter off the ground for her brand for quite a while and finding the time to do some research and get it going has been impossible. I was inspired by this conversation because I can totally relate to that feeling of knowing that I need something, but it never making it to the top of my list because my list is already overflowing onto the floor and out onto my driveway…… But! Something we can do to help is to share some email service options you can try and some tips for getting you started so that you don’t have to worry about the extra time it takes to research and choose a service— you can just get to sending a newsletter to your customers and get more bookings, sell more products, & keep in touch with those that love your work.
Happy mailing & stay boss. xx
-G
You after finally starting that newsletter! Get that dirt off your shoulders, Boss Babe.
Step 1. Pick a service. Are you a total newbie to e-newsletters? Say no more! Try Mail Chimp or Mad Mimi for free as you build your audience and find your newsletter voice.
Step 2. Build your audience. “Collect email at every opportunity,” says Amy Marshall from Strands of Sunshine. “Craft shows, in your brick & mortar shop, a widget on your facebook page, and a pop up or widget on your website… make it easy to sign up. At shows or special events we even offer a giveaway to one lucky new subscriber to encourage more people to sign up.” Amy is so right! Add the emails of your current clients and friends who you know will support your work first. Next, add a newsletter signup form to your About or Contact page (keep the sign up form short & sweet). Then, once you've established a base audience, you can grow your audience with giveaways in exchange for folks signing up (feel free to use a form service like to track giveaways entries-- it's free for a basic account!) and make sure to always bring a clipboard for newsletter signups with you to events you're hosting or participating in. Import those emails & names into your newsletter service and BAM! You're ready for step 3. However, whether you're talking to 16 people or 600 people, make each newsletter count.
Step 3. Develop your formula. Our formula is an inspirational quote (that's relevant to that week's topic), photo, body paragraph on a different topic each week, links to that week's blog posts, a list of our upcoming events, and a fun gif. We change up the formula as needed, but having this go-to format definitely prevents us from spending all day on each newsletter (see what we mean by signing up for our weekly newsletter on our About Page). You can have a shorter formula-- don't fret! Do what works best for you & your business-- what matters is that you communicate something relevant to your audience.
Step 4. Decide on frequency. How often can you reasonably commit to sending these babies out? Weekly? Monthly? Be honest with yourself!
Step 5. Stick to what's important. "Be consistent, plan ahead, keep it short and to the point, remember that visuals are key, & write from the heart," says Tona Bell of The Paper Seahorse.
Step 6. Celebrate! Awesome folks are opening & reading your newsletters. Emails have a much higher conversion rate than social media platforms AND you get to nurture a unique relationship with your audience. So much winning. ;)
Do you have other questions about starting a newsletter? Do you have an awesome newsletter already & want to share some tips? Drop us a comment or hit us up on Facebook or Instagram.
