How’s your newsletter going? Let me guess, you don’t have enough time? Not enough subscribers? You think it’s too hard? Let me help you overcome these limiting mindsets.
My aim here is to make sure you’re not overthinking it. Here’s how to make it simple.
Firstly, Why Do You Need a Newsletter?
You need to ensure that you have a predictable newsletter service. This will:
- Get your content in front of your audience without the distraction of social media posts or search engine results getting in the way.
- Allow you to be seen as the expert and gain your audience’s trust.
- Keep you top-of-mind with prospects.
- Improve the relationship you have with current clients.
- Convert and upsell people who’ve already demonstrated interest in your brand.
You can use newsletters in a number of ways, too, which I will get to in a bit.
How to Create a Newsletter Service
As Mike Killen says:
If you knew how powerful and easy email marketing is, you’d create content every day. It’s the fastest method of nurturing leads and generating sales, on automation, that I know of.
Step 1: Start Blogging
Before you even have a newsletter, you need a reason to get in front of your email list.
Blogging is the foundation for a lot of the marketing we do. It gives us the ability to create something of high value without asking anything in return from readers. Except for their time and attention.
You may be worried that you don’t know what to write about. But think about why it is clients want to work with you in the first place — because you’re well-versed in a number of things that they aren’t, right?
Consider the kinds of questions you frequently get asked by your clients. Those make fantastic blog posts, and for a number of reasons:
- To give you something new to rank for in search.
- To give you new content to share in your newsletter.
- To give prospects or clients a link you can point them to as an answer to their question.
Don’t be afraid to think outside the box either. Every man and his dog sends out WordPress news and SEO articles, so why not something about money management? Or project management tools? Think about your audience and what you could help them with.
Bottom line: if you’re not publishing content regularly to your blog, of course, it’s going to be a struggle to create a newsletter service. So, start there.
Step 2: Choose a Newsletter Platform
There’s absolutely no reason to send newsletters from your email provider. There are a number of platforms that simplify the process of sending newsletters while also providing you with good insights into what happens after those newsletters hit your subscribers’ inboxes.
MailChimp, ActiveCampaign and Campaign Monitor are all good choices.
Step 3: Create Your Lists
There’s a big difference between what you send your top-of-the-funnel leads and bottom-of-the funnel prospects. Which is why you need to segment your email list.
Make sure that all of the email lists you plan on sending your newsletters to are warm. Since the content is promotional in nature, you run the risk of cold leads flagging your emails as SPAM. Also, it’s a good idea to fill your newsletters with content that delivers value to your readers, so that your prospects and clients don’t go doing the same!
If you’re thinking: “But I only have four subscribers!” That’s okay. You have to start somewhere! Plus, it’s probably better to start with a smaller list, so you won’t be as stressed about working out the kinks in your design and messaging.
Then, let your website help grow your email lists with higher quality leads. MailChimp, for instance, integrates seamlessly with Elementor. Although this tutorial from Troy shows you how to collect leads from a landing page, you can use the same process to set up your subscriber form:
Step 4: Design Your Newsletter
The barrier to creating a consistent and long-running newsletter service is over-complication. Often, WordPress consultants get too wrapped up in the template design, editing, researching and wondering if it is even good enough to send out.
But as Troy says:
“It’s important not to confuse refinement for perfection. Your processes will never be perfect, so don’t waste time obsessing over every little detail.”
Instead, leverage the templates and drag-and-drop interface your newsletter platform has provided you with. Design something simple that includes your branding and leaves enough space for a short, punchy email and a link to a blog post (or whatever you’re promoting in the newsletter).
Don’t forget to use a call-to-action button in your newsletter design. Campaign Monitor did a link comparison test and found that buttons outperformed text links in newsletters by 28%.
Then, save your design so you can re-use for all future newsletters.
Step 5: Create a Schedule and Start Sending Them Out
So, once you have all the pieces in order and you’re regularly putting out blogs for your website, it’s time to create a newsletter schedule. And commit to it.
Consistency of behaviour breeds trust.
If you’re nervous that you can’t consistently deliver a blog post to subscribers every week, that’s fine! Mix it up.
Curated post roundups are a good idea if you don’t have content of your own ready. Finding relevant articles to fill your newsletter with is really easy, too. Tools like Feedly as well as many social scheduling tools have this sort of functionality built-in.
Wrap-Up
In truth, there’s a lot more you can do with your newsletter service — like optimising headlines, A/B testing and creating personalised content. However, your focus right now needs to be on getting the ball rolling and establishing a routine.
If you can take this first step, it will put you in a better position with your prospects and clients almost immediately.
So, what are you waiting for? Go forth and write!
PS. Speaking of newsletters… are you signed up to our weekly newsletter – the WP Wednesday? Click here to subscribe.
