January 22, 2023
There's no denying the power of email marketing. A study conducted by Litmus on the ROI of email marketing found that with every dollar spent, $36 dollars of ROI was generated in the software and tech niches.
With no shortage of business ideas, it can be difficult to select the right newsletter platform given the myriad of options. On top of that, you have to make decisions on design, gathering content, and finally list building.
With the help of these expert tips, you can create a newsletter that will not only be beneficial to your business but enjoyable to read (and fun to produce).
We'll start right with the design of the newsletter. You may already have a brand guideline that you can follow, but if you're starting from scratch we recommend checking Mailerlite's email newsletter gallery for inspiration.
To make an impactful newsletter, just follow these quick guidelines below. Just include the ones that make sense for your brand and style.
Depending on the type of curator you are, we have a recommendation for an email newsletter platform suited to your needs.
Beehiv is a newsletter platform built for growth. They provide a variety of features to help their subscribers quickly reach their audience.
Some notable features include
If you're looking for an all-in-one solution and you currently run an extensive tech stack, Beehiv may be the right choice for you.
Goodbits has always been about speed without all the bells and whistles.
The platform was created so that non-coders and non-designers could quickly gather articles while searching the web to curate for their audience.
Simply use a third-party tool like Pocket to gather your links, then come back to your editor and drag and drop your backlog of links into the newsletter issue of your choice and you're done.
With integrations with leading email service providers like Mailchimp and Active Campaign, Goodbits will have your newsletter ready in minutes.
This is the Ferrari of media platforms. If you're looking to build a business on top of your newsletter, this may be your ideal choice.
Ghost features include
With your design and platforms selected, it's time to focus on curating and formatting the content for your newsletter.
Since you'll be spending the majority of the time doing this going forward, it's important to put together a process that is repeatable and potentially transferrable if you are going to outsource the work in the future.
Here are some writing tips for any newsletter niche.
Content writing is a lifelong skill and the tips mentioned above just scratch the surface. Keep improving your writing with each newsletter issue.
If you're having a difficult time coming up with fresh content ideas, there are also several ways to collect content as you are going about your day. The tool we suggest is Pocket when it comes to saving links around the web.
This tool allows you to save your URLs and add tags to organize them later. Pocket is available on most platforms and on mobile so it can follow you wherever you go.
Your email is ready, and you've got some fantastic content to share with your audience, but what if you have no audience?
List building goes hand in hand with content curation in terms of where you should be spending your effort.
Here are some list-building tips to get you started:
When done right, this strategy can lead to long-term partnerships. To get started, make a list of partners you'd like to work with. These are brands that really align with your goal for the newsletter.
Next, take a look at their offering and write a section in your newsletter about their product or service. Make sure you track the link clicks from within your newsletter.
Repeat this regularly throughout your subsequent newsletter.
Let them know you've mentioned them in the newsletter and send them a screenshot. You can contact them with their most active platform (Twitter, Email, Facebook).
In many instances, they will share your content, since it’s promoting them anyhow. This will slowly grow your following if you're starting from scratch.
Next, go to another brand and let them know that the first few brands you've been putting in your newsletter have benefitted from your newsletter, and include those screenshots of your analytics.
Keep repeating the steps above until you get a paid client sponsorship or some other collaboration deal.
Most brands want to collaborate, they just need to know it's worth their time, so if you can craft a win-win scenario, it will be easier to find alignment.
This goes without saying, but if you already have a sizable following, you should let them know you're starting a newsletter so they have a chance to sign up or at least check out what you have going on.
These days this likely includes promoting on social media. Take some time to check out what platform your audience is actually using before you pour all the hours to create content for them.
If your newsletter is backed by a service or a business you can give your readers incentives for signing up. Perhaps it's a 10% coupon for an eCommerce store or something free for a limited time.
You could also offer a free + shipping offer where the shipping actually covers your expenses as a business owner.
Once you have some traction and can see regular growth month over month, you can start thinking about automation and growth.
Most modern email marketing software now comes with automation built right in. These options vary by platform, but most of them are on a trigger system.
For instance, if you have visitors coming in from a specific web page that is built as a sales funnel, you could automate it such that you only send only the audience segment-specific issues of your newsletter.
If you really want to squeeze every ounce of conversion out of your newsletter you can also start A/B testing various subject lines.
Some platforms like Beehiv will have this feature built right in. This is particularly powerful if you are a master copywriter or know how to use AI copywriting tools really well.
When it comes to creating newsletters, there’s no magic to it. It’s all about getting set up with the right platform and quickly deciding on a design.
From that point on, content curation and list building should take up the bulk of your daily to day tasks.
Finally once you have traction, continue to slowly grow your audience and leverage your analytics to make incremental improvements.
Before you know it, you’ll have a newsletter with subscribers waiting to read your next issue.
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