Your Writing Bestie

If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably considering starting a newsletter. Chances are you get a ton of newsletters in your inbox and figure out if everyone else is doing it; you can, too. 

There’s a reason why you’re getting a ton of emails. According to a Litmus survey, the return on investment (ROI) for email marketing is high. As a matter of fact, for every $1 spent on email marketing, you can make $36. Email marketing may provide a high ROI because you can connect with and nurture your audience and send sales emails.

Many small business owners opt to create a consistent newsletter that they send out periodically. However, suppose you’re starting out or feel you’re not connecting with your audience with your existing newsletter. In that case, you probably feel stuck and wonder how to write a good newsletter.

As someone who designs and sends several newsletters per month for my business and my client’s businesses, I know a thing or two about newsletters, and I’m ready to share.

Write Down Your Goals

Before you do anything in your business, ensure you have a clear goal for doing it and measuring its success. Creating a newsletter is no exception.

Here are some reasons you may want to create a newsletter:

• Cultivating trust
• Increase sales
• Increase traffic to your blog
• Establish yourself as an expert

Now, it’s time to create SMART goals.

SMART is an acronym for:

• Specific
•  Measurable
•  Achievable
•  Relevant
•  Time-Bound

Here is an example of a SMART goal: I want to increase traffic to my blog by 30% in 6 months using my monthly newsletter.

This goal is specific because it shows exactly what you want, a 30% increase in traffic.

It’s measurable because you can track blog traffic and the source of that traffic.

For this to be achievable, of course, you need subscribers and a blog. You also need to promote your blogs to your subscribers.

This is relevant because you want to drive more traffic to your website to improve your SEO efforts (by getting eyes on your quality and potentially getting backlinks) and generating leads.

Finally, it’s time-bound because we said “6 months”. Use any amount of time that makes sense for your business.

Create a Budget

You can start a newsletter your audience will love for exactly $0.00.

However, you could also opt to invest money into creating your newsletter.

For example, if you’re super busy or absolutely hate writing, you could hire a writer (pick me) to write your newsletters. Hiring a writer can cost you a couple hundred dollars or less, depending on your needs.

You may decide to pay for an email marketing platform; more on this in the next section. Many platforms have free plans, but they also have paid plans with more features. Even if you don’t opt to pay now, you may feel the need to do so later.

For example, I used Convert Kit’s free tier for a while. However, I was allowed to join their Creator Network. Joining that program requires me to upgrade to their Creator Plan, and I’m glad I did.

The Creator Network allows other creators to recommend my newsletter to others, and I can do the same. My email subscribers have been rising steadily ever since. I love that I can create beneficial automation like my welcome sequences.

On the other hand, I also use LinkedIn’s free newsletter option.

The amount of money you spend really depends on what you want.

As you think about your newsletter and how it will help you accomplish your goals, write down how much you’re willing to invest in the short and long term. 

Research Email Marketing Platforms

There are many email marketing platforms, and the one you choose depends on your goal and your budget.

Over the years, I’ve checked out and signed up for several newsletter platforms, and here are some of their pros and cons.

Newsletter Platform	Free Plan	Pros	Cons
Convert Kit	Yes, up to 1000 subscribers	*Easy to use. *Creator Network feature can increase subscribers.	*Monetization isn’t available to all countries. *Can be costly.
Mail Chimp	Yes	*Easy to use. *Tons of integration options.	*Can’t schedule an email on the free plan. *Limited options for free templates.
Beehiiv	Yes	* Recommendation network available. *Made for newsletters.	*Reasonable pricing structure *Limited monetization on free plan.
LinkedIn	Yes	*You don’t pay per subscriber. * Scheduling available.	*No automation available. *No access to email addresses to carry over to another platform.

Ask Your Audience

If you want your audience to love your newsletter, you must create one they will love.

You do that by asking your audience what they want in a newsletter.

Sure, you could post on your social media platform, “Hey, I’m creating a newsletter, what do you want to see in it?”

However, there are other ways to find out what your audience wants:

• Set up interviews where you speak to members of your target audience.
•  Check out forums such as Reddit or Quora to see what your target audience is talking about.

Peek At Your Competitor

You should check out the newsletters that your competitor is sending out.

Check out their:

• Newsletter sign-up strategies
• Content to see what they’re writing about
• Strengths and weaknesses
• Frequency, i.e., how often they send it out

You definitely want to avoid copying your competitor. Instead, look at ways you can make yours different and what aspects of theirs you can improve.

For example, when creating my newsletter, Freelance Writing Stories, my research revealed that other freelance writers included expert interviews in theirs.

That was a great idea. I decided to spotlight relatable freelance writers from all over the world.

Create an Outline

This is absolutely my favorite part.

While your newsletter outline can change over time, coming up with a basic outline can save you so much time and energy when you sit down to write it each time.

In your outline, create headings and if you think it will help you, write a sentence or two to remind yourself what you’ll write under them.

Then, you can save it as a template.

Your Writing Bestie Newsletter has a very simple outline:

• Header image
• Chit chat (not written as a heading but this is where I update my subscribers on what I’ve been up to)
• Writing tips
• SEO tips
• Resources

That’s it!

However, I have designed newsletters with many more sections.

Your newsletter outline depends on the goal of your newsletter.

For example, for one of my clients, getting sales and traffic are major goals of her newsletter. Therefore I include:

• Images, links and copy to digital products, workshops, masterclasses and other opportunities
• Images, links and copy to podcast episodes and blog posts.

By the way, if designing is not your forte, email marketing platforms usually have templates for you to choose from. Just be sure to customize it to make it your own by adding brand colors, swapping out the pictures and of course, using your own content.

Set a Schedule

Many entrepreneurs and small business owners often start newsletters and stop them soon after.

If you want your newsletter to help you achieve your content marketing goals, consistency is key.

One of the best ways to stay consistent is to set a schedule and stick to it.

If you promise to send out your newsletter weekly, then do that. It will help you build trust with your subscribers.

I send out my newsletters once per month.

I also create a content calendar so I know what I’ll discuss each month.

This has saved me so much writing time, and I recommend planning your newsletters for the year.

However, you may forget to send a newsletter because life got in the way.

Your subscribers will forgive you. You can either let them know beforehand that you won’t be able to send out a newsletter or let them know in your following newsletter that you missed a newsletter date, but you’re back and ready to serve them again.

You may also have to adjust your schedule. If weekly newsletters aren’t possible for you, try biweekly or monthly. Communicate this to your subscribers.

Send

It’s time to send after you’ve poured all your blood, sweat, and tears into your newsletter.

If you’re new to newsletters, it can be scary.

I recommend reading the newsletter for errors and reading it aloud to be extra cautious.

Once you’ve realized your newsletter is good to go, wave goodbye and send it on its way.

You did it!

You’re now one step closer to achieving your content marketing goals.

Need Help Writing Your Newsletter?

If you’re not confident that you’ll be able to consistently deliver quality newsletters to your audience, you’re not alone.

I’ve helped small business owners design and publish newsletters to thousands of subscribers, so I am excited to take this task off your plate.

If you already have a newsletter but need help achieving your content marketing goals, I can help you with that too.