Newsletters are a powerful way to connect with your audience, showcase your expertise, and grow your brand in the creator economy. But how can you write engaging newsletters for different platforms, such as email, social media, or blogs? Here are some tips to help you craft newsletters that resonate with your readers and drive action.
Before you start writing, you need to have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your newsletter. Do you want to inform, educate, entertain, or persuade your readers? Do you want to share your insights, stories, or recommendations? Do you want to promote your products, services, or events? Your purpose will guide your tone, content, and format of your newsletter, as well as the platform you choose to distribute it.
You need to ask yourself why you are starting a newsletter. What are you looking to get out of it? Is it sales, brand awareness, keep people engaged until they’re ready to buy? Once you have that, it will be much easier to start developing content that works towards your goal. But you really need to nail that goal before doing anything else.
Your newsletter should be tailored to the needs, interests, and preferences of your target audience. You need to understand who they are, what they care about, and how they consume content. You can use surveys, feedback, analytics, or social media to learn more about your audience and create reader personas. This will help you write newsletters that are relevant, valuable, and engaging for them.
Knowing who has signed up for your newsletter is incredibly important to know in order to develop the right content for them. You should develop a list of source codes (bits of code that go at the end of your newsletter sign up URL) that are specific to each channel you promote your newsletter. This allows you to know which content convinced them to sign up. This information is crucial to the success of your newsletter.
Different platforms have different strengths, limitations, and best practices for newsletter writing. For example, email newsletters can be more personal, intimate, and direct, but they also need to stand out in a crowded inbox and avoid spam filters. Social media newsletters can be more visual, interactive, and viral, but they also need to adapt to the algorithms and formats of each network. Blog newsletters can be more in-depth, SEO-friendly, and evergreen, but they also need to attract and retain visitors on your website. You need to know the features, benefits, and challenges of each platform and choose the one that suits your purpose and audience best.
I launched our public health opportunities newsletter via email in 2019, and have published it every week since then. I have found that email has been the best to communicate with our audience. Weekly we share opportunities that benefit them. When we have questions about new services and products, we can depend on our subscribers to give us direct feedback (no need to fight the algorithm). We've launched all of our products by first asking our community. If they tell us YES DO IT. We do it. Email by far has been the best way to communicate with our audience, followed by LinkedIn posts (through my personal page). We are experimenting with LinkedIn Newsletter and will have more to share soon.
Your headline is the first thing that your readers will see, and it will determine whether they open, click, or scroll past your newsletter. You need to write a headline that is clear, concise, and compelling. It should capture the main idea, benefit, or value proposition of your newsletter and spark curiosity, interest, or emotion in your readers. You can use questions, numbers, keywords, or power words to make your headline more effective.
The worst thing you can do for the success of your newsletter is put “newsletter” in the subject line. You need to put in something intriguing that people will read when they open the email. Lead with the most important content in the newsletter and your open rates will be strong.
Your introduction is the second thing that your readers will see, and it will determine whether they continue reading or bounce off your newsletter. You need to write an introduction that is brief, relevant, and engaging. It should hook your readers with a strong opening sentence, provide some context or background information, and preview what you will cover in the rest of your newsletter. You can use anecdotes, stories, statistics, or quotes to make your introduction more appealing.
The lead of your email is the most important section. Here you need to convey quickly why people should keep reading. Attention spans are very short, so you need to develop concise content that gives the reader a sense of what’s next and make them want to keep reading.
Your body is the main part of your newsletter, where you deliver your message, information, or value to your readers. You need to write a body that is clear, coherent, and consistent. It should follow a logical structure, use headings and subheadings, break down complex ideas into simple paragraphs, and use transitions and connectors. You can use bullet points, lists, images, or charts to make your body more readable and scannable.
Being a concise writer is hugely important to keeping your audience engaged. Keep the sections short and to the point. Don’t use flowery language that drags out selves/paragraphs. People have limited time. Get them the info you promised them as quickly as possible.