Issue 7 | What You Should Include In A Regular (Email) Newsletter

It's good to see you again and glad you are here. Welcome to February

I made a video for you to start this edition...watch below.

In this issue it's what to include in your newsletter.

It could be via LinkedIn or a regular email you want to send to subscribers. I have built everything around the You Are The Mdia email newsletter (join here ), that is my focus.

I have also made a tutorial for you on how to find your first 10 loyal subscribers, you don't need to leave your email to access. Hopefully a useful 15 minutes today (watch the video here ).

You Are The Media ?is about how you build a loyal audience and nurture a community so you can monetise, grow, be happy so you become the person that others trust and turn to.

OTHERS PRODUCING GREAT NEWSLETTERS TO CHECK OUT (& WHO ARE FREQUENTLY SHOWING UP)...

There are many great people making their stand and producing work that is audience-focused.

Have a look at these?LinkedIn Newsletters?that keep on giving that I really enjoy...

?? Trevor Young's The PR Warrior Report focuses on the reputation you build. His latest newsletter (published 31st January) is fantastic subscribe here .

?? Trisha Lewis' Trisha's Unsquashers delves into having the confidence to stand up and be counted. You'll love it so subscribe here .

Following a plan of action for your email newsletter saves you time to have a clear structure you can return to time and again.

Having the opportunity of regularly relaying your message directly to the people who want to hear from you (your subscribers) comes with a real sense of responsibility. It’s also a means by which you can produce content that has your personality and what you stand for running through it and that conveys your authority in the marketplace you operate in.?

To succeed, both you and your readers have to look forward to it. For you, it’s vital that creation and distribution, as well as promotion of your newsletter, becomes an integral part of your working week or month. For your subscribers, it can become an established and looked-forward to pause in their routine.

The weekly You Are The Media newsletter (join us here ) has been part of my routine for nearly nine years and I’d like to share what I see as my ‘non-negotiables’ for making this happen. By that I mean the must-haves for an email newsletter in terms of construction, presentation and encouraging subscriber loyalty.

This article is for you if you’re about to start your email newsletter crusade or want to resurrect a newsletter that perhaps has lost its way. For the record, I use Mailchimp, I don’t think it’s brilliant in every area but it’s served its purpose over the years.?

A Good Place To Start

If you’re producing work (written, audio, video), you have to promote it.

Pressing publish and standing back is a waste of time. Everything you create has to be promoted and amplified – it’s how people find you.

Your newsletter starts to stand out when you share items, news and information your subscribers can’t get elsewhere. You have to find ways to save some of your work for those who subscribe to you. Imagine the people who subscribe to you as a VIP audience, while those who follow you on LinkedIn are everyone else in the nightclub!

To achieve this, ensure the content you create always comes from a personal perspective and also implement tactics such as sharing subscriber-only videos or giving access to your podcast a few days ahead of general release.?

I would also always recommend you invest in design for your email newsletter. Standard templates may not be sufficient for creating the right impression. Once you have your design set in stone it becomes your calling card, something distinctive and recognisable for your audience that also helps you create within an established process.?

A Process To Come Back To Again And Again

These are the email newsletter must-haves I recommend you have in place every time you send your newsletter out into the world.

Give your email newsletter a name?(this is a super-important point).

If someone asked you to subscribe to the?‘Company Name’ Newsletter or 'Your Name' Newsletter, you probably wouldn’t, you’d probably think the content was going to be self-congratulatory or you were going to be sold to by any means necessary. However, this is exactly how I started. A big turning point for me was to create an alias (read more on creating an alias here ).

Since 2013, everything I share is from You Are The Media. It’s not something I hide behind, it’s a way of helping people feel attuned and attached to something that can help them and isn’t a heavy sales pitch (but can still, in time, create buying opportunities for your subscribers).

Summarise your email (at the very top).

This idea came from Lee Groombridge who suggested giving a quick rundown of the YATM email content at the start of the newsletter.

This means the newsletter is designed to make it as easy as possible for subscribers to get the content they want, in YATM’s case having access to the main URLs in the email without scrolling and reading the whole email. Adopting this idea took me by surprise, in its first week, click-through rates saw a marked increase.

Find a way to have fun (that’s completely unrelated to your business).?

I include a section in my email called, ‘time-wasting.’ This started in 2020 and has become a good way to see who is active and this receives the most click-throughs. It’s a segment that’s completely unrelated to the topics covered in the rest of the email and says, “let’s just find a way to detach from everything and spend some time getting lost.”

YATM’s ‘time wasting’ can be a one-minute meditation, secret doors to places around the globe, live webcams from safari parks or being hypnotised. In this way a newsletter doesn’t have to be a straight-laced B2B digest people receive. Just because it’s business, doesn’t mean it can’t be fun.

Make sure all font sizes are constant.?

This might sound elementary, but not setting your fonts to a default size and saving them can result in inconsistencies that negate all your other efforts and make you look like you’re not putting care and effort into the production.

For the YATM email, I use a 14 point, Open Sans. I use a slightly large font size just so it reads well on mobile devices. I don’t want anyone struggling to read the text. For the headers in the email, I make sure these are 18 point.

Break up the flow.?

No one wants to wade through intimidating, text-heavy paragraphs, especially on mobiles. Whilst I post my main article into the body of the text (from 1,200 to 1,500 words), I always look to break it up with imagery, graphs and gifs.

Newsletter platforms now offers the function of including gifs that don’t affect newsletter flow, from its own library. I don’t add visuals in the main copy, I always add an image in a new ‘block,’ underneath the copy to effectively act as a pause (with the added benefit that this doesn’t affect how it appears on mobiles). If you try to get people to scroll right on their mobiles to read, rather than just up and down, you’ll lose them.?

Deliver more than just text.

Your email is a way to deliver content in whatever way people prefer to consume it.

Just because it’s an email, it doesn’t mean you have to accept life in text.

Look at your email newsletter as a living, breathing space that champions your evolving creative efforts. For instance, I share a short video highlighting the main points at the end of each email.

Whilst you can’t upload video directly, I upload it to Vimeo and then include the link in the section at the bottom. I also read the main article, that is then converted to audio and the link is included. The reason I do this is that I want people to know that I am present and a part of their morning in whatever format they prefer, every single week.

Think beyond yourself, bring in the work of others.

Whilst there is an emphasis on the message you want to share, if you’re interested in building a loyal audience, why not make them feel special, giving them the opportunity to talk about themselves?

In 2020 I’ve seen so many people step up and offer help and advice. This could be advice from a financial perspective, from someone else providing the learning on a particular topic or an opportunity that’s worth sharing with everyone.

Don’t look at your email newsletter as being all about you but, as subscriber numbers build, as a community effort where you actively seek out and reward others’ contributions.

Don’t always use stock imagery.?

The danger with great resources such as?Unsplash ?is that your work can start to look the same as other people’s, with certain photos being seen many times in many guises.

I always kick the weekly email’s main article off with a visual I’ve taken. Over the years, I’ve realised the importance of just being aware of the world around you. The opening image might have been taken on holiday or even on a weekend visit to the supermarket. It’s another way of building your own library with your unique stamp on it.

Even though everyone receives the same email, it’s still personal.

An email newsletter is still a way to let people know you’re there speaking to them, one at a time. Always make sure it’s sent by you (make sure you verify your email so other inboxes know you are a good place?read how to do it here ) and take time to think about the different ways you can invite people to respond, reach out and comment.

I can always gauge which articles strike a chord by the amount of feedback I receive and I feel I would be letting them down if their comments were greeted by silence or a reply the following day. Your email newsletter can act as proof you show up for your subscribers and can be an excellent way of keeping you connected.

Send it at the same time, every time.?

Thursdays are very much You Are The Media days, and 6.30am GMT without fail, is when the email is sent.

If you are making an appointment with your audience, remember the importance of showing up at the time that’s set. It could be the last day of the month or a particular day you want to make yours. I make sure that everyone knows when it’s sent, via the subscribe page. This becomes my unwritten contract from me to every single subscriber.

Similarly, when the time comes for taking a short break, it’s important to tell everyone when you’re going to be back.

Let’s Round-Up

It’s important to remember when it comes to creating a newsletter it isn’t all about you, it’s about the people who subscribe and the audience you build. You create and curate for them.

Be mindful of the number of emails people receive day in, day out, and make sure that what you send is relevant and has earned the right to land in their inboxes.

When you have a subscriber who feels a part of a wider community, they will stay with you, year after year. Having a staunch group of supporters behind you is an empowering place for any business to be.

Come and join in with what's happening from You Are The Media. We're back next week!

Our home is the seaside in the UK, but everything is created for you to join in wherever you sit (and live) around the world.

Here is what's coming up. Be great to see you...

?? Thursday 10th February?|?YATM Online | Our topic is how to bring personality, life and humour to your work. We're heading out to the US to mee Tim Washer,?come and book here .

?? Thursday 24th March | YATM Learning | This is our creative dashboard session. It's the tools and apps others find useful. This was our most popular session of 2021, book here .

?? WATCH THIS VIDEO TUTORIAL ON HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN NEWSLETTER, NO NEED TO LEAVE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS, CLICK HERE .

I'd love to know how you are building your audience and the challenges you have? Any questions, just ask.

A Spring programme is to help you create and deliver your newsletter. It will be live training and we'll do it together.?Register your interest here .

Come and join us and be a part of the You Are The Media community.?Leave your email here ?and see you every Thursday morning (6.30am GMT) in your in-box.

I'll even send to you a little video just from me to you when you subscribe!

Take care and see you soon.... Mark : )