Think about it. What makes you want to open an email newsletter?

While ChatGPT and AI are stealing all the headlines, we're in the middle of a golden age for two quite old technologies. Podcasting. And Email.

I'm not talking about the emails that you're sending your boss to tell them you (cough cough)?have COVID for the third time this month.

I'm talking about email newsletters.

Let's go!

Why are we all loving newsletters right now, anyway?

During the “Great Reset” of 2020-2022, a lot of things changed. We watched more Netflix. We listened to more podcasts. We definitely watched a whole lot more TikTok. And we subscribed to a LOT of newsletters.

And we did something that was unexpected.

We opened and read them.

And the main reason for this was because newsletters started to get really good. And I mean, so good, that some of us even pay for them. In the same way that we used to pay for newspapers.

But newsletters have been around as long as email. I remember getting updates from all kinds of companies in the 90s. I lost interest within a couple of editions. But that's because all those newsletters were much the same as each other.

1. A dull, formal message from an executive
2. A bunch of departmental reports that no one asked to see
3. A new product that I really should consider buying
4. A link to a website to buy other products

This new crop of newsletters are different.

They're even pretty cool.

When it's relevant, it's premium. And when it's premium, we want it.

Early in the days of the internet, we honestly had no idea what people wanted. Because we'd never really asked them. We would create a product or service. We'd put our ads in the Yellow Pages and we'd wait for the money to come.

But when the internet happened, we thought, “We can tell people what we do EVERY SINGLE DAY and just keep telling them through EMAIL.”

And we basically created SPAM. Useless, unsolicited, uninteresting emails that make up nearly 90% of all email sent on the internet today.

Before we got Gmail, SPAM was unbearable. We couldn't stop it.?

But in 2020, we seemed to finally get email newsletters right.

Subscriptions to newsletters like Morning Brew, Marketing Brew, The Daily Upside, 1440 and The GIST have hit their millions.

I'm serious. These emails have millions of subscribers who CHOOSE to get these emails in their inboxes.

Why?

Because the content in them is highly relevant to those who subscribe to them.?

When someone finds something relevant, they immediately think it's more premium. And we all want premium things.

So what do these emails have in common?

1. They focus on delivering one thing to their readers every time
2. They don't try to appeal to everyone. They know that will fail
3. They don't require you to click links to get to the good stuff
4. They get to the point quickly

I was late to the game. But also just in time for the peak.

It was Saturday May 7, 2022 when I put out my first?Saturday Sprint?newsletter to my collection of around 150 email addresses.

And I had very little idea what I was doing.

I had been reading the?Saturday Soloprenuer?email from Justin Welsh for a few months and it was my favourite read each week. I saw that he, at the time, had around 22,000 people getting his email each week.

I mean, the content was exactly the stuff I liked reading. But was it so good that 22,000 would read it? Apparently so.

Little did I realise that 36 emails later, I'd be sending out?10,700?emails on a Saturday morning. What the actual, F.

Now if I'm being honest, I have stumbled and fumbled all over the place with this newsletter. Yet even when I took two weeks off over Christmas and News Year, I gained another 200 subscribers. Crazy huh?

So when I tell you that I had no real plan and no real goal for this newsletter, it's probably going to sound inauthentic. I mean, I've faithfully pushed out newsletters now for 36 weeks. That requires commitment.

And you're right. It's not the easiest thing to do each week.

But I really only did it because I thought that Justin Welsh was cool and I wanted to be just like him.

So how in the heck did I get 10,700 subscribers?

1. I plugged my newsletter on LinkedIn and Facebook to my few followers there.
2. I added email addresses from people who emailed me during the year
3. I did a LOT of workshops and webinars that drew more people in
4. I had a few LinkedIn posts that went to a lot of people
5. I stayed on-topic with the subjects I am known for
6. I didn't just share facts, I told stories
7. I ask my subscribers to share my newsletter with others

There's no magical formula there. You could try the exact same thing and get nowhere. Or you could open a newsletter on Sunday and have thousands of people getting it by the end of February.

Half the reason why people succeed online has nothing to do with their talent and a lot to do with being in the right place at the right time with the right words.

That said, there are a few things that I feel really helped my list along.

1. I answer every person who replies to my newsletter. It's usually around 10 emails, but sometimes, I'll get up to 50. Answering them all is important to me
2. I answer every comment that is left on my LinkedIn and Facebook posts. I'm strict about that. While I have around 5,200 followers, I can manage it.
3. I lead with stuff that I think you might want to know. I leave the promotional stuff to the end.
4. I never ask anyone to buy anything from me in my newsletter. We're not close enough for that yet. People approach me when it's the right time for that.

What should you do if you want to start your own newsletter?

For the love of all that's holy, please don't treat your newsletter as a newsletter.

Treat it as a way of sharing all that juicy stuff that's in your big brain in as friendly and approachable way as possible.

I'm not expecting you to write like you're Oscar Wilde. But you need to bring a bit of yourself into it. And while I know that's tough for some of you because you don't like being the star of the show, you don't want to be another boring executive delivering scripted lines about the performance of their company over the last quarter.

If it helps, choose one topic that you love talking about. You don't have to write a novel. Just a couple of hundred words will do. But they'll be your words, generated by the juicy stuff inside your big brain. And it'll be stuff that the rest of us don't know yet. And we're going to love it.

It doesn't have to be 10,700 of us to make it worth your while. It just has to be a few. After all, it's only a few clients that you need to attract to make a huge difference to your business.

That's all for this weekend. Just one short read on what to think about as you're starting to consider writing your own newsletter.

If you're not getting value out of these tips, please consider unsubscribing.

I won't mind and there are no hard feelings.

Alternatively, if you are enjoying this newsletter, the best compliment you could pay me would be to?share it with one person?who you think would benefit from it.

P.S. When you're ready, here's a few ways I can help out.

While you're thinking about email newsletters, there's a bunch of laws that relate to how you treat emails you're sending, and what you're doing with customer data. I've summarised the whole Privacy Act, Australian Privacy Principles and Spam Act into an easy-to-follow video over at YouTube.

Watch it here

I recently did a very popular workshop on ChatGPT and how small business owners can use it to save time on content creation and generating ideas for marketing, products and social media. You can watch it on YouTube?here, but if you are better at live presentations where you can ask questions, then book my next one below.

Watch it here

Writing is hard for some of us. My?free?5 Types of Writing mini-course is delivered via email over 5 weeks and will show you five great ways to write much better social media and digital content. It's free for now, but will cost $19 from March. So grab it now before it's updated and priced-up.

Start the course here