Thinking Of Pausing? You’re Not Alone
Emily Atkin, author of the climate crisis newsletter Heated, is taking a hiatus.
Why?
She needs time and space to “rebuild her foundation.”
If you’ve ever felt the symptoms of newsletter burnout, check out her story.
Ann Handley’s Proven Strategies For Growth
“Ann Handley thinks differently about newsletter strategy than most.”
It’s this “different thinking” that has helped propel her newsletter to 42,000 subscribers. This Campaign Monitor article breaks down just how she did it.
Psst: If you want to check out the many times we’ve included her tips and advice in Opt In Weekly, you can find them here.
Newsletter Insights From A Newsletter Expert
In case you’re new here or haven’t caught on yet, I’m a big fan of Dan Oshinsky’s “Not a Newsletter.” This month he addresses:
Check out the full issue (it’s a Google Doc, not a newsletter 😉) here.
Normalizing Smaller Engagement Numbers
How concerned are you with building a large subscriber list? In this issue of the Rebooting, Brian Morrissey explains why creators need to be okay with smaller numbers and what he calls “primary engagement media.”
Lessons In Attracting Your Best Audience
There’s no getting around it—attracting the best audience for you/your brand is critical. In this issue of Emergent Marketing Newsletter (EMT), André Chaperon & Shawn Twing share what they’ve learned about audiences through mistakes made and lessons learned.
Here’s a taste:
“It’s our job as modern marketers to find the signal in the noise and parse out groups of people who most likely represent worldviews that match our best audience profile.”
“People who desperately need and want what we have, have the means to pay for it and at a volume that’s viable for long-term growth.”
I’ll echo the question they leave their readers with: who do you seek to serve?
Check out the full issue here. I promise it’s worth the read.
Are you a slow writer? Have you just accepted this as your fate? The Publication Coach is offering an alternative by sharing a process for writing faster. Check it out here.
Discovered via For the Interested.
Good VS Bad Reasons To Start A Newsletter
Why do you have a newsletter? Mrigaa Sethi shares some bad reasons for starting a newsletter followed by six good ones in this LinkedIn post.
Idea: Create An Infographic Newsletter
So I’m not sure if this podcast has been promoted yet (0 YouTube views as of Wednesday night), but I have an automation set up to collect links that match the key phrase “curated newsletter” anytime a new YouTube video meets that search term to Opt In Weekly... and, voila, a new episode of 7 Figure Small was waiting for me: Jim MacLeod’s Unique Strategy for Differentiating His Curated Newsletter.
Each issue of MacLeod’s newsletter, Marketing Podcast Recap, delivers a custom-designed infographic based on an episode of a Q&A-style marketing podcast.
They’re all unique, and a wonderful approach you might consider if you’ve got the design chops to create great infographics.
Ann Handley Shares Lessons From Her “Best-Performing” Newsletters
In her recent Valentine’s issue of Total Annarchy, Ann Handley shared some excellent advice for newsletter creators, including an analysis of nominees for the “best” of her newsletters in categories including:
Plus, she asks, “What lessons can we learn from these?” and shares some findings:
What can you learn from your “best” newsletter issues?
P.S. I personally contributed to her OWBR on this issue and let her know how much I loved it... to which she responded, “I literally thought of you with the rhyme ‘newsletter’ & ‘knew better.’” ...so I’m feeling incredibly special this week.
Good Newsletters Require Effort
Just ask Phil Adams, who wrote this article about getting started for Mailjet. It’s fairly candid about how much effort it takes to build a successful newsletter. Plus, he provides some lists (towards the end) of content ideas for different types of newsletters.
My only qualm is his advice that you or your team likely has plenty of content worth sharing just sitting around.
“So, when it comes to brainstorming your next newsletter, the email content should be there, ready to go. Leaving you more time to focus on creating eye-catching subject lines and sculpting beautiful newsletter designs.”
Hmmm.... not really. Unless the newsletter audience you hope to attract is crazy interested in what’s going on at your company. I’d adjust this bit to encourage newsletter creators to seek out topics their audience actually cares about and to strategize content they can’t find elsewhere. This could easily be confused for “Just share what’s important to you and people will read it.” And we all know that’s not always true.
Discovered via Really Good Emails.
