Hostage Takeover of A Newsletter

Sarah Colley - Guest Curator

Guest Speaker - Sarah Colley

Ummm... Hello...

Testing. Mic 1,2...

I know, it's a new voice. How weird, right?

I'm pretty honored to take over this week's Opt In Weekly newsletter. It's actually my first time working on a newsletter.

Wait, that's a lie. I did create a newsletter for a senior living home while I was still an intern. Several of the residents' family members had mentioned that they felt rather disconnected from the family they'd placed in the home. They couldn't see them often but wondered what they were doing.

I decided that wasn't right. Having taken care of seniors for a couple of years while I was in college, I knew the guilt family often felt placing their loved ones there. So, I created a newsletter.

Every day, the residents had fun activities like Bingo with prizes or even visits from girl scout troops. We'd take pictures, and I'd put them in the newsletter along with a rundown of their week. The response was overwhelmingly positive.

That was nearly 8 years ago.

This, what I'm doing today, is quite different.

Heck, now that I think about those starting days, I can say that my entire life is quite different. I work for myself now. Well, at least I'm my own boss. I set my own hours. I work at home. I take vacations when I want. I choose my clients.

It's by working on things like this newsletter that I get to continue doing the above. I make connections with people that are impacting the marketing world. I talk with fellow freelancers. I chat with CEOs all the time (I never thought I'd be able to say that). I get to make a difference in someone's business, and life.

Just like that newsletter of my formative days of content marketing- and just like my chats with CEOs and other marketers- this newsletter is my way of connecting to you. It's my way of saying "hey, these curated articles will make a difference in your life and in your business." It's our own private chat.

Thanks for sittin' down with me.

Newsletter Tips

The Secrets Behind Morning Brew's Growth To 2.5 Million Newsletter Subscribers

Besides lead generation, growth is the largest pain point for any business. This article highlights a tactic all businesses should have drilled in their brains.

Go where the audience hangs out.

If you want growth, you can't just expect people to find you where they are. You have to go to them with your warm plate of cookies and say, "Oh look, I have something you want" (and know that they want it because you're in a cookie lovers forum).

This article suggests a few places for growing your newsletter audience:

Curated lists: An easy way to find newsletters in your space is to search for lists curated for consumers, published on blogs or other newsletters.
Sponsorship networks and platforms: Email advertising networks to pair you with relevant newsletters and facilitate your ad buys.
What you’re reading: Everyone on your growth and editorial teams should be keeping an eye on new and established newsletters in your space, and those can be worth sponsoring.

Explode Your List Growth: Use A Referral Program

Speaking of growth... Referral programs are a great way to bring on a ton of new subscribers relatively fast and with minimal effort.

This podcast episode from Nathan Barry is loaded with insights on newsletter growth and paid newsletters (if you're into that kind of thing).

Marketing

If It Isn't My Old Pal, Marketing

Traffic, traffic, traffic. Everyone wants it. Acquiring it is a challenge. There are a few things that hold back traffic- a misaligned content strategy and dull content that isn't optimized for the audience.

But then again... is traffic really all that important?

Databox and Search Engine Journal touch on these aspects of growth in two compelling articles that deserve some attention:

1) Databox's article on How CoSchedule Increased Trial and Product Sign Ups by altering their content strategy to align better with their audience. It makes a huge difference, ya know.

2) Search Engine Journal's article on the 7 Reasons More Traffic May Not Be Better for Business dives into the reality that more traffic doesn't equal more business and how a misaligned content strategy may mean your large traffic is entirely wasted.

Writing

How To Create An Email Newsletter People Actually Read

What's the point in creating something that no one reads?

Answer: there isn't one.

This article is intriguing for its breakdown of how to create a compelling newsletter, but even more so for this little bit about how you might not need one at all:

"If your industry isn’t really interested in email newsletters, or if your goals don’t line up with what a newsletter could accomplish, your time might be better spent creating something else like a lead nurturing email workflow or content for your blog."

Curation

4 Business Newsletters To Read Every Single Day

This isn't directly marketing related, but Nick Wolny has some incredible insights into the people who make these popular business newsletters, like this juicy bit:

“I felt from the beginning that building up an audience on the back of Facebook was like building a business in a rented apartment where the landlord raises the price every quarter. I knew from day one that that would be a horrible idea. I’ve always wanted to be independent.” — Sam Parr via OMR

It's great to get your mind out of marketing sometimes and take a look at what others are doing.

Publishing

Launching A Newsletter And Thinking About Analytics

How do you know if your efforts are worth it?

Analytics.

A Comparison Of Tools For Curated Newsletters

This article may include Curated.co, but it's also a run down of tools that make marketing (and life) much easier. This article speaks to the soul in that regard.

"So as a startup, one thing you don’t have is time (and money for that matter). But we still want to provide value! We, therefore, aim to create content 40% of the time and curate the best of the web 60% of the time."

Money Matters

How To Price A Paid Subscription Newsletter

Paid newsletters seem to be a trend these days, and it's really piqued my interest. I'm wondering how many of you feel the same way.

Curated News

Our Integration With LetsEncrypt Is Now Live!

Hey everyone, Seth from Curated here!

If you don't know me, I'm the head of Customer Success for Curated. You might know my voice if you've watched any of our YouTube tutorial videos, or we've probably talked if you've ever emailed support.

I'm filling in for Ashley this week to bring y'all the latest updates for Curated.

Our integration with LetsEncrypt is now live! This makes setting up a secure custom domain much easier.

Until now, you had to move your website’s DNS records over to Cloudflare in order to make your Curated custom domain secure. But with this new integration, Curated now generates SSL certificates for you automatically using LetsEncrypt.

If you have any questions about this new release, you can email me at support@curated.co.

Newsletter Fest Is 3 Weeks Away. Have You Registered Yet?

Newsletter Fest, the FREE online conference that will ignite your newsletter strategy, is only 3 weeks away!

The lineup has been steadily growing every week, and now that we're finalizing the full lineup, it's the perfect time to register for your favorite sessions.

Ashley has done a great job with keeping you updated on the biggest news from Newsletter Fest, but in cased you missed any of it, here's a quick rundown of helpful links:

Thanks to everyone who has shown such excitement for Newsletter Fest. I can't wait for April 12!

ICYMI: We now have a Curated Public Product Roadmap! Check out our recent releases and what’s up next.

Opt In Challenge

Growth Is The Game

Most of this newsletter was dedicated to growth, and therefore, the challenge for this week is too.

Dakota Shane published a list of essential traits that every newsletter should have to grow exponentially.

Your challenge this week is to evaluate your newsletter (if you've already started one) or begin planning (if you haven't started one), and implement the 6 traits described in this article. Especially the last point they make: "Provide proof that your newsletter doesn't suck." At least get to gathering that social proof.

And That's The End Of The Show!

I know you're sad to see me go, but this isn't my show.

But thanks for sticking around to the end!

If you just didn't get enough of me, I post (sometimes) helpful content every day on LinkedIn and publish deep-dive articles (nearly) every week on my website.

I can't say enough how grateful I am for this newsletter experience. So, thank you Ashley and Seth for giving me this opportunity and for showing me the ropes.

It's been fun! See you guys around.