🐶 Look who’s home

Prologue

Y’all, I want you to meet Louis (Louie) Pecan.

He’s our first family pet.

We waited until the girls were 9 and 11 to take on the challenge of taking care of an animal.

1.5 months in and so far, so good.

He’s a Yorkie, in case you’re curious.

And he’s done a wonderful job of stealing our attention away from screens.

But, beyond the fact that he’s incredibly adorable, why mention him in a newsletter about newsletters?

Well, let me tell you about how he responds when the girls get home from school.

Most of us have witnessed or experienced a dog’s joy at his favorite person’s arrival, right?

This 3-pound ball of floof can hardly contain his excitement when he senses the school bus is near.

I’ve literally felt how intense his emotions run when he sees it pull close while holding him in my hands.

His heart races.

His tail twitches.

His entire body is restless with pure anticipation, and then, JOY, as a sweet reunion unfolds.

Goal: Send a newsletter that inspires even a fraction of this type of excitement upon arrival.

How? Talk to your ideal readers and find out what they really want and care about.

Earn their puppy love.

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.

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.

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.

How To Speed Up Your Writing

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.

Marketing

Influencer Marketing Insights

This report from Influencer Marketing Hub offers insights based on real data from agencies, brands, and professionals.

Discovered via Raisin Bread.

Marketing Mad Libs

Article Group has taken a fun spin on the classic game of Mad Libs and created a fill-in-the blanks Google Slides presentation designed to help you focus your ideas from conception to sale.

Discovered via For the Interested.

Can AI Help You Find Content For Your Audience?

Trying to figure out the best content topics to attract and serve your audience? This 8-minute video offers insights and a solution from Sparktoro and GPT3’s machine learning AI.

Should You Automatically Unsubscribe Inactive Subscribers?

In this LinkedIn post, Adam Kirsch shares an experience where he was automatically unsubscribed from a newsletter and found the practice really refreshing.

Do you unsubscribe inactive subscribers automatically?

Here’s how to do that in Curated.

Tell Your Story With Paid Social

Are you optimizing your social ads for native consumption? Chris Walker shares why you should and the approach to take in this LinkedIn post.

Writing

13 Writing Tips

What does it take to write well? Steven Pinker offers 13 easy-to-follow tips in this Inc. article. You might need to create a free account to read it.

Related: In a separate Inc. article, Jessica Stillman offers 5 commandments of great business writing (hint: it’s not just about style).

Both discovered via theCLIKK.

Publishing

Is The Publishing Industry On The Right Trajectory?

Recent years have brought not only the newsletter surge, but also increased traffic, platform diversification, and fewer people doing more work. What will all of this mean for the future of publishing?

While the pandemic didn’t bring much good, it did bring increased traffic and subscriptions for publishers. Does this mean we need to worry about reversals? Jakub Parusinski investigates for The Fix.
Stephanie Castellano breaks down how publishers can do less work but have a greater impact in this API article.
Forward-leaning publishers have tapped into the newsletter industry and seen the results: more readers, more advertisers, more revenue. Check out Bob Sillick’s full E&P article here.
In general, publishers want 2 things: more money and more people. But, Lisa Heyamoto explains why that won’t be sustainable.
The Financial Times will soon reach 1 million digital-only subscribers. Sara Fischer with Axios explains why it matters.
When it comes to social media, do publishers need an exit strategy? Esther Kezia Thorpe advocates for more of a “reframing.” Learn why here.

Curated News

How To Collect Links To Your Publication Via Email

Hey everyone, Seth with Curated here.

Did you realize Curated provides each user a secret email address you can use to collect links to newsletters?

Setting it up is easy.

Open Curated and choose the publication you want to collect links for (Yes, you can have as many newsletters as you want under one account, and each user has a secret email address for each newsletter they’re added to)
Click Collected Items in the top navigation bar
Click Learn How in the page subhead
Copy the email address under Collecting Links via Email
Go to your email platform and create a new contact with this email address
Name the contact the name of your publication

Now you can email links to your publication and they’ll be saved in your Collected Items.

Use cases: While the bookmarklet and Chrome extension are great for active link collectors, you may have less involved users who don’t actually write or edit content but like to send links along for consideration. Maybe team members or coworkers. It’s also great for collecting links while on your phone.

Curated Crash Course Today At 4 PM Central

Curated Crash Course is today at 4 PM CT!

As usual, the first 30 minutes include a tutorial on getting started with Curated followed by a Q&A session that begins at 4:30.

This is built to be a come-and-go Zoom call, so feel free to hop in whenever you can and leave when you have to.

If you have any questions about Curated or newsletters, we created a Google Form where you can submit them.

Seth will answer them live at Curated Crash Course during the Q&A segment of the session, but if you can't make it, he’ll send you a recording so you can see your questions answered.

New to Curated? Make a copy of this Getting Started with Curated Checklist to help launch your newsletter (public, private, or paid).

Opt In Challenge

Diversify Your Curation

In this episode of the Nathan Barry show, he interviews successful creator, Samir Chaudry, who talks about the creator experience. At around the 35-minute mark, Samir says this:

“Our ultimate goal is actually to include more [voices], allowing us to have this diverse content diet, where we are consuming stuff from our community, from all different places.”

Your Opt In Challenge is inspired by that statement: listen and consider ways you can curate more diverse content for your audience.

Discovered via Ghost Newsletter.

Like this newsletter?

Let me know. Reply, email me at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. I’d love to know what you think.

Happy newslettering,