Listen, Y’all: Newsletters Get Better When You Master Tone Of Voice
Esther Kezia Thorpe explains how newsletters like The Morning Brew find success in cultivating a unique tone of voice.
Discovered via The Media Roundup.
Fun fact: Esther and Ann Handley are thinking alike these days. Ann actually mentioned Morning Brew in her Content Marketing World session Voice is the New Logo. Further proof that a unique voice speaks volumes. Or... gets amplified?
Find Your Voice Influencers (And Avoid Some When Writing)
When it comes to voice, this is what Ann Handley, writer of Total Annarchy, reminded us in her last issue:
“You are what you read.”
We tend to pick up the writing styles of authors we are reading. So be careful who you read when you’re trying to write because their voice and tone is will likely flow into your words.
It’s a bit like when my southern accent drops around northerners then returns the moment my brother calls me.
It’s Not As Simple As To Gate Or Not To Gate
Ann Handley’s recent newsletter addressed a topic marketers seem to be scratching their heads about lately: Should you, or should you not, gate content?
For anyone unfamiliar with the term, gating content means requiring a form completion (usually asking for email, name, etc.) to see it.
There’s a bit of buzz lately around the value of ungating. What I like about Ann’s approach is that she shares a success story from a company that removed forms and freely shared content, but she also gets into what you’ll want to consider before you adopt the same approach.
There are some nuances. For instance, she mentions that Marketing Profs uses a publishing model (which many of you paid newsletter creators also use), and that gates make sense in that situation.
Psst! Speaking of gates, we’re in the final phases of preparing to launch private newsletters for Curated. That will mean you can show content to subscribers only. Stay tuned. It’s thisclose to done.
Mail Privacy Protection has changed the game. Now, instead of mainly monitoring open and click-through rates, Jodi Harris advocates making subscriber replies your priority KPI.
Ann Handley has previously called this OWBR aka Open to Write Back Rate, which we included in this issue.
Discovered via theCLIKK.
Another Look At Ungating Content
In April, I shared a piece from Ann Handley about ungating content. Now, a few months later, she’s shared an update from the agency that tested this approach in a recent issue of her newsletter.
The big takeaway?
The team at Aha Media Group reported that “Ungating Our Content Increased Downloads by 102%”.
17 Things Your Email Newsletter Needs Right Now
It’s checklist time!
Ann Handley, who I absolutely adore, has put together a list of 17 things your email newsletter needs.
“A global pandemic is a great time to launch an email newsletter.
Why? Because a crisis is not a time for Marketing to be clever or snarky. It’s a time to be helpful and sincere. It’s a time to build relationships, nurture customers, and create long-term loyalty.
There’s no better way to do that than with the slow, steady cadence of an email newsletter. But only when it’s done right.”
Because 17 might seem intimidating, I’ve picked my top five from her list:
Any questions? You’ll probably want to click through and bookmark this one.
Register for SparkPost’s OptIn Live (October 20)
This 2.5 hour virtual event “will explore how email’s having its day in a changing world.”
Compelling keynote: Ann Handley (her newsletter Total Annarchy is the definition of lovability for me).
I feel like that’s really all I should have to write to convince you to take this week’s Opt In challenge and sign up, but if you need more persuading, click through and explore the other great speakers and topics.
3 Cool Zaps You Can Use To Collect Links
When I was creating this feature feedback form last week, I got a little excited about the many, many ways you can collect links and have them waiting to be used in your next newsletter.
So, naturally, I spent some time this week figuring out how I could use Zapier to bring in content my readers might like and came up with a few cool use cases I want to share with you.
For this, you’ll find YouTube in Zapier.
Trigger Options:
New Video—When a new video is uploaded by a specific YouTube user name
New Video in Channel—When a new video is published to a specific YouTube channel
New Video by Search—When a new video is uploaded that matches a specific YouTube search string
New Video in Playlist—When a new video is added to a specific playlist
Tip: Everything is pretty self explanatory except for which thumbnail image to pick. I found that the one called Thumbnails High URL brought in the best quality image… but I may grab that and add a play button in Canva then bring that into Curated so it still feels like you press play.
Use Cases: Maybe you want to follow a certain search term you know your audience likes, you want to stay tuned to what certain news outlets or brands who post videos are announcing, or you post your own videos you know you’ll want to share. This Zap can automate that process.
In addition to using an aggregator to process links around specific topics, you can use RSS by Zapier to bring in links from sites you know publish quality content you’d like to share. You’ll need to find the RSS URL for those sites.
Trigger Options (these are very obvious):
New Item in Feed—When new content is added to a feed
New Items in Multiple Feeds—When new content is added to multiple feeds
Tip: Here’s how to find an RSS link if the sites you want to follow don’t have a RSS link available (it’s usually lumped in with the social account icons).
Use Cases: I think this is best for following writers and publications you know create high-quality, share-worthy content. In my case, I set up RSS Zaps to collect links from Ann Handley’s blog, Content Marketing Institute, and What’s New in Publishing. I’m testing to see if that sends me too much content to process or just the right amount. I also found the RSS feed for the Newsletter Crew podcast and set that up as well.
For this, you’d use the project management app your team(s) use and select the proper triggers for task/project completion.
Trigger Options
In Trello, that might mean moving any task into a Done column, while in ClickUp or Asana it might mean completing tasks within specific workspaces or projects.
Use Cases: I see this as primarily ideal for internal team or organization newsletters. If you’re collecting links to the tasks or projects your team has completed, that means they’ll all be waiting for you to add to the next newsletter. From there, you can determine which ones you want to include.
Additionally, if you maintain a public roadmap using an app like Trello, you could also set this up to make sure the marketing team is aware when a feature is deployed so that it’s included in the next customer-facing newsletter.
My week started with an 11-hour field trip (6 a.m. departure, 5 p.m. return) with my 10-year-old who got to DISSECT A BABY SHARK.
This is the same child who was traumatized by the surprise snake experience of February 2022.
She was not so put off by cutting a dead animal open as she was by holding a live one.
In fact, she took extreme pride in the fact that 2 of the girls in her group excused themselves and decided not to participate while she wasn’t phased.
This turned into a few rounds of dramatically displaying the shark innards as she removed them so that the children who chose not to participate could see the liver and stomach from far away.
Was it a little over the top?
Yes.
But we all know what it feels like to realize you’re doing something others aren’t willing to try.
And she didn’t rub it in too hard (she’s too sensitive herself to deliberately hurt someone else’s feelings).
But the whole scene–
A research center room with big windows to nature on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Air thick with formaldehyde
5th graders wearing goggles and blue gloves
Some enjoying the process of cutting flesh open; some choosing to walk away–
It reminded me of the ways we marketers, content creators, and storytellers attempt to bring our audience into a story.
Some jump right in.
“Hand me the scissors. Let’s see if there’s any undigested food in the stomach” (Hers had shrimp eyes in the creases!)
And others walk away.
“Um. No. Not for me.”
No amount of waving a shark liver around made my daughter’s uneasy friends change their minds and decide to rejoin the group.
And that’s ok.
We shouldn’t expect the thing we’re hocking (or doing) to attract everyone.
You can’t just say, “But you SHOULD want to do this,” and make it so.
In fact, it’s not such a bad thing to repel people who wouldn’t enjoy your product or service.
You want to attract the people who get it and love it.
And you can attract more of that ICP if you stop worrying about the people who don’t want anything to do with it.
They’re not willing to ride 3 hours each way in a chartered bus to spend an hour dissecting a shark.
Find the people who are.
And bring a good book (My choice was Ann Handley’s new edition of Everybody Writes. Spoiler: it’s GOOD).
This week’s round up of content carries 2 themes: The idea that prework (briefs, planning, building for a mission, psychoanalyzing your audience before emailing them) matters and How to market in a recession.
Enjoy! And let me know what you think.
Q&A Roundup: What’s one thing you’ve learned from publishing a newsletter?
Josh Spector, For The Interested:
“I've learned that a newsletter is the single best way to attract your ideal audience, build a relationship with them, identify their problems, and ultimately build enough trust with them that you can convert them into customers or lead them to take a specific action. My newsletter has become the engine of my entire business - both as a consultant and a media company.”
Alex Bauer, Branch:
“Having an authentic opinion of your own is incredibly important. People can get news and updates from anywhere, so you have to give them some added value from choosing to spend time with you.”
Dennis Shiao, Content Corner:
“We often obsess over the Subject line, trying to craft the perfect words to get our subscribers to open. We might even do A/B testing to see what works best. I learned to go the other way on this -- optimize for the From line, not the Subject line. If you build a deep and trusted relationship with subscribers, they’ll open and open no matter what the Subject line says.”
Ann Handley, Total Annarchy:
“11 things I’ve learned from publishing a newsletter
- ‘I'll write only when I have something to say’ doesn’t work. It’ll instead just give you an excuse NOT to publish.
- Set a schedule you can manage. Stick to it. Do not break the chain. You've got this.
- Focus on the Letter, not the News. Your newsletter is a relationship-builder... not a distribution strategy.
- Your From line matters more than your Subject Line.
- Writing matters. Obsess about craft.
- Obsess about voice. It's the one thing no one else can copy.
- Do unscalable things. Because over time, unscalable scales.
- Your newsletter needs an emcee. (Even you looking at me with that side-eye, Ms B2B-Solution-Brand.)
- Your first issue will be awkward and self-conscious and not good.
- Make up your own metrics based on your own goals. Example: I track my RR (Resubscribe Rate) and OWB (Open to Write Back rate).
- You will get more out of your newsletter than you give: You will become a better writer, you’ll know your audience more deeply, you’ll understand the value you provide at almost a cellular level, and you will become more attractive with 8-pack abs and a tighter peach. 🍑 (That last one is aspirational maybe. But why not.)
You asked for only ONE thing I learned from publishing a newsletter. Which leads me to my final point:
12. Always deliver more value than an audience would reasonably expect.”
If you're not subscribed to the newsletters from these amazing creators, I highly suggest you check each one out and subscribe for quality inspiration. Massive thanks to everyone who took time to pass on your learnings!
