How to start an email newsletter & stay consistent in 3 easy steps!
I’m not a stats girl (they make me feel 🤢) but this will make you want to start an email newsletter quick!
On average only 4% of your social media followers see your posts and about 1.36% will click the links in your bio.
Vs.
The industry standard for email open rates is 35% with a 2.9% click rate.
I’m not here to tell you that social media isn’t worth it – because I believe that it is! Social media is amazing for making connections, getting some exposure and yes, those dopamine hits from likes and comments are nice.
But if you’re not regularly emailing your list, you’re missing out!
For some reason, people overcomplicate email marketing by getting stuck on questions like:
- What should I write?
- How often should I send emails?
- What should it look like?
All valid questions but you’re overthinking it friend.
Writing emails is not much different than writing social media content but there’s no viral audio or algorithm to worry about 😉.
If you’re ready to take email marketing seriously here’s
how to start an email newsletter:
1️⃣ Choose an email platform.
I personally LOVEEEE Flodesk. It’s super easy to set up and use. They offer a ton of features like templates, polls, opt-in forms, workflows, segmenting … and their customer service is *chef’s kiss*.
Want to try it for yourself? Use my affiliate link and try it free for 14 days.
Deciding between Kit (aka ConvertKit) and Flodesk? This post should help.
2️⃣ Decide on how often you want to email your list.
There are no hard rules here, weekly, monthly, or bi-weekly. Find a rhythm that works for you and pick a day to send! This helps to train your subscribers to look out for your emails.
3️⃣ To make your life easier, create a few templates that you can duplicate each time you want to send a newsletter.
I love when emails follow a certain flow like: intro, tip, some kind of feature (podcast, article, etc.), service highlight, etc. You can pre-design these elements so that you don’t have to keep designing from scratch.
Okay, now that you’ve done all that, let’s start writing!
Here are 3 simple steps you can take every week or once a month to plan your email newsletters.
Step 1: Curate your content – Choose content to repurpose
Pick 2-4 posts (one per week) from your social media, blog, or podcast and save them in a Google Doc, Notion, or spreadsheet for easy access.
When choosing content, think about what goals you have for that week/month: encourage replies, sales, downloads, etc. Which pieces of content can pull you closer to that goal?
Step 2: Craft – How to write an email newsletter
Start writing.
For each piece of content, write down the key takeaway and reframe it: elaborate or breakdown then add a story to segue into the main point.
Don’t forget about your subject & preview lines.
Now, let’s talk length, there’s no magic number for how long or short an email needs to be. It comes down to preference and your writing style.
Experiment and see what your subscribers respond to the most. As with everything else it’s the quality of your words, not the quantity.
And don’t miss this blog post for some of my favorite free writing tools!
Step 3: Customize and Schedule
Make your emails fun and easy to read! White space and short paragraphs are essential.
Add buttons, images, GIFs, or any other design elements you’d like. It doesn’t have to be over the top, you can absolutely send a text-only email if you’d like but I would encourage you to have a little fun from time to time.
Once you have that all set – time to schedule them out!
Follow these steps and you’ll be an inbox favorite in no time!!
