Why your monthly newsletter isn’t working for you (and what to do instead)
When you first start your business, it can feel noisy with so many people giving you different advice. Create an instagram account. Start an email list and send out an email newsletter. Get PR. Go to networking events.
I’m always going to stay in my lane, so let’s talk about why your monthly email newsletter is bogus. (sorry not sorry!)
So you started your email list, you posted about it on your social media channels a couple of times. And you may have a few, friendly, familiar faces in your subscriber list. Job well done! Right?
Wrong.
You get to the end of the month, look down at your to-do list and realise that ‘write monthly newsletter’ is staring back at you. “Crap, I’ve got to work out what I’m going to put in our monthly newsletter again.” I have to be the one to tell you that it’s almost not worth your time.
You see, what follows is you creating a list of all the “exciting” things that your business has been up to. Orr all the “super exciting” things coming in the following month.
First and foremost, you need to hear this – no one is as excited by the things that you’re doing than you are. Harsh, but true.
And the truth is, if this is your full time job, you’re probably up to a lot of stuff. But, let’s flip the switch for a second. Put yourself in the reader’s seat. Do YOU care about what someone else is up to? Doesn’t it feel a bit ‘me, me, me’?
So the first thing you need to do is ask yourself, what’s in it for them? Everything you do. Every social media post. Email. Press release. Should always be about the end consumer. Period. This is not about you.
Is your email newsletter providing any value for them?
Secondly, if I only hear from you once a month it’s likely that I’ve forgotten who you are. Is that what you want?
Repetition is not the enemy. We have to see the same messages over and over again to keep it in the front of our mind. We may not be ready to buy yet, that’s okay. But if you give up on those potential customers and don’t put in the effort to guide them down that path to buying with you, you probably won’t have a business for too long.
You’re not emailing your email subscribers frequently enough.
Third and finally, I want to introduce you to the concept that is overchoice. Overchoice is the term first introduced by Alvin Toffler in his 1970 book, Future Shock. It’s a term that describes “a cognitive impairment in which people have a difficult time making a decision when faced with many options.”
Simply put, when we’re giving too many options, too many things to look at. Too many different messages and call-to-actions. Rather than focusing on which ones are relevant to us, our brain actually goes “Um, see ya!” and does nothing instead. Apart from leaving your email and going to the next one.
One email newsletter should have one desired outcome.
Okay, so what could you be doing instead?
1 – Only send content that your subscribers want to read.
And hey, if you don’t know what that is (you’re not mystic Meg afterall…!) then ask them. Or test different things. Your email analytics will soon tell you and show you whether people enjoyed it or not.
2 – Send much shorter emails. And more frequently.
If you have 17 things to say at the beginning or end of the month, within your monthly newsletter – that could be 17 different emails.
Just like most things in life, little and often.
A quick analogy for you – if you wanted to get fitter you wouldn’t go to the gym once a month for the entire day. You’d have to go for smaller amounts of time more frequently like 5 times a week.
But how frequently you should be emailing your subscribers, like most things in marketing – depends.
3 – Only give subscribers one thing to focus on.
Whether you want to direct them to your social pages, to a particular product or let them know about an upcoming promotion.
Think of it this way, one email = one outcome. What’s the purpose of the email? What are you trying to achieve? And then focus on that one thing. For the whole email.
TL:DR
It’s boring and a bit me, me, me. Stop that.
I’ve forgotten who you are in the last month.
When we have too many options or choices, instead of making a decision, our brain shuts down. We run away.
Instead, only send valuable content that’s relevant to your subscribers
Send shorter emails, more often
One email = one desired outcome
Are you ready to make money through your email newsletter but don’t have the time, energy or muster to learn how to do it yourself? Why not let me take it off your hands with my Done For You Services.