11 Surprising Benefits of Writing a Weekly Email Newsletter
I am not a writer.
But nearly a year ago I decided to throw my hat in the ring and begin a weekly email newsletter.
In the beginning, I didn’t know much at all about:
What topics to write on
Who I was specifically writing to
What style of writing would suit me
How long the entries should be
How to promote it
etc…
I jumped in pretty blind for the most part.
All I knew was that I needed to be putting out more content and needed to start building an email list.
Hence the M&M Mondays weekly newsletter.
And although I’ve learned a lot about writing over the past year, I’m still sorting out a lot of things out.
Have I hit my sweet-spot yet? No.
Do I have confidence in what I’m doing? Only somewhat lol
Am I certain that the practice of writing and sharing these entries is worth the effort? Abso-freakin-lutely
Here are 11 surprising benefits and things I’ve learned by writing and publishing weekly articles for a year.
(#6 and #11 are my favorite)
1. You Won’t Run Out of Ideas
Coming up with something new to write each week is intimidating no doubt. But there’s something interesting that happens in our brain when we commit to creating original work and publishing on a continual basis - our mind expands.
I keep an idea bank in notion to store all my thoughts.
Usually I’ll throw a few bullet points along with a loosely crafted title to jog my memory when I come back to it.
Ironically enough, from my experience, the more idea-notes I jot down… the less I need them.
I’m sure there’s some science behind this creativity phenomenon, but all I know is…
The longer I’ve stayed committed to publishing articles, the less I need help coming up with topics to write about.
And when I do need some creative-support, I have my idea bank.
(psst… I’m about to release my personal content system as a notion template for you to steal. coming in the next few weeks 😌)
2. You’ll Start Seeing Other People’s Content Differently
When you begin writing and publishing your work on a regular basis, you’ll begin to have a new perspective to the world around you.
As a Newsletter creator, I read other people’s newsies from a different view.
I take note of their:
Tone-of-voice - Are they aiming to be more casual or professional in their delivery?
The topics they continually write on - Uncovering exactly who they’re targeting.
How they title their Entries and Subject Lines - How they hook you into opening and reading it.
The length and/or depth of the information - Does it stay consistent from one entry to the next?
How and how often they market their offers - Does it come off natural and beneficial to the reader?
How vulnerable they are - Do they open up about ‘secrets’ or ‘struggles’? …something that builds deeper connection
Do they Monetize and how? - affiliates, referral programs, sponsors, etc.. Some of these people are making HUGE $$$ from their newsie
I enjoy the content itself, for sure, but I am also studying it from a different lens as well.
I regularly change things up in my own approach based on what seems to be working well for others while also staying authentic to my brand and the community of subscribers.
3. The High of Hitting ‘Publish’ is Addictive
I’ll tell ya.
The feeling I get when hitting the publish button on my blog, the schedule button in my ESP (email software), and the upload button on my podcast hosting platform is just downright amazing. 🙌
I feel a sense of pride and accomplishment every. single. time.
As a one-person business, the weeks can often feel erratic and even nauseating at times.
There’s a lot of decisions to be made and responsibilities that are stacked up.
Because of this, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and even get the feeling like all the early years of your business won’t ever pay off…
My weekly newsletter (+ the blog and podcast versions) have been the bedrock of many ‘quick wins’ that assure me that even in the chaos, I’m building something I am proud of.
So even if it’s been a rough week in whatever regard, I always know that I’ve added at least one more brick to my castle.
One by one the empire is being built regardless.
Looking back now 46 entries later… I’m damn proud.
Even if it’s simple, start now, and you’ll immediately know first-hand how good it really feels.
4. You’ll Build Insanely Deep Trust w Your Subs
Among the best things that email and email marketing as a whole provides for brands who use it, is the fact that you have a direct and private line of communication to your audience.
When a social media follower for instance, gives you their email address, they are signaling that they are interested in hearing from you through this exclusive communication channel.
With an email newsletter, not only do you have a direct connection but also the opportunity for a creating a deep connection too.
Think about how many accounts you see when scrolling through a social media feed - which is hard to filter/customize due interest-based algorithms which we don’t control… Imagine being among the few in someone’s personal email inbox. People can sub or unsub to who ever they want. If you’re in someone’s inbox, you should feel special.
In an email you can entertain, educate, survey, invite, link to resources or offers, and more.
You can also segment your audience for a more personal, relevant user experience and even automate certain elements of the process.
All of these truths put email at the top of the marketing channel food chain by a landslide when it comes to brand awareness, increased engagement, revenue potential, and insane amounts of trust due to the deep personal feel it can provide.
Ever thought about using email in your business but don’t know where to start? Consider grabbing my course, Simple Email Marketing to quickly master the fundamentals without the fluff. Psst… the lessons in the course apply to any software you choose.
5. You Can Write However You Want
It took me a while to figure this one out and I think this is one of the biggest lies we tell ourselves about creating written content…
“I can’t write.”
“My grammar sucks.“
“I didn’t do well in (or hated) my highschool writing classes.”
Good news. Just type on the damn keyboard and you did it!
Haha it really is that simple.
My advice?
There’s only 3 things to consider when nailing down your email writing style.
Write how you speak
Write directly to your target audience persona
Reduce the reading friction by breaking up paragraphs.
Forget formality - It don’t matter ya hear?!
Forget grammar - just make-damn-sure that makes sense to the reader
The more that the ‘normal everyday human’ vibe is present in your writing, the better it’ll do.
6. It’s All On Your Terms
No algo, no rules - best practices? sure. but you can do it however you want.
Email newsletters have no rules.
Other than email etiquette and overall best practices on the technical side, peep my email fundamentals course for that.
You can say what you want, however you want, email when you want from wherever in the world you are, to as many people as you want (if they’ve subscribed of course)
You want to pitch a new product? Do it.
You want to give away a Holographic Charizard Pokémon card? By all means.
You want to send funny gifs with no explanation at 12pm to brighten up their lunch break? I love it.
My only requirement for you is that you paint accurate expectations for your subscribers so that the don’t feel cheated or lied to. That will kill your reputation and burn bridges rapidly.
If you say you’re going to do (or not so something) stick to your word.
And if you are making temporary or permanent changes, communicate that to your audience.
As I somewhat mentioned above, you can also automate emails too. I’ve taken certain M&M entries and created evergreen newsletters or ‘drip campaigns’ as well.
Point is, no one can tell you no. And no one can get between you and your subscribers. If your focus remains on providing the best emails you can to your audience, then that’s all that matters.
On God.
FR FR. *that’s for the younger people out here 😏
7. Being Wordy Will Hurt You
I’ll admit… This one’s tough for me. With or without my keyboard I’ve been told many-a-time that I’m a bit long-winded…
Overly wordy emails get low engagement and even worse retention.
Unless you have a loyal following and you’ve primed the readers’ expectations to account for this, you’ll want to be brief and get to the point.
My current strategy (kindly modeled after Jay Clouse’s Creator Science newsletter) involves teasing a topic with some quick value inside the email where there’s a button linked to the full article on the blog section of my site.
Context is important.
When was the last time you opened an email and were happy to read a 15-minute piece?
It’s rare.
Usually, people are looking to get their inbox cleared out ASAP all while grabbing the useful nuggets from your newsie.
Make it easy by keeping the email interesting and to the point.
This reality has forced me to become a better writer - a concise and impactful writer.
Although I still feel like I’m on level 1 of 100 on this haha 🤥
8. Self Promo is Totally Fine
I tend to mentally place the email newsletter or just email marketing in general somewhere in the middle of the marketing funnel.
Your email list is entirely made up of people who have knowingly opted-in to receive extra communications from you. They could’ve stopped at just following you on Instagram or Twitter… But no. They wanted more! 🤩
Depending on your niche, audience, and offers, you may promo more or less than others - keep your audience’s needs top of mind.
I don’t have this fully dialed in yet…
But I do a few things when self promo’ing:
Useful ways to promote your offer via email or e-newsletter:
Linked within body content where it directly relates
In an ‘Offers’ module that separates it from the email body
Separate promotion emails sent to relevant audience segment
via Automated email flows triggered by user actions
As long as you’re giving things to your reader more than you are asking, you’re on the right side of the ratio.
9. Growing Your Email List isn’t Easy (at first)
Time to come clean…
After 46 weeks of sending weekly email newsletters, I’ve just now crossed the 200 subscribers threshold…
That’d be great for some, and almost embarrassing to others.
I really thought it’d go quicker than this but there are a lot of factors at play.
Things that may be slowing your newsletter growth:
Not promoting via social media channels
Not having a good opt-in proposition or landing page
Not clearly defining who it’s best suited for
Not staying within the niche of topics readers signed up for
Not leveraging growth tactics - ads, partner networks, organic social, etc…
It’s a slow start from the bottom.
Thanks to my family and a couple of close friends I started my newsie with 18 subs.
The benefit is you’ll build tolerance, humility, and discipline by not giving up.
Don’t be deterred by the slow growth.
Even though Twitter and LinkedIn are littered with ‘overnight’ success stories…
No matter how fast you build, it’ll be worth it in the end - in about 100 different ways.
10. Give ‘Em Something
In a newsletter, you can’t just write something for the sake of writing something.
You gotta give your readers something!
Give them entertainment, insightful thoughts, a practical solution, or whatever!
But do not waste their time by not leaving them with something they’d deem valuable or interesting.
You don’t have to rock their world by any means… Refer to #7
When acted on well, consistently over time, you’re audience will be trained to open every email and read all the way through.
Hell, they’ll probably even share it with their circle too.
Again, put yourself in the reader’s shoes.
What would you want to get out of your newsletter?
11. 1 Article Turns Into 50 Pieces of Additional Content
It’s like magic. It’s amazing.
The art of content repurposing and redistribution is incredible.
90-95% of my social media content is a re-salvaged version of something I wrote in the email newsie or recorded on the podcast version of it.
My weekly articles are my pillar content, that then gets broken down into bite-sized micro pieces that are formatted into tweets, threads, shorts, reels, carousel posts, images, and more…
If the idea of endless amounts of quality content excites you… Boy. oh. boy. Do I have something great coming your way.
With a basic content strategy, A newsletter can be nearly every ounce of gasoline your brand needs to fuel your social content marketing strategy.
And unlike #9…
You can crank this up from day 1.
Conclusion
You don’t need to become a writer to harness a newsletter's benefits.
But you do need to be willing to stick to your commitments.
If I hadn’t put myself on the hook by publicly committing to releasing weekly entries…
I’d have wasted a lot more time learning the lessons mentioned above.
If you’re gonna have to learn some lessons to get to your dream destination regardless…
Might as well learn ‘em quick.
Consistently sharing value through your writings will propel you toward your upcoming success.
See you next week.
Til Next Time ✌️🙂
Ev
