One of the easiest ways to promote your business blog is to start a newsletter. In this post, we talk about the different formats, strategy, and technical details on how to set up your newsletter.
Start with Strategy
Before you start your newsletter, you need to set your strategy: how often will you publish, what is your goal for the newsletter, how will you promote it, etc.
Purpose
Most business newsletters serve the primary purpose of creating an email list. Because of the CAN-SPAM Act, you can’t buy a list or compile one for your newsletter. You face stiff penalties if you try to send people unsolicited emails.
The CAN–SPAM Act, a law that sets the rules for commercial email, establishes requirements for commercial messages, gives recipients the right to have you stop emailing them, and spells out tough penalties for violations. Despite its name, the CAN–SPAM Act doesn’t apply just to bulk email.
That being the case, even if you aren’t selling anything yet, it’s smart to begin building an email list. That way, whenever you’re ready to begin making promotions, you have an engaged audience ready and waiting.
What are other purposes for your newsletter?
- To teach potential customers more about the topics surrounding your product/service.
- To motivate readers to do something: buy products, adopt new behaviors, etc.
- To create credibility and name recognition. Your newsletter is great PR.
- To persuade readers to adopt a particular point of view (i.e., to care more about their sales copy).
- To thank people: donors, volunteers, contributors to your community.
- To build community.
Decide who your primary audience is
A successful newsletter can attract copy-cats and wanna-be’s as well as your intended audience. Nevertheless, you should focus on your target audience.
- Who are they?
- What are their interests and hobbies?
- What is their educational background?
- Age? Gender? Lifestyle?
- Are they newbies to your topic, or old pros?
- How motivated are they to read your newsletter?
- How well do they know/like/trust your brand?
As much as possible, determine the answers to these questions. These answers will affect your content and how you write it.
Decide on any secondary audiences for your newsletter
Bob Bly started his newsletter to attract copywriting prospects. But a lot of copywriters and newbie marketers are on his list as well. These are a secondary audience. He may not write for them, but it helps to know they’re there.
Your newsletter may be primarily for attracting prospects. But you may also add people who have downloaded a PDF or people who have attended one of your webinars. Just be sure they understand up front that they’ll be added to your email list to avoid being perceived as spam.
What is the tone of your newsletter?
- Conservative
- Stylish
- One of the guys
- Upscale
- Casual
- Formal
- Other?
What editorial posture will you take?
Authoritative? Advocating? Objective? Predicting? Personal?
Will you include personal stories from your life? Give behind-the-scenes looks at how you do what you do? Act as a hard-hitting news journalist for your industry?
Who is your competition and what will you write about?
What other blogs are serving your target audience? What type of content are they producing?
A few tools to help you research your audience and what they want to read about:
- SimilarSites.com – May help you find other blogs similar to known competitors.
- QuickSprout.com – competitor traffic calculator
- Alexa.com – What is the rank of sites? What are their demographics? Trends and search terms for those sites.
- Open Site Explore (from Moz) – moz.com/researchtools/ose – Domain authority, page authority, inbound links and top pages of your competitors.
- BuzzSumo – Who are recognized authorities related to your core topic? What are they writing?
- Google Keyword Planner – what topics are trending and should get your attention
Content Strategy – SimilarSites
Content strategy – Followerwonk
Content Strategy – Google Explore
What will you name your newsletter
The truth is you don’t need a fancy name. But you may decide to name it something unique. Up to you.
I do recommend coming up with a tag that can help communicate (and define) your content strategy.
When I started the C4 Report, I had just come up with my business tag: communicate, connect, convert. It popped into my head that C4 is explosive (“explosive growth” or “results”) and I’d just have to add one more C to my tag. I added “capture your market,” and I had the C4 Report. I also had an easy guide for my editorial content.
Your name:
Your tag:
Logo or banner? This doesn’t have to be fancy, but it can add legitimacy to your newsletter.
What format will you use?
