How to create a compelling newsletter

Did you know that the average person in corporate America sends and receives an average of 126 emails daily? That’s a lot of time reading and typing! 

One of the most common questions I get on LinkedIn is how to create a newsletter. The answer I usually give is to pose a question of my own: why do you want to create a newsletter? Because if it’s simply to sell your product or service then you might as well stick with paying for social media ads. 

There are plenty of tutorials out there to guide you through the process of setting up your newsletter. How to write a subject headline, what software should you use, and how often you should send a newsletter etc. This is not about any of that. Instead, I want to dive into what you should write in your newsletter. 

Because personally, I’m tired of too many spammy newsletters that don’t give value to their audience. The main goal of your newsletter should not be to sell them anything. It should be used as a tool to stay in touch with your community. 

Look at some of the newsletters companies send you. Most of these companies use newsletters as a marketing tool to tell you what sales are on, what new items they have in stock, or why you should buy this or that product. Let me ask you this: how often do you open those emails? I’m guessing rarely. A newsletter that only highlights what you sell might get a small bump in sales but unless you are constantly adding new people to your community, you’ll likely see people disengage. You want people to be excited about what you tell them, and be invested in who you are as a person, and as a business.  

Newsletters should be used as a communication tool to foster relationships with your audience. Sending a high-quality newsletter helps build your brand in a meaningful way by personalizing the content that makes the recipient feel seen and understood by other actual human beings. 

Many companies can deepen their personal connections with their audience by using a newsletter to communicate that they understand their audience and can help solve their problems. You can do this by positioning your brand in a certain way. 

One topic you can cover in your newsletter is what you do to build a strong culture. A simple way to do this is to add a fun bio of a different team member each month. It may seem silly to include the fact that your marketing manager also likes to dance the tango in their spare time, but little bits of personal information like this go a long way to help customers relate to people within the organization, and see you as something other than a large, nameless corporation. Remember that people like to do business with other people. It’s about forging a personal relationship behind the computes. 

Your latest company gathering or monthly team socials can also be perfect fodder for your newsletter. Photos and descriptions of teams working and having fun together, both in and outside of the office, lets your customers know about the people behind the brand and will make them want to engage with you further. 

You might also want to tie your newsletter into your company’s announcements. Again, keep these focused on the people, not the organization. Highlight new hires and share their bios. You might also want to share personal milestones like weddings, babies, marathon completions, community awards, and so forth. Let your customers know you care about your employees as individuals, and it will let them know you will care about them as people too. Again, whatever you decide to write about, make sure you always tie it into a problem you are solving for your client. While company activities and announcements can be great, if you’re talking about why you decided to paint the office green then the reader will quickly lose interest. If you decide to write about personal milestones, always relate it back to your audience’s milestones as well so you can demonstrate a connection with them. 

Lastly, you need consistent, compelling and personal conversations over time to build a relationship with a person, and the same is true of relationships with brands. Sending newsletters on a regular basis is the perfect way to establish that you know who your customers are, what their challenges and needs are, and that you want to provide them with the solutions they need. It takes a bit of time and investment, especially at the beginning, to create a newsletter program. But it will soon become a pillar of your customer relationship management and something your audience looks forward to reading.

 Thank you for being part of this amazing community! Your emails and Dms always bring a smile to our team!

Until next time my loves!!

Sending Love,

Lorena Acosta