How to get more consistent with your email newsletters
I can’t say often enough how important it is to diversify your community and not be solely reliant on platforms that you don't own. And one of the best assets you can build for your business is an email list.
My list has almost 30,000 people on it and I have spent a lot of time building this up and sharing helpful content with my subscribers every week.
As you will know if you're on my email list I am VERY consistent with my weekly email and never miss any except for a short break over Christmas.
I rarely 'sell' to my readers via email as I want you to enjoy my emails and get a lot of value out of them. I know that so many of you look forward to reading my weekly email and many of you write and tell me that it is one of the few email newsletters you actually open each week - so I take that very seriously and I never want to abuse that trust that I've built up.
I want my subscribers to know that when they open up my email they are getting something that's worth reading and will bring them value.
So I know that building a strong email list is 100% worth putting time in to. But I also know that, as with everything, being consistent with email and sending something out week after week can feel a bit overwhelming. So here are some tips that make it easier for me:
Have a structure for your weekly email
My email list has a structure, which I call 3,2,1 Weekend. Each week I send out:
3 tips - for running a design business or perhaps around productivity or time management
2 things I’m loving - a couple of links to things I’m loving that week. These could be a book, podcast, supplier, product - all sorts of things.
1 action step - I’m all about taking action and my final part of the newsletter is one action step for my community to take that week to move their business and life forward.
Ever since I have put my 3,2,1 Weekend structure in place I have found it so much easier to be consistent with it and I find it much easier to think about what to write.
So if you want to be more consistent then think about a structure you could have for your email that helps you to put it together quickly and doesn't mean you are starting with a completely blank page each week. Studio McGee do a 'Sunday Seven' email. Tim Ferriss has '5 bullet Friday'....what structure could you have for yours that makes it easy for you?
Block out time to write your email each week
If things aren't in my diary then they don't get done! And my email newsletter is one of those things. This email normally takes me about an hour to write each week. So every single week I have an hour block in my diary for when I will sit down and write it. If you don't allocate some time for yourself to do the things you want to do then they just simply won't happen - it's as simple as that! So if an email newsletter is important to you then show yourself that and block it in your diary.
Create a template you can start from each week
I have a template saved in Convertkit (which is the platform I use to manage my email list) for my weekly newsletter. It's got the structure of the email all laid out with section headings and spaces for me to just write in my content. Each week my assistant will create a new instance of the newsletter template, add in the date and it's ready for me to use. This makes it SO much easier for me than having to create the entire thing from scratch each week.
The most important thing about being consistent with your email newsletter is to make the commitment that it's something you are going to do. I have now sent this email so many times that if I didn't send it out then I know lots of my subscribers would write to me asking where it is. In fact once I was about 5 hours late sending it and I already had people emailing me asking where it was!
This is what you want to do as well - create something so valuable and so helpful that your community look forward to it so much that they miss it when it isn't there and ask you where it is!
If you’re interested in signing up for the newsletter you can do that here!
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Enjoy the rest of your day!
Clare x
Dr Clare Le Roy