The Social Sunday Newsletter turned one this month! A whole year of sending out the newsletter, I can’t believe it.
If you follow me on social media you might have spotted that I’m celebrating with the launch of my new course, The Five Day Newsletter Fix.
Starting on 12th April I’m running a five day course to teach you how to start, design and write a newsletter so you can get subscribers and get selling.
It’s for any level of business, whether you’re pretty good with the tech or you’ll definitely need some support, and you don’t need a website to take part either.
I’m excited about it because at the end of it you WILL have a newsletter.
Sometimes we just need some support to answer our questions, teach us the way and keep us accountable too.
If you’re interested, sign up here. Places are limited and I’d love to have you join us!
As it’s the anniversary of The Social Sunday newsletter I thought I’d talk a little about the good things, (and the bad) about sending out my weekly newsletter.
For a little background information, just over a year ago I started the newsletter.
It was always something that was on my to do list but I was really worried about the tech side of it, how it would link up to my website, how to do the automations so you get a welcome email, all of that fun stuff.
The writing was never something that worried me too much because I always have something to say, but I know for a lot of people that’s a big factor too.
4 years into my business we were on the train to see my brother in Manchester and I thought right that’s it. I’m going to sit here for the next couple of hours and just figure this out because how hard can it be?
It turns out it wasn’t that hard at all, although it did take me over a month before I actually sent my first newsletter.
Once the first one was out of the way I realised that I really enjoyed writing it.
I went on a course at the start of lockdown and some of the other members helped me name the newsletter and so The Social Sunday was born!
It’s worked really well for me over lockdown and It’s something consist that I really enjoy doing every week.
I’ve grown my email list gradually and steadily and I’m really happy with how my audience has increased over the year.
As well as being a great test on how to use newsletters, it’s had lots of benefits for my business too.
Here's a few....
Making Sales
The first which is the most important is that it has made me thousands in sales.
When you spend time and energy on something you want to know that you’re going to get a return, and for me it has.
I’ve sold my eBook, one to one sessions and most recently my Six Week Marketing Fix through that newsletter and it hasn’t felt salesy or uncomfortable at all.
I was just reading a blog post from HubSpot that said 59% of marketers say email is their biggest source of ROI and I can see why.
Even when my social media posts don’t quite hit the mark or I go quiet for a few days, my newsletter is still there converting my audience every single week.
It’s such a useful tool for both service providers and product based businesses alike so don’t be afraid to tell your audience what it is you have for sale and how they can buy it.
If you’re looking to increase sales or leads for your business (and honestly who isn’t?) then a newsletter is a great way to do that.
A Community of People
Next is my favourite one and that is having a community of people around you.
There is a group of really supportive people that I know read my newsletter every single week and they will take the time to response and share.
When I write the newsletter I will often have one of them in mind and I think to myself will they find this useful?
It really helps me to make sure that I’m not writing for the sake of it and my content is going to be really valuable for my target audience.
These are also the people who will share the podcast or tell others that it’s been really helpful for them to hear.
There is just nothing better than getting an email reply to a newsletter, I’ll take it over a comment on Instagram any day!
I know I talk a lot about community but it’s so important to me and I think loneliness when you’re self employed can be really common.
If you’re looking for a way to connect with people and more specifically your target audience, writing to them every week really helps.
Getting Feedback
Linking to that would be positive number three, getting feedback.
If you have a question or you want to get the feedback of your audience, doing it through a newsletter is a great idea.
Even if it’s just to say 'yep we want this!' You get a good idea of what direction to go in which is so helpful as a business owner.
You can test out different products and ideas and ask for their support too. It’s a win win because the customer gets what they really want and you get to give it to them!
Driving traffic to your website
The next positive would be that it drives traffic to your website, social media and anywhere else you would like to point your audience.
Since I launched this podcast I’ve had people visiting from my newsletter and also having a reminder that the latest podcast is out if they want to listen to it.
It’s a nice way to share without feeling repetitive, especially when you post it a lot on social media.
It’s also something that I add to my website every week. It means that I have new content on my blog page each week and I’m making the most of the content that I’ve written to help me increase my website views.
My newsletters will often have my key words in anyway, but with some tweaking they can become a brilliant blog post that I can then post on Pinterest and social media too.
Dealing with unsubscribes
Those are the good things about sending out The Social Sunday newsletter and I thought it seemed only fair that I would talk about the bad too.
There honestly aren’t many negatives for me when it comes to a newsletter, but the hardest part is when someone unsubscribes.
At the beginning it’s really hard, especially if it’s one of your friends!
But as you carry on you realise that you only want people on your list who really want to receive your newsletter, especially if at some point you’re paying depending on the number of people on your list!
When people sign up to your newsletter they are inviting you into their inbox and they want you to provide something of value to them.
It’s quite normal if that changes.
I used to be subscribed to lots of clothes shops and receive their newsletters all the time. But when I stopped wanting to spend my money on new clothes, I unsubscribed.
I don’t think H&M are too upset that I’m not reading their newsletter anymore.
Or it could be that your content changes. You are allowed to change and grow and your business might offer different advice and knowledge too.
It’s just like ripping a plaster off.
Once you’ve got that first unsubscribe out of the way you’re good to go and ready to keep sharing!
If you want to start your first newsletter and you need some support, click here to find out more about The Five Day Newsletter Fix!