I love reading newsletters, and I love creating them for my clients.
We don’t ALL need a regular newsletter, but I do think most people and organizations would benefit greatly from having one. Taking a beat each week, or each two weeks, or each month or even each quarter, to gather your thoughts, consider your audience, and share what you’re working on can be incredibly valuable, for you and for your readers, too.
But when I ask people if they’re sending a weekly email to their closest contacts and/or recent customers just to stay in touch, they’ll say something like:
-“I’d love to, but I don’t have time.”
-“Most of my clients come through word of mouth, so I don’t need to do marketing.”
-“I don’t think I have enough to say to send people a regular message.”
-“It’s a nice idea, but it feels like a lot of effort without a tangible payoff.”
-“I’m not as funny as you are, Matt.”
Then they say something like, “But I love reading your newsletter. I look forward to it every week.”
I can’t draw a direct line from sending out this newsletter to getting new business. (In fact, one source of a few great contracts pointedly unsubscribed early on, saying, “I’m just not a newsletter person!”) But I can say that writing a weekly newsletter has made me feel more intentional about growing my business, deepened old friendships, and enriched current ones. I also like the weekly rhythm of forcing myself to organise my thoughts into written form for broader public consumption. It’s “deep work.” So, for me, it’s worth the few hours’ investment I put into it every week.
If you’re interested in starting a newsletter, I’d be happy to help you get over your blockers and get your first email out the door. I want to read your newsletter!
When I work with a client to set up a regular email for them, we’ll start with a quick questionnaire to position their strategy — what do they want to get out of the newsletter? What do they want their readers to get out of it? I might also do a 10-minute tone of voice exercise to try to nail down the way they’d like to come across. Then we’ll chat for another 10 minutes about something that’s really on their mind lately. After the call, I’ll turn all of that into the draft of the first email.
The important thing in an email is to sound like yourself. And writing regularly to your audience—it can include your high school friends and even your mum, if you want—helps build your voice.
In the meantime, if you’re still on the fence, here are a few newsletters that have inspired me:
– Ajanta Restaurant. This was the first newsletter I fell in love with, from my favorite Indian restaurant in Berkeley, California. Each month the owner wrote a long, lovely email detailing new dishes. Unfortunately they haven’t sent a new edition in over a year, but I hold out hope they’ll start again. In the meantime, you can read the last edition on their website.
– Arnold Schwarzenegger. Arnold writes incredibly long monthly emails with stories from his life, updates on projects he’s working on, answers to reader questions, and more. It’s very clear he writes these himself and they are really fun to read. My newsletter inspiration! Read his latest at the link.
– Three Lives & Company. My local bookstore here in the West Village. Their quarterly newsletter feels like a long note from an old friend, with neighborhood news, upcoming releases, and lots of staff recommendations. A calming delight that they don’t post online, so subscribe and be ready for a treat in a month or two.
Have a good one, and don’t let the haters get you down,
