How to Build a Better Newsletter
If you build it, they will come
As a consumer of email content, I share my ideas on what audiences want. Give readers something of value, and they will happily subscribe. If you build it, they will come.
Mailing lists remain an invaluable commodity in these uncertain times. Email newsletters allow us to communicate new ideas and research, clarify or modify previous guidance, and stay in touch with our audiences. But how can you ensure subscriber satisfaction?
Give your followers a reason to continually anticipate your updates, whether in written, audio, or video format. Too often I come across email newsletters that read as brag lists: long and winding discourses on recent endeavors, accomplishments, and accolades with little else to offer.
Now don’t get me wrong. I definitely want to know what you’re up to professionally, but I also want to know about the personal experiences you’ve had (both unique and universal), what you can teach me, and how you can enrich my life.
Unleash your inner raconteur and regale me with stories of your bravery and vulnerability, your endearing eccentricity, your authenticity, your hopes for humanity. Share your distinctive voice. Tell me about your struggles, not just your triumphs. The human element goes a long way.
Try some self-examination on for size if you prefer. What are your dreams and fears? What motivates you? What keeps you up in the middle of the night? What’s your raison d’etre, your reason for being?
Embrace your own special brand of ‘edutainment.’ Show me a new way of looking at things. Educate me on an esoteric topic. Share your perspective. Challenge me to practice gratitude daily, improve my productivity, stick to my fitness goals, or start a new career.
Give me something I can relate to (like the casual habit of ending sentences with prepositions). Let me know that I’m not alone in my suffering. Or transport me to a world I know nothing about (see, I did it again!). Paint me a picture of your community. Show me the beauty and the misery, the injustice and the compassion, the oppression and the opportunity.
Challenge my assumptions and biases, make me rethink my mental models, give me pause to reflect on my morals, values, and principles. Ask me to take a look in the mirror, critically examine the x-ray of my character, and make a change.
Inspire me, amuse me, inform me, empathize with me. Bring me your trials, your tribulations, your sanctified spirit. Endure with me in grief and strife. Revel with me in laughter and tears. Show me your disturbing, your ugly, your grotesque. Only leave me transformed.
