Lessons

Lesson Info

Newsletter Types: Posts

The next type is a post, so we've been getting a lot of questions about I got a blogger and I got a newsletter list I'm on twitter and on google plus I write stuff on facebook how do I manage all this content and a post you know, in the broad sense of the term is any time you're posting anytime you're publishing something somewhere it's a post right? I'm putting a little outpost of content out here and I'm linking it back to me to my brand, probably my website s o a newsletter is a post in that sense, and when I use this term, what I mean is basically it's an article you're delivering the essentially a blawg post, but you're doing it on email format, and so the characteristics of it are it's new it's something that you just wrote it is frequent and it's also expected, and so this is new contents it can be found elsewhere on the internet. It might be linked to a blogger facebook page on you're just you're delivering it because it's convenient because I don't want to go to your website t...

o read all your articles and it is an article so some examples of that are self code and mentioned him before he publishes blogged posts sometimes a few times a day at least one post every day he's done that for years and their short right? So this is something to consider when you create mohr frequent content you know, you don't have to say as much each time because you're building on each piece of content progressively and people are coming to trust you through all of that content so you don't have to write a thousand word article every single day if this is the kind of content that you're creating so what seth does? He actually started gosh, fifteen years ago, maybe more he started blocking and before he did that he would write an email newsletter and he would just send it out to colleagues and he he worked for start up for a while and he realized that a great way to motivate people to lead people is to send a short email with a little thought. And so this is how seth gordon's got started blogging and south for those who you don't know it's like the godfather of blocking he didn't start blogging and then get an email list he started writing email newsletters and he found that blogging was a great way to support that because now I can archival my newsletters and their online and people can read them and share them and they can also get them the email so this is an example where it's not either or so chris broken is an example where he writes content for his blogged and for newsletter and he's, cool with that, and, in fact, he's pulled back a lot from writing for his block to write more for his newsletter, but he's, writing one belong post and one newsletter on guy think he could probably find ways to combine that, but that's working for him right now, seth godin as it all combined he's writing it all on his blawg and it's all going out his email list and there's interaction. I mean, if you email seth, if you're on his email list and you reach out to him, it's likely that he'll respond that's something that he's known for, uh, and I've mentioned before this is don't tell people that so sorry. Um, but that honestly, that is that is part of his brand is he is accessible through email now, he's not on twitter he's, not on google, plus he's not really engaged on facebook, eso he's chosen that medium to be really engaged because he sees the r a y, but both in terms of people trusting him and also in terms of you know what he's able to do with his tribe so he's sending out daily e mails that are powered by his block and that works for him. Another example of the post is a guy named steven press field another author whom I follow wrote the book called the war of art from those of you who are writers or artists great book that motivates you on getting your aren't out there and he has a similar style as seth it's kind of a mash up between seth and chris and that he's running longer articles with his team you know so they all share this blawg and he's an author but he's got you know, a team of people that are working with him on his business was a publishing company and they do a bunch of other things and each person I think rights once per week maybe so there's a few articles per week and then all of those go out the email and so another example where a blogger is connected tio uh to an analyst but there's no I mean there's not that really here's what's new with us it's all content it's stories, it's articles it's stuff that's going to help you get to where you need to go and then in the body of that content there is oh, by the way, if you want to go by this or go get this then you can do that and seth is is really notorious for that he won't ask without giving first and so this is different from doing like a enough date where you might say hey it's, time to go buy my book and there's nothing wrong, you know I mean different messages have different effectiveness for different audiences, but with this kind of format you would always give first by creating content and then if you had an ask it would come at the end you would never write an article with this kind of format where it was just go go by this go get this because it doesn't really work because you're trying to create a helpful resource and article that's going tio live somewhere forever these these kinds of articles people are going to save their going to visit them on your blogged you want to keep this stuff around? I like to think of this is more evergreen content and I like writing this content like a newsletter that does this because the content can live forever it's not time sensitive, you know you're not talking about justin bieber and a few years from now people going who it's sorry, justin, I'm sure that won't happen seriously you're doing great thank you for watching er but you know it is I mean you're creating hopefully timeless material that will endure longer than you know this week's headlines. Lastly is a friend of mine, emily freeman, who also has an email newsletter she knows something interesting where she has combined her blawg with a monthly email newsletter and so she kind of does the post and the update combined so good e mails emily's blawg chatting at the sky dot com and you're gonna get inspirational uh uh content but I think primarily geared towards women and on you consent of her email list and you're going to get this content and you can decide whether or not you want just the block post or the block post and the newsletter is if you get just a block post you're going to go to her newsletter and go to her blawg and whatever she's publishing on her block that day you're going to the same thing in your email list it's just kind of convenience but if you sign up for the newsletter you're going to get at the end of the month kind of a big long newsletter uh with her saying here's kind of like a mini article here's something that I've learned about life this month here's what's new with our family it's a little bit more personal it is basically an update and then you know here's some other things that are happening with me you can go check out some pictures on instagram or hear some links of great articles that I've been inspired by it's really a mash up of what we've talked about you've got the update somebody like a daniel payne who's saying there's kind of some cool stuff that's going on it's just a way for you to get a little bit more involved with you know what's going on with me? I'm not just sending articles, I'm also giving you kind of a peek into my life, but it's also, but there's also opportunity get those articles and so that's an example where we've gone from, you've got seth godin just delivering content, it's the same on his block, it's coming in your inbox and you've got people like daniel pink who's, just really setting out his newsletter on bit's, going pretty infrequently and any sort of combined those, and so we've talked before doing to a block to do newsletter it really is up to you. I want you to think about what sustainable about what people will value, what you could do consistently, and maybe what excites you. So emily didn't start with her newsletter. She started with her blawg, and years into it, she called me and said, I think I want to start it on email newsletter we talked about how that would work for her and how she could get it set up, and you know what made sense? And so she does some cool things with her newsletter list that she doesn't do on her blogged like she invited some ladies to go through a like a book club together with over there, reading through a book, and they were discussing it just threw her newsletter, you couldn't find this, you know, access or anywhere else online, so it was a fun way to add some unique value to her tribe in a way that excited her and certainly made a difference to those readers and it was exclusive it wasn't available for everybody. Yes, first sets I'm assuming that the post that you get in the through with email don't have a greeting and a closing good question? No, because because there and that's something with male ship if you set up on our ss campaign and you could do this with a weber, you could do this with a number of services you have two options there first of all, since its automated sets not going and right against separate email it's all just seamlessly going out he uses a service called feed blitz, which is takes our says feed and sends it out so whatever you write on your blogged it's going to send that out but was something like male chimp er or a weber, you can customize that template, so in theory what you could do and chris gila bo does this hey certainly does it at the end of his of his newsletter there's a closing so you could basically edit your your template to say here's, my here's, my rcis template uh and at the beginning hey person or high or something and then you've got put the orissa's content here, and then you could have a traditional closing. Thanks, jeff. And so if you did that, it would basically be the same every time until you change that template. But you could do that. I mean, you could have it as a letter. That's a great question. Yeah. So to be fair, when you do just the post thing, you lose some of that personal feel. Um, now some readers don't care. They just want your content. I've found that that's true for a lot of my readers, they just want help. Um, but I do think it's helpful tio occasionally check in with them and say, hey, here's what's going on with me, and I always get a lot of engagement on this thing, so, um, yeah, you will lose a little bit of that personal connection if you go straight to I'm just going to send the post directly to people, the email and what I like about using a service like male champ array. Weber a supposed to just a strict ah ss feed email service is you can go in and send a newsletter to those people that have just been getting your feed so you can send them a personal message that says, hey, how's it going you know, are you liking things like this is just a message just for you I'm not putting it on my blogged I think that builds trust with people so using a service like that that enables you to send newsletters and not just dripping out the you know, the the block post is an advantage because you can reach out to those people that way. So jeff, we have a couple of questions if that's if this is a good time to ask, okay, great doris type wants to know your take on auto tweeting as a campaign does it mean that the content is less exclusive and what one incentive would they give for people to sign up their actual newsletter if you know they're finding that content on an auto tweet sort of schedule I've played around with this I've done things where one of her sort of my newsletter I poured my heart into this and you create it and then you're like, I kind of want everybody to be able to read this and so then I would tweet it out and people would find it and then I was like, well, maybe I should just put this on my blog's then on and so what I've come to conclude, you know, inclusion that I've come to first of all, what is most important is that the content gets to the people that needed so people will ask me, should I send a summary of the block posted that that then links to the web site or sites in the hole blonde post I'm of the mindset that you want to give as much as possible so whatever is valuable to your readers if they get a little summary and they go cool, I want to click that go to the website or maybe you have a lot of video content and it doesn't like you can't really embed it well into an email so you're going to have to send that summary anyway there's some you know instances where that makes sense but I don't think we should ever think like how can I get my readers to do this? How can I get the most out of them? What we should be asking is how could give them the most how can I serve them the most trust me if you make it about them they're going to make it about you they're gonna that's kind of that relationship is going to come back around so should you auto tweet should you not? What I have personally come to do is I don't do that anymore and email is special that's exclusive what I will do it is if I want to leverage the power of twitter I'll do one of two things with my email list I will write something that's tweeted ble in in the newsletter, and then I will encourage people to tweet that out using a web site called click to tweet dot com you can you can write a little line and you can go to twitter quick to tweet dot com, and it will generate a link that you can then embedded into your newsletter. People click that and automatically it's going to say jeff coins is amazing or, you know I will say the quote and then so you can actually, uh in bed that into your newsletter if you want to get some more love on twitter, I've done that before to kind of get quotes out there. The other thing I've done is, hey, if you have really been enjoying this newsletter and you want other people to be involved, uh, use quick to tweet again. Just click this link to share on twitter and what that link will say is I'm loving these newsletters by at jeff coins join here, and so instead of empowering them to share the content or even me sharing the content with people on twitter, when I'm doing is I'm getting my readers to talk about we're part of this really cool club is amazing party, and you should be a part of it. Two and so what happens, people I keep hearing about, you know, so and so and I think I need to sign up for their newsletter so you can tweet that stuff out there and if you've got a if you're if you if you're doing a post and you're sending out, you know, block post email, you want to send people back to that blond post, but if you're just sending an exclusive email newsletter and there's this sense that this is special, this is just between us think that there are better ways to get that to spread. You could ask them to afford it to share it with a friend, but just, you know, kind of tweeting about it. I don't I've tried that, and I don't know that it adds much value. Good question we had another question come in from village drummer fiction had the thought that it wants to know what your thoughts are actually undoing newsletter twice a month, but defining when it would be so let's say the second and fourth thursday of every month or something to that to that degree, what do you suggest that I think that's fine. Yeah, I know lots of people, photographers especially seemed to do this, they'll write newsletter once or twice a month, and they'll do it every other week. And I think you need to be consistent, you know? So it's not just two letters in a month it's the first and fifteenth of every month for you know what, whatever works and I think people you know have grace read to go I got it on the fourteenth you liar but in general like that means I should be getting, you know, one of the twenty eighth and one of the twenty ninth they should be spread out, you know, a couple weeks apart, but I think that's an adequate frequency I think if you're worried about your readers going that's too much content but monthly seems like not enough. I think every other week is great I think that that's consistent and that's another example where you want those, the less you send, the more you want those newsletters to rock because you get fewer tries at welling your audience well, actually this piggybacks pretty well on that take a posh they could weigh dio actually there's one and in here that male chimp if they're watching us koto dake apart says as a photographer, we're not selling anything in particular yes, we want them to book our services, but we don't want our emails to be a sales pitch being that photography is oversaturated, so how can they make their content more appealing? Great question er and this is especially to have lots of friends for photographers and people that are in service industry, and they go this doesn't work for me, you know, I don't I don't get people who sought for my email list that then go book me for a wedding, it just doesn't work like that, and I totally get that, uh, I still think you should be engaged. I still think you should get into email marketing for two reasons. One just because your tribe isn't necessarily your customers doesn't mean that your tribe can't help you find more customers. So for example, if you are a high in demand photographer where you want to be, uh, and you've got stuff that you want to share and it could be your sharing photography tips or you're a wedding photographer and you're sharing brides maid tips because you've been to so many weddings and you've seen so much, you know, go on that, you know how to put together a great wedding or how do you know how a bride can, you know, keep her bridesmaids and go bridezilla on them, whatever it might be? Um, you've got some expertise that you can share, and when you share this expertise with this audience, say, for instance, bryant's they're going to be talking about you and you can use that conversation to build a part of your business in a way that you never have to pitch your email this that's okay, you don't have to sell to them. It can still grow your business by getting people to talk about you elevating your sense of celebrity, of fame when people tune in and people talk about brands and causes that they're following. Like we said before, we tend to buy things that other people are talking about. We tend to trust brands that are friends, air referring to us, and so I still think it's really beneficial to build an email list. The second reason is what about the day that comes when maybe you don't want to travel and do wedding photography? What about when you decide I want to pivot with our business or we want it? We don't just want to do service work. We also want to create some products or you've just realized, as I did, that enough people care about what I have to say about this topic, that it would be worthwhile for me to do something that I never thought I would do. I'm going to create a product specifically for these people that are tuned in because there's enough of a demand. And so you might not plan on doing it right now and that's okay, but that doesn't mean that some day it might not be bad toe have the option. What I like about having an email list about having a permission asset that allows you to have direct connection with an audience is it gives you an opportunity. Tio, control your business in ways that don't require you to travel or get booked a certain number of times a year, and I've learned this is the writer most writers are kind of, they're they're often by vocational I'm trying to think of, ah, nice word for poor like they struggle, and I was prepared to struggle to because it's kind of sink or swim, feast or famine, where you get a big advance to write a book and you spend through all that advance and you got to go write another book, and I have friends have to write a couple of books a year just to pay the bills and it's tough and on that's that's cool, I mean, you know, they're fine with that. I wasn't fined with that, you know? And the other way too do it is to travel a bunch and speak, you know, a lot of writers make their money speaking. And I didn't want to have to do that with a young kid at home. I did that a little bit, and it realized this isn't as fun as I thought it would be living in a hotel, you know, every week, so having an email list gave me the power, the opportunity to step back, and I don't have to do those things because I have an audience and I could find ways to serve them in ways that they're going to value and when they value what I'm offering them there's opportunities for income. So just because it's not what you do right now doesn't mean that they're not might not be a cool opportunity down the line to pivot your business or open up a new income stream who wants a new income stream where you don't have to travel and it's almost free this's the amazing thing about email is even if you have tens of thousands of subscribers, you're spending hundreds of dollars a month to reach tens of thousands of people. It's not that much money, it is extremely cost effective in the r a y on that is huge out of ten thousand people, what do I get? Got to get everybody to pay me to make back that three hundred dollars, in order for me to not lose money on this deal. Penny's fractions of pennies you know, it's very easy for you to make an investment into a marketing and ever like an email list and make back what you invest very hard to do that with advertising very hard to do that with all with a big event, typically, marketing is a negative sign on a budget. You know it is this this expense and you hope to recoup it later, right with sales and even less is not that what it is an asset. It is an investment, it cost you very little with male chimp upto two thousand subscribers. They're not paying me to say this, I promise it's just a great deal. It's free gashi nothing. Why wouldn't you do that? I know somebody who runs a business on twenty five hundred email subscribers it's a two hundred fifty thousand dollars business, and she runs that out of her living room. It's not I mean you, khun. You could do pretty well with not a lot of people and it's all through email.