Lessons

Lesson Info

Newsletter Types: Updates

It's great tio be going through this with you guys it z exciting for me, teo, hear about some of the stories that you have to share about the message that you have that the world needs to hear. I do believe that that's not exaggeration on my part, I think that they're big things in store for you guys and your messages, and I'm excited that the world needs to hear them, because we need more of that. We need mohr great content out there, more people who want to help other people with their messages with their businesses, with their products, on fewer people that are just trying to get a quick buck or spam people or get them to do something. And you know that you guys have those kinds of hearts, and I know that you guys tuning in do as well. So we talked about how you get set up with a newsletter. We've talked about how you write a newsletter now, it's about how do we actually communicate these messages? We understand the technicalities of it, we can sit down and do it, but what am I actu...

ally going to write? And, uh, what are the things that I'm going to say specifically, not just how do I technically do this? What do I actually say? And so this is about your message it's about what do I have that the world needs and how do I share that in a compelling way, that's going to call people to action is going to motivate them to make a change it's going to motivate them to sign up to hire you that's going to motivate them to go buy a product or join your insider group, whatever it is that you're doing, this is what we're trying to move towards. And so how you write these messages, the things that you have to say, it effects how people respond and react, and so it's important that we don't just think in terms of marketing, I know we've talked a lot about what marketing isn't and talked about how we're trying to make the world a better place. We're trying tio share content that people I need to hear, and so what we're marketing is change or marketing something that some people need that they're not going to get if you don't step up and do what you're supposed to do. And so how you do that, how you call people to action, how you deliver messages, how you go about building that trust it matters it's not just a matter of you just saying whatever it is that you want to say it's a matter of saying what's going to connect, what's, going to move and motivate people somebody mentioned earlier that's they used to like writing their news letter, but now they look forward to the loving it because they're excited about how they can make those words make the most impact possible. So what I'm trying to say is how you market your message, how you get this thing to spread, it determines who you actually get to get in front of so it's not just a matter of how do we get people on the list, and then how do I give them what they need? It's really a question of how do I kraft my message in such a way that it's so compelling that people wanted to spread, they want to share it? And so determining what kind of newsletter you're going to have and whether or not it's going to be ah bunch of log posts or a unique, weekly or monthly here's what's new with me, or maybe it's going to be a bunch of links that you have to share all of that effects, how far it spreads and how many people it reaches because have you ever gotten a great email? And you've forwarded that to somebody? Have you ever gotten a great email? And you've talked about it with friends or maybe even tweeted about it or talked about it on social media? Yeah, great content spreads. And that's just not a matter of great writing it's about the structure around the writing we can't in the limited time that we have together make everybody here great writers but we can do is we can take your message and we can teach you how to be effect live with it and one of the ways that you can be most effective is by figuring out what kind of structure, what kind of skin you want to put around your message and that is your newsletter type it is the way that you communicate what you have to say, so what I want to do during this session and this is going to be more interactive, so I want you guys to be ready to stump me because at the end of today you're going to go create that newsletter, you're going to go do that, and so what we need to figure out now is how I'm actually going to do this. I want you to leave here without any questions so that you can, you've got the skin you've got, you've got the content, you've got the structure for the newsletter you've got you're all set up by mel champ it's time to get going so I want you to be thinking about it could do it this way I could do it that way here, the questions that I still have and I want us to answer those I want you to have an idea of here's how I'm going to do this okay good so I want to share with you a few examples few types of newsletters that you might consider these I think are the basic types of newsletters to consider and then I'll give you some examples about how people apply these in terms of different kinds of frequency whether their weekly daily monthly to whom they go, what kind of information they share, how long they are whether they use a bunch of graphics or not we're going to talk about all of that and all of these air just templates for you to kind of figure out where do I fit into this process? Where does my content fit and what do I think people would want to hear from me? And when you're thinking about the type of newsletter that you want to create I want you to think about not just what people want to hear what oh I like but what's a way that I can do this consistently, you know? So it's not just how could I do this? Amazingly, but how could I do this every week or whatever your promise is going to be? How can I show up all the time and deliver on this promise that I'm going to make? I'm not saying you know, downplay it I'm not saying that you don't try to be amazing, but I do want you to think about consistency because this is a relationship that we're trying to build with our readers and so it's not about one amazing newsletter it's about a bunch of really great newsletters that over time creates this amazing trust where your readers your tribe is going to go wherever you want to lead them. So the first type is what I would call on update and this is just a simple hey here's what's new and it could be here's what's new with our business here's what's new with me here's what's new in this particular subject or genre if you've got an area of expertise were the go to person on organic gardening and you're just sharing a bunch of links a bunch of resource is from other sources that something you know, that's that all kind of fits into the update but it's basically here's what's new and the characteristics of an update our it has unique content and so what that means is I can't go find this somewhere else it's either curated content from a bunch of different sources, but I can't find this all in one place or it's a short letter delivered to your readers that they can't get anywhere else they can't get it on your block they can't find it on your website it's not going to be in social media this is unique and this is a major selling point to this kind of news letter because they can't get it anywhere else. It's exclusive updates and an update convene whatever, but it needs to be exclusive it's also sent out regularly because you know the idea is you're sending out newsworthy things so here's what's new here is what I'm thinking about this week here's how we're doing in our business whatever it might be there's a regularity to that and regularly depends on you we talked a little bit about that earlier is it okay? Send out a quarterly newsletter doesn't have to be monthly or weekly I would encourage you to consider a weekly or monthly frequency just because that's when we tend to reset you know the month resets every thirty days or so most of our schedules reset every week you want to have some semblance of consistency there are some examples where you can do it regularly share one with you in a second but regularly just means whatever that means to you and your audience but it needs that's some sense of predictability like once I get this one I know when the next one's coming and if it's a quarter fine but there has to be anticipation we have to be waiting for it otherwise when it arrives it's irrelevant I'm not going to open it immediately and we want people to open our messages immediately unique content sent out regularly the audience knows it's coming there's that anticipation so all of these kind of lied to each other the unique content leads some of that anticipation because we want what you have to say the regularity creates a sense of ok, I got this one last week but it's been a little while I want the next thing if you're adding value if you're showing up whenever you said you were going to whenever you promised then people are gonna start expecting it and they're going to get excited for you to say what you have to say if you're saying something that adds value and I want you to get excited about that this isn't about throwing out a bunch of messages to people that don't want to hear from us it's about sharing valuable, resourceful information that's going to affect people's lives in a positive way and that's gonna affect your life in a positive way you're going to be able to take that attention and trust and you're going to be able to build and expand your business with it so it is a win win so those of the characteristics of a nup date unique contents and it regularly the audience knows it's coming so here's some examples of that I mentioned earlier a website called daily lit dot com, which is short for daily literature and this is they take a bunch of like back list fiction works that are under public domain s o you know usually stuff that's you know predates nineteen twenties and so these air classic novels and what the web site does is you sign up with your email and they deliver book content to you in short little chunks and as I mentioned, I signed up a few days ago for warren peace and they send you a little chunk of it and when you get to the end of it you say ok, I'm done reading this I want the next installment of warren peace and so you go from one out of five hundred eighty four installments too two out of five hundred eighty four I don't know exactly the word count break that they do, but they're piecing out great works and the little chunks that you get you know delivered on your phone or in your in box so you can read every day so that's it daily email and it's an update and you are specifically requesting a certain book be sent to you and there are some, you know, websites that send daily frequency so one of the things that I hear a lot is how much is too much email? It depends right like I'm not going to go to daily lit dot com and say, how dare you? You sent me installment two out of five hundred eighty four of war in peace because I asked for it because I wanted it, and I understood that this is going to be sent to me every single day one because it says data, lee lit, and, too, because when you sign up for newsletters with them, you can actually pick the days that you deliver content, so it is highly customizable on bits. All permission based. Another example of an update with a different frequency is a weekly newsletter, so I follow a guy named chris broken, and you can go down goto opt in for his newsletter on small business tips at chris broken dot com. So chris started this over a year ago, I think that he had been blogging, and he had a big tribe, but he didn't really have an email list. He had people receiving his blawg post female, but he wanted a ah tribe of people that wanted to hear what he had to say on specific issues, and he wanted to offer it, you know, wanted offer that kant that through email, and he was, I think he was thinking about expanding his business, moving away from speaking and moving mohr into product development, that sort of thing, and the email list has allowed him to pivot from what I can see very well, so what chris does is, every sunday morning, he sends out a unique text on ly email about here's what's here's what's new with me here's what I'm thinking about and it's not here's what's new with me I took the dog for a lock and I went for a run everything's great here's what I'm learning in business right now because this is what his tribe once they want to learn about how to build their business, how to grow their business and so he shares with you personal things that have some sort of business application. So I was in the gym this week and I learned that this is the secret to motivation in here's how you can apply it to your business he does this every week consistently every sunday he's got kind of a fun format he starts by telling you here's what I'm drinking today I'm drinking tea or I'm having a beer or I'm having a cup of coffee what are you drinking? And this is kind of a fun called action that he has is as you as you're reading this I'm sipping a cup of tea right now what's your what's your sunday morning like because a lot of people start their sunday mornings, you know, drinking a hot beverage and so and so he's connecting with his reader and he's giving them an opportunity for personal engagement so that's the weekly newsletter does that every week you can't find that content anywhere else you can on ly get it by signing up for his newsletter and it's really good stuff and he's really committed to this I mean, he has a huge personal brand on he's most committed to his email list and you'll see on his block now he's consistently pointing people to go sign up for his email newsletter because that's his inner circle excuse me and part of the reason that it's his inner circle is because those are the people that buy from him. He understands that when he has your email address and he builds trust with you, he can lead you to a point where you're ready to buy something and you'll see that if you sign up for this list, he adds a lot of value and then once in a while he'll call you to action and he's very clear about when he does that so that you don't feel hoodwinked. So that's, a weekly newsletter with unique content another example of an update. The final one, which is very irregular, is by a guy named daniel pink whose best selling author and he has what I think is called like the irregular and irreverent newsletter I mean, every time he starts his newsletter, it says, welcome to another installment of this irregular and a reverent newsletter, and so he acknowledges, I just kind of send this out whenever and it's a handful of times a year, it's less than monthly. It probably a little bit more than quarterly on it's. Interesting. And, you know, dan is a highly in demand speaker traveling all the time. He's a busy guy, and he e mails his list when he's got something to say when he's going to check in when he's got something to say ad, you know value to you or when a book is coming out and he wants you to go buy it and it's very clear and, you know, there's, no fluff about it, he's not delivering a bunch of content that you can't keep up with because this is what apparently he can commit to, uh, is sending this irregular in a reverent newsletter if you do this, if you take a less frequent format, I think one of the things that you need to consider is how do I add a lot of value where it's clear that this is worth my time? So what dan does is it's a bit longer, and it is really it's not like one big long letter it's like here's what's going on with me, it's very personally talks about here's, a show that I'm watching with my wife here, a bunch of links to block post and articles that I've been enjoying and then here's what I'm working on right now here's you know the paperback version of my book is out or I'm doing some research on this topic it feels like maybe what we might think of traditionally as a newsletter there these different sects mintz and they're pretty predictable they're always the same here's what I'm reading that's inspiring me here's what's going on and then here's you know here's something new um so if you're going to do that if you're gonna do the irregular check in you have to find a way to make it interesting to make it special and I think that your readers your followers you have to have a lot of brand equity you have to have a lot of trust best selling authors seem to be the only kind of people that can get away with this business owners who are using their email lists to build their business I don't know that it's a smart strategy if you are somebody of celebrity status in your industry then this could work another example somebody who does this is author elizabeth gilbert who wrote eat, pray love you know run away international best seller and she has a newsletter like this and it's it's it might be almost monthly but it's a little less frequent than that from what I can tell same kind of deal here's what's new with me it's really just to check in I love you thank you for reading what I have to say here's a bunch of stuff that's helpful you know by the way here's what's you know here's what I'm working on and so conversion isn't really a priority here calling people to action it's pretty minimal because you really sending for five, maybe six of these emails per year and so you need to be adding a lot of value and then maybe taking just once in the year with this sort of structure because if you're constantly taking and you're not giving then you know it's going to be unequal and it's not going to feel like a good relationship. So the benefit to sending more frequent messages is if you have something to pitch or you want to call your audience to action in ways that feels a little bit like a taking like I need you to buy something or I want you to vote for this contest that I mean uh, if you're sending less frequent e mails you obviously make less frequent asks not only because you're sending your e mails but because you're not building as much trust with e mails that you are sending and so if I send one hundred e mails in a year and ten of those are sales pitches well that's you know that's ten percent that's not terrible that's not bad, but if I send five e mails a year and you know, three of those are sales pitches I mean that's over fifty percent and people remember that gosh, every time you email me, it seems like you're asking for something and so you have to consider that how much do I want to interact with my tribe? How much am I interested in selling something or pitching something and how does that even out? You know, how does for every twenty times I give howto I make you know, an ask that makes sense and I think the ratio just depends on your industry what people are expecting from you, but I think it should be less than half I think less than half the time you should be giving you should be asking versus giving and there are times when you can give where it's also an ask and we'll talk about that more in in the selling session s o it's not an either or but I think you know when you're being completely generous or when you've got something that you need from your audience and I think they know that too. And so when you're thinking about frequency on you're thinking about doing another update, you know, the type of newsletter that you're going to send take these things into consideration how much can I send you know, messages like this, how often do I want to pitch and how much brand equity. How much trust do I need to build? To get to a point where I could send a pitch where it could make an ask that's? The first type is an update.