![]() I’ve read one newsletter that manages to be warm, human AND helpful ( Caroline Leon - highly recommend her newsletter for authentic business insights). They are purely useful, and thus impersonal and rather boring. This is where most newsletters begin and end. ![]() Something that helps the person you’re writing to do something better or feel better, maybe even have an ‘aha’ moment. ![]() Once we’ve started with empathy, once we’ve made it personal, then you’ve got to deliver something of use. Help your readers be better, do better, feel better There’s a pressure to make it more than that.īecause I do run a business (and so do you), and we’re not just here to chat (well, sometimes we are), we’re here to help.Īnd that is the last piece of what makes a good newsletter tick. That’s what a newsletter should do too, I think.īut a newsletter isn’t just a personal letter between friends. (And I would like to shake your hand.)Īnd just that little bit of connection, that empathy, starts to build a bridge between us, so neither one of us feel quite as alone as we did. Today, it’s November 30th and I’m already overwhelmed by December (it’s COMING. Here, we flip it, and start with how we’re feeling, with the hope that we are not alone. You start by empathizing with how your prospects feel. Like “Here’s where I’m at, maybe you’re here too, and the world is going sideways, but here’s the way I’m finding to muddle through.” That is the basic structure.įunny enough: That is also the structure of how I begin sales pages, and sometimes about pages. The other thing I’ve noticed about the emails I read is that they start with empathy. And yes, sometimes these emails include a launch or an invitation, but mostly, they’re just fun to read. Bonus points if they include pretty pictures or animal photos. The newsletters I love most are the ones that are personal missives ( Katherine North) and love letters ( Susannah Conway). Not just what they know that can potentially benefit me. ![]() It’s not that I don’t care about their expertise - I do. I haven’t hit unsubscribe either, to be fair.īut I’ll tell you what would make me open every email: If Joanna shared who cuts her hair and where she shops (because hot damn, that woman has so much style), and if Tad gave regular updates on his gardening and extracurricular projects. But, confession: Even though each of their emails is jam-packed with immediately useful, sometimes profound information, I don’t tend to read them very carefully. Joanna Wiebe (one of the best copywriters in North America) and Tad Hargrave ( you should totally follow him) do this incredibly well. Most marketers will say that you have to pack SO MUCH VALUE! into every communication that you train people to open and read your emails. This flies in the face of what marketers tell you to do. What is the real difference between the few newsletters I read and the hundreds I’ve asked, very nicely, to please never contact me again? My theory on how to make a newsletter people (not just your mother) want to read Make it personal And these newsletters made me wonder: Could I write a newsletter that lifted, lightened and brightened your day?īecause that’s what the newsletters I keep have in common.įor those of you who have newsletters or who are considering starting a newsletter, come join me in nerdy analysis land as we figure out… I figure nobody, but NOBODY, needs another damn thing in their inbox.īut then there were some newsletters that survived my semi-annual culling of unnecessaries. I’ve been opposed to doing a newsletter for a long time. So let’s just talk about that cognitive dissonance for a second. I’m starting a newsletter AND I’m unsubscribing from every unnecessary thing. Kidding! No, you’re hitting Unsubscribe to every unnecessary thing! ‘Tis the season when my inbox threatens to hit triple digits of unread emails, and I bet that between Amazon orders, holiday sales and well, the entire capitalist structure raining ads down upon you, you’re doing what I’m doing.
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