Lessons Learned Running A Newsletter

A twitter thread of lessons learned about newsletters

I have been running a newsletter for 4-5 years now, before it became cool. Initially I sent a newletter whenever I published a blog post, which was whenever I wanted to write. In the last 2 years I’ve been regular. I send every Wednesday. I call it “Wednesday Wisdom”

I had 94 subscribers in 2020 Jan I have 2404 subscribers now in 2021 July It is not a lot. But I learned quite a bit in these two years. Here are the lessons.

1. Don’t be a tool-hopper.

Mailchimp, convertkit, mailerlite are all just tools.

List what you want to accomplish
Research for the best fit (there won’t be a single tool that will meet all your needs)
Stay with it for at least 2 years

Lead with value, not with tool

None of 👇 matter, if it doesn’t generate conversation - either via email (best) or on social-media

open rate
click rate

newsletter: provide value to the reader
e-commerce: extract value from the reader

You could have a section in your newsletter for selling, but if it doesn’t provide value, you’ll lose subscribers.

4. Don’t confuse “news” with “letter”

Letter - personal, provides value, predictable frequency
News - Juicy happenings Unless you are a brand (company like Amazon or famous personality like Joe Rogan), people are more interested in letter than news.

5. Send at the same frequency

I experimented with many timeslots and settled at Wednesday at 10.15 AM IST.

When you send at the same time, it becomes a “habit” for your readers. I have been sending at this time for so long, now readers tell me they “expect” my email ;-)

6. Choose a topic

Internet is so wide, that you can always find folks who are interested in any topic.

Easiest to get started is curated letter (weekly collection of best articles in the topic)
You can also write your take on a topic in different angle

7. Don’t stray away from the main topic

Don’t confuse the readers with unrelated topics.

If it is a leadership newsletter, don’t send me your “news” about cycling trip you took (unless it is leadership lessons from cycling 😜

8. Create your own niche

Mix interesting categories

marketing + technology
business + psychology
freelancing + India

9. How to get subscribers?

Your newsletter is a stadium. Like stadiums, your newsletter should have many entrances.

subscribe form on main page
subscribe form on every post
two forms on a longer post
link on your email signature
link on social media

I speak at many college events. I mention it as a way to connect with me
When someone connects on Linkedin, I mention it
Mention on slack groups; facebook pages; forums (all related either to topic or to newsletters)

11. Reward new subscribers with a valuable asset

ebooks
planner
best posts as pdf

Make the new readers feel appreciated as soon as possible.

I used to say, “goto my site and signup”

Now I can share the signup url: https://jjude.com/subscribe/

(while we are on the topic, subscribe using the link)

I follow the same design
I mention where they signedup
I mention my name and the newsletter name

With same frequency and same design readers can recognize what the email is about.

There is a chance that people click your email as spam. Or google thinks it is a spam.

When you have a separate domain for newsletter (from that of email/website), you reduce the possibility of your main emails land in spam folder

15. DKIM / domain confirmation increases deliverability rate

I didn’t know about them until very recently (6 months back). Do them from the beginning

Helpful resources

Two resources that helped me a lot:

@nathanbarry conversation with @fortelabs : https://youtube.com/watch?v=CzYdwd1Eevw
Newsletter cohort run by @vijayanands. He closed it now. But it was extremely useful when it was running. We shared our experiments, learned from others.

Tools I use

@Mailchimp: have been my email newsletter tool for long. They UX can improve but overall it is great
@mjmlio: I design using mjml language mjml design is from @harrydry: https://mjml.io/try-it-live/C7

Questions?

Do you have any questions? Ask in this twitter thread.

Published On: 28 Jul 21
Under: #produce , #biz