Day 14
I’ve mentioned newsletters a couple of time already, but do you know why you need to be using them?
Social media only allows a small number of your followers to see any one of your posts in their feed. They have to be super engaged follower to see all of your posts. This means that a significant number of your followers are not seeing much of your content.
This is what makes social media as much as a curse as a blessing. Yes it’s free, but it’s not reliable in getting your message out there.
Newsletters are.
You get to send regular updates to your followers, with all the information and updates you want straight into their inbox. EVERYONE gets it, not just a small random selection chosen by Facebook or Instagram but everyone who has signed up for your updates.
The challenge is coming up with a title and tagline that compels your followers to open it. But it is a far more reliable form of communication than social media by far and you can get started for very low cost
So how do you start an email list?
- Choose your provider. You can start with a free account. Everyone has heard of MailChimp, but it is no longer the best as it is overly complicated and has limited free features. I recommend Mailerlite, as it is easy to use and is free up to your first 1000 subscribers
- Get a domain address. This is the only part that you need to pay for. If you are using an outlook, msn or any other personal email address, your emails will be going straight to spam boxes. You need a business address, and you can pick one up for around £15 per year and the bonus is that this then reserves the name for a website later down the line. You only need one, and you can simply call it hello@mybusiness name
- Encourage people to sign up to your newsletter. You can do that by offering a discount voucher for their next purchase. 15% is a good amount to offer, its enough to get peoples interest as a good deal, and won’t leave you too far out of pocket. You can advertise this on third party sites and set up a coupon code to automatically add the discount at checkout
- Email consistently. Start with once a month if you think you don’t have time to write newsletters more often. But I would recommend creating a welcome sequence as part of your know, like and trust journey