The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Great Newsletter (5 Steps)
How long will this take to read?
5-7 Minutes
Table of Contents
What can you include in your Newsletter?
The Five Pillars of a Great Newsletter
Have a Strong Headline that’ll GET Attention
Have a Strong Sub-Head that’ll KEEP Attention
Keep it Simple, don’t Intimidate
Be Personal and Conversational to better connect
Keep it between 200-250 words
Wanna start connecting more with your clients and prospects? If so, this blog’s for you!
Newsletters are one of the best ways (if not, THE best way) for you to develop a deeper connection with those you serve. They provide your audience with everything about your business and what it’s up to. From your personal take on current events, to special deals on your products and services, they’re great to have if you want to keep your business at top of mind.
The following will teach you everything you can contain in your Newsletter as well as the Five Pillars to writing one that clients/prospects look forward to opening.
Let’s dive into the different types of content you can include in your Newsletter…
What can you include in your Newsletter?
A solid and well structured newsletter could have up to five content components. Those components are…
-News/Current Events: Where you can talk about particular events related to your industry and voice your personal opinion/predictions.
-Recent/Popular Blog Posts : This section can have jump links to your most recent/popular blogs that your subscribers may have missed during the week/month.
-Discounts and Deals: Notify your followers with first dibs on special discounts and deals on products/services before anyone else.
-FAQ’s about your business: This is where you can inform newer viewers about the top 3-5 frequently asked questions about your business.
-Valuable/Useful Content: Perhaps, in my humble opinion, the most important section of your Newsletter. Here’s where you add valuable content that’ll help your audience in solving their biggest problems… improving themselves and their lives.
Now that you know what goes into a Newsletter, let’s dig into The Five Pillars that’ll help make yours unforgettable every time you click send…
The Five Pillars of a Great Newsletter
1. Have a strong headline that’ll GET their attention
80% of your marketing dollar goes towards a headline that’ll grab eye balls. You want your headline to be short and punchy containing only 4-10 words or enough to fill the subject line without leaving an ellipsis (…).
You also want your headline to instill an emotional reaction such as urgency and curiosity. This will get your audience wondering and/or excited for what your letter has to say.
Some examples may look like this…
-Subject: Open this = Get a FREE eBook…
-Subject: FREE, Time Sensitive Gift inside!
-Subject: Open this = receive 40% off your next order!
-Subject: The Most Effective and Under Rated tip nobody talks about…
2. Have a strong sub-head that’ll KEEP their attention
You want to have a good reason behind sending your newsletter and not “just because”. When it comes to finding content to share with my list, the site Nationaltoday.com. contains a boatload of resources. If you need some inspiration on what to write about, check them out.
Depending on your industry, they have international holidays, awareness weeks/months and celebrities birthdays related to your business that’ll help you in creating content for your newsletter.
You can also do what I do and create your own themes for each month.
Depending on how many Newsletters you want to send a year, write up all the important topics you want to inform your list. From there, just structure a Newsletter based on one of those topics.
Make sure you have at least 12 topics for a monthly Newsletter, 24 topics for bi-weekly and 52 for weekly.
3. Keep it Simple, don’t Intimidate
You want your newsletter to be concise and to the point. The goal in sending a newsletter is to educate/inform your list with worth knowing information followed by a request for action.
Your viewers are smart and know when you’re just trying to impress them. Don’t run the risk of being pretentious or grandiose. Even smart, well educated people enjoy reading copy that’s easy to read and understand.
Remember, if your prospects/customers have no idea what they’re reading, you loose there attention and, in some cases, their business.
Here are some pointers you can use to help keep your newsletter simple and basic…
-Use one column copy format
-Have some relevant pictures/images but not too much
-Use small words, sentences and paragraphs
You can use FREE apps like the Hemingway App to double check your work and making sure you’re within a second grade reading level.
4. Be Personal and Conversational to better connect
Business writing is night and day different from what you were taught in school. In school, the question you ask yourself is… “Will this get me a good grade?”.
In business, the question needs to be “Will this add value?” or “Will this make a profit?”.
To develop a close relationship with your followers, you need to learn how to write how you talk. Being grammatically incorrect is actually encouraged here because it keeps you from sounding inauthentic.
Another thing you can do to better connect is to be open with them about what’s going on in your life. Doing this will build a tremendous amount of trust with your list that’ll ultimately lead to raving fans of your Newsletter.
5. Keep it between 200-250 words
The ideal word count for a Newsletter is within 241 words. Again, the primarily purpose of your Newsletter is to inform your list on relevant information and what your business is up to this week/month. You can use the Hemingway App for a word count tool as well.
You want your newsletter to be concise, to the point but also very brief. According to the Nielsen Norman Group, most viewers leave web pages within 10-20 seconds. Lucky for you though, these five steps, when applied, will keep your audience on your pages for much longer. That’s because you took the time to write your newsletter the right way and packed it with valuable, useful content.
Take Away/Conclusion
Here’s the Take Away and Conclusion of today’s blog…
-Have a subject line that’s 4-10 words, to the point and gets attention . If you don’t get their attention in just a few words, it goes in the trash.
-Have a sub-head that’ll entice them to keep reading. Most people wanna learn something new every day. Teach them something that’ll add value to their lives.
-Keep your newsletter simple and to the point. Use small words, sentences and paragraphs. One column copy will do just fine. Don’t over do it with pictures and don’t show off. Keep it about them.
-Be personable and conversational. This is how you develop a deeper level of trust with your list. Write as if you’re talking to them one-on-one/face-to-face.
-Keep it brief and at a 2nd grade reading level. You have 10 seconds to grab their attention. Focus on solving their problems and they’ll stay longer. Remember that only educated people can understand difficult writing but everyone can understand basic writing.