Do you actually need a newsletter?

Now you're probably wondering: am I in over my head? Why did my friend tell me I need a newsletter? Do I actually need one to run my business?

My opinion is yes. I'm a lifecycle marketer by trade, but I have a degree in social media management. And I can tell you that the difference between posting on social for your business and owning the relationship you have with your customer is night and day.

They're hard to make work without each other. But when they're working in tandem, it's like you're in a rowboat pulling both oars at the same time. You're moving, buddy. Your business is going to be moving.

Social media is rented land

Here's the main reason I think you need an email list if you own a business and you're consistently posting on social media.

Social media is rented land. You might have heard this before. A platform can change the algorithm, remove your account, or do something literally overnight that completely changes the way your business has to operate.

Think about it like a booth at a market. You rent and pay for the space. But if the market stops existing tomorrow, it doesn't matter that you paid for a vendor spot. The spot is gone. And with social media, you're definitely not getting a refund on something they gave you for free. Those followers are gone. Those relationships are gone. And the platform is moving on to the next thing.

One of my favorite local businesses had their Instagram taken down overnight. Twenty thousand followers. They had access to Instagram support and worked with them directly, and it still took a week to get an answer about why their account was gone. The account never came back. They had to start over, and it hit their business directly.

If they'd had a newsletter, would they have avoided the hit entirely? No. But would their audience have known exactly what was going on, without depending on an algorithm to show them the next event at that bar? A thousand percent.

When you own the relationship, social gets to be the place where you show up and be your best self, and email becomes the place where you nurture the relationship.

The real reason you need one

Here's the real reason to have a newsletter for your business: it builds a relationship, rapport and trust with potential customers, and it keeps you top of mind with the ones who already bought from you once.

You're not dependent on an algorithm to remind people you exist. Any time you send an email, it goes to everyone on your list, not just whoever Facebook or TikTok deems worthy of seeing your content.

And you can take it further. You can offer people perks for being on your list. You can tell them stories. If you're launching a new product, you can give them early access. There are limitless ways to connect with customers when you have email.

When you're beholden to an algorithm, you have to play by its rules just to reach the customers you already have. The followers who already asked to see more from you.

Think of it this way. If a friend says, "Hey, I'd love to grab coffee sometime," and gives you their number, they're inviting you to text them and set something up.

But if a friend says, "I'd love to grab coffee. I'll follow you on Instagram, let me know when you're free," then without DMs, you're stuck making a post and hoping it finds them.

It's the same thing for your business, on a much larger scale.

The paper goods newsletter I still read

There's a small paper goods company I've been subscribed to since I lived in Massachusetts. She writes funny, honest emails about sales in the store and what she's doing behind the scenes.

I haven't ordered from her in, legitimately, years. I'm still subscribed because when I need something, I check her store first, before my local shop. I just don't need paper goods that often.

I really, really love her emails because they're honest. They show who she is as a person, and they let me see the humanity behind the screen. If you're a small business owner, that's a really powerful thing to have.

Because when I'm shopping for paper goods, it's a lot easier to ask questions of somebody whose emails I can reply to than it is to say, "Hey, Amazon support, do you know the quality of this paper? How long will shipping take? Can you send me swatches of this ink? It doesn't really look red in the vial, but I know it's red. And wait, is there glitter in there? I can barely tell from the picture."

Those are all real questions I can ask because I'm on a small business owner's newsletter. I could never ask a big box store, because all they can do is send me sales emails.

What your newsletter should actually do

So if you're still wondering what your newsletter should do for you: build trust and rapport with your ideal customers. That's what helps them understand why you stand out and why they want to work with you.

It can tell stories. It can be honest. And it should be as human as possible.

I think a lot of people lose the plot when they look at the word "newsletter" and think it has to be newsworthy. They feel like they have to be journalists, when really, it's about sharing a story. If you share stories and watch how people respond, that gives you all the information you need to make an incredible newsletter.

Because at the end of the day, the response is everything. You want to understand how readers feel when they finish your newsletter. Excited? Relieved? Connected to you?

How Jay Clouse makes me feel

There's one newsletter creator I read every week: Jay Clouse. He just did an entire series on trust, and he's about the only person I see talking about how business owners can build trust on the internet when everything we see is a little bit fake.

Every time I finish his newsletter, I feel educated. I feel inspired. And I feel ready to take action.

That's perfect for his brand. It's called Creator Science, and it's about running experiments, getting results and learning along the way, whether you fail or succeed. His newsletter represents that work so well because he researches common pain points, notices how he's experiencing them as a creator, and assumes the creator on the other side is pondering the same ideas.

And because he has those feelings, he gets responses. And those responses become future topics.

Start with a feeling

That probably happens to you every day. I have a friend I call almost daily: when I'm pissed off, when I'm sad, when something exciting happened, when something irritating happened. Every one of those calls could be a newsletter. All of those feelings can go from a thought onto paper. Or keyboard. Or whatever.

So pick the feeling you want your reader to leave with and start there. Find that trigger feeling, then find the memory or topic attached to it. I guarantee that if you find the feeling first, it'll be a lot easier to find three topics around it.

What should your newsletter be about?

It probably feels obvious that your newsletter should be about your business. But that doesn't always mean what you'd think.

I have a client who's an astrologer. Her newsletter is about astrology, but not everything astrology. She loves to study moon cycles and the way the moon impacts the people around her. So her newsletter is about the real-life experiences she has during those moon cycles and the lessons they teach her, sent to astrology readers who are excited to learn more about the moon.

It seems really simple, but that narrowing lets her write excellent content people always engage with, and it's specific in a way no one else in her niche is. Plenty of astrologers talk about the moon. Most of them cover a much wider range every week.

Still looking for inspiration? Think about what you talk about with your business friends, your coworkers, or people in your niche. What keeps coming up? That thing is something you can write about once a week, or once every two weeks. That's your newsletter topic.

Fill in the blank

Here's the one sentence to walk away with. Figure out who you're writing to, what they should feel, and what you're sharing:

My newsletter helps ______ feel ______ by sharing ______.

Mine: my newsletter helps business owners feel confident by sharing newsletter tips.

Whatever you put there isn't set in stone. It evolves as your newsletter evolves, as you evolve, and as your business evolves. That's allowed. It's a starting point for the four weeks of work we're doing together, so that you actually enjoy writing your newsletter instead of putting it off, and putting it off, and doing it last minute.

This is supposed to be enjoyable. Your business, at every level, should be at least somewhat worth looking forward to. Even when it's busy. I love talking about email, and even on a heavy week, I look forward to it. Two things can be true. I want you to feel that way about your newsletter.

Next week: one of the first numbers you need to pay attention to in your newsletter, what it actually means, and what it's telling you about the people reading.

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