“Set up newsletter” is on the to do list of many beginning small business owners. Or maybe you’re experienced and it’s still on your list.
Like many small business coaches and mentors, I too advise the vast majority of my clients to start a newsletter. But why is a newsletter so useful for small businesses? Why should you start one too, or make the most of the one you have?
In this post, I’ll explain why newsletters are so great for small business (and perhaps even convince you to start your own if you haven’t yet).
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Newsletters are the most direct way of sharing and selling
In Small business newsletter magic I show a slide that roughly explains how people move from never having heard from us to buying from us (it’s like the traditional marketing funnel but less ick).
The three stages I identify are ‘discovery’, ‘getting to know you’ and ‘becoming your fan’. All three of these stages are needed to run a business, but many marketing channels are firmly stuck in the ‘discovery’ and ‘getting to know you’ stages.
‘Discovery’ includes social media, word of mouth, podcasts, Pinterest, YouTube and your website (SEO).
Once people have discovered you, they might move on to ‘getting to know you’. Something’s sparked their interest and they decide to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on social media, Pinterest or YouTube.
And that’s where most marketing channels end. They never reach the ‘becoming a fan’ stage. Newsletters do.
Because newsletters are the most direct way of sharing and selling online. They can be almost as intimate and effective as personal interactions. They are more focused than social media, where your posts are at the mercy of algorithms and ads. They are personal, like having a virtual cup of tea with someone.
These are your people
Sometimes people tell me that they don’t send newsletters because “people’s inboxes are already so full”. Yes, they are full. But that is actually a reason why you should make the most of your newsletter.
Especially in a time when many of our inboxes are overflowing, someone giving you their email address is very special. It’s a little token of love.💌 They want to hear from you. They read something you wrote, listened to a podcast you were on, watched one of your videos and decided: “Yes, this is a person I want more of”. Isn’t that amazing?
Your newsletter audience consists of your people. For whatever reason, these people want to be part of your universe. They want to receive your emails—which is a rare thing these days I’d say.
And what’s more, they also want to know what you’re selling. They didn’t just sign up for your monthly musings, but they also signed up to be sold to. They want to know about your new product, your new book, your new course, the spaces you have available for mentoring, your new knitting patterns.
This is where our superpower comes in
When was the last time that you opened your inbox, looked at the emails and thought “Oh, I look forward to reading that!”? Chances are, if you ever feel that way it’s because it’s either an email from someone your value and/or a newsletter from a small business. I don’t know about you, but mass emails from large corporations never make me feel like that.
You see, compared to large corporations, as small business owners we have a superpower: our humanness. We are not faceless corporate monoliths. We are human and it is this humanness that creates connection.
Showing your humanness doesn’t mean that you need to share it all. We all have different levels of comfort when it comes to sharing. You can choose: even if you share very little, there are lots of ways of showing your humanness and creating that connection with your audience.
This is the foundation of everything I teach in Small business newsletter magic–my self-paced, lifetime access course. It launches several times a year, for the waitlist only.
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