Increase list engagement with these no-nonsense newsletter ideas

When it comes to marketing your business online, there are about a hundred things you could be doing to reach more people. You could be on social media, creating short form video and posting to tiktok/youtube shorts/instagram, you could focus on stories over static posting—the list goes on and on and on.

Not only does it go on and on, but it’s always changing. The algorhtym is shifting all over the place, the types of content people are taking in change (like, remember when boomerangs were all the rage?) and honestly it can get pretty exhausting to keep up on your own.

But one thing that doesn’t really change too much?

Email marketing.

no one likes getting sold to.

The reality is that the overall average open rate is 39.7%, with a 1.0% click through rate. This means that under half of your current list will open your email, and just a fraction will actually click the links included.

Does that mean you shouldn’t invest your time in email marketing?

Hell no.

It just means you’ll need to take your hands off ChatGPT for a second and think about the people on the other end of your email list. To help you, I’m sharing some things people actually want to receive—based on working with clients for a decade and watching what emails people are actually opening, clicking, and replying to.

1. Summaries of blog posts.

There is so much information available online these days, that it’s too overwhelming to keep up via bookmarks. And social media hardly shows you anything that hasn’t been paid for.

When you post something new on your website, make sure to send out an email about it. Summarize what the post is about DIRECTLY in your email, or include a personal story about why you decided to write the post.

Make things as easy as possible for your audience.

2. You have a new service.

Please, send your email list a note when you’ve updated or added a new service.

The likelihood of them seeing your announcement on social media is much lower than if you send a quick note to your email list about the update.

3. You’ve updated your website.

I’m just going to assume that you are, in fact, updating your website at least once a year. Adding new photos, new case studies, blog posts, updating your services—whatever’s new on your site, share it with your list.

Because, again, the likelihood of them seeing all your hard work without sending a reminder is, like, zilch.

4. Your brand story.

Your brand story is interesting.

Yes, seriously, I mean it. The journey that you went on to get where you are today can make for a fascinating read. So if it’s an anniversary, or you’ve won an award, or something cool has happened recently—it is the perfect time to share your brand story again.

5. Mistakes.

To err is to be human.

Or something like that. Either way, AI is never going to be able to share old stories of tragic mistakes and all the things you did to make it better or learn from the process.

People love hearing about how a pitfall shaped your brand. It’s a real mark of the greatest asset in your branding toolkit—your humanity.

Share that relatable content regularly. (And please, for the love of god, write the first draft yourself before getting ChatGPT to edit it for you at the very least. Readers are getting wise to the AI-generated content, and it’s lowering engagement rates.)

6. Facts made relevant.

You heard that Netflix has 125 million viewers? Cool. How did your industry help them get there? How can their growth be inspirational to me?

When they hit this milestone, Halifax local Ross Simmonds; sent out an email that showed how Netflix’s investment in content creation helped make them a huge success and how it was related to his business.

This was:

• a. relevant to the reason I signed up for his list.

• b. interesting.

• c. wasn’t attached to a call to action. He just sent it as a note and I loved that.

Side note: Not every email needs to have a call to action. The ones I love the most don’t have any call to action at all.

7. Prompts for action. Not to be confused with a ‘Call to Action’.

Lauren Hom is probably one of the most well-known lettering artists out there now because of her 2019 weekly lettering prompts called HOMwork.

This gave her email list a reason to open her newsletter every week, straight though the pandemic. And she rewards this action with exposure via a hashtag and reposting in Instagram stories. By having her audience take action, she’s providing more value than just giving her list another PDF to download.

8. Updates in the industry.

Twirp Communications has been making busy entrepreneurs’ lives easier for ages by providing updates in her newsletter (Social Media News YOU can use) whenever the social media sizes change for creating new graphics.

Similarly, HeyOrca sends out its daily brief that shares everything from trending TikTok audio to major platform changes while they’re still in beta.

Both of these newsletters provide vital information, when you need it most. Making your audience’s life easier is an easy-peasy way to increase those open rates and shares.

9. Related articles.

I love receiving actually honest-to-goodness blog recommendations in my inbox. One of my clients, PeddlingHope is a therapist located in Halifax and always shares interesting and related articles in her newsletter that explain further details to support whatever blog post we’ve launched that month.

This helps with understanding her content and providing more insights without having to sink more time into additional posts.

10. Special pricing.

Say you’re in the grocery store, and there are chips on sale. You’re probably more likely to get it, right? You don’t need it, but it’s your favourite kind, and it’s on sale.

The same thing works for email offers. Offering an exclusive price for being on an email list actually makes people feel pretty special. They might not need the product or service at that exact moment, but when it’s customized and delivered to their inbox, you’re more likely to get a sale than not.

(While I’m not suggesting you discount all of your services; if you have an ebook kicking around that hasn’t made you money in a while, maybe discount it and offer that discount to your subscribers.)

11. You are going to an event.

A couple of times a year, I open my calendar and scour the internet for conferences and speaking gigs and all those things that freelancers have to do love.

If you are going to an event or speaking at an event, share that with your newsletter subscribers! Anyone who’s on the fence about going might get that final push in order to meet you or, at the very least, know someone else who’s going.

12. Your actual paid offers.

I put this one last for a reason. Because people hate hate hate being sold to.

However, after you put in the work and send a bunch of cool stuff to your subscribers, you can absolutely take some of that goodwill and put it toward selling your offers.

Pick one and get started.

With programs like Mailchimp letting you get started for free, there’s no time like the present to get started. Even if you’re only messaging a few people, it’s easier to get started and form a habit before your list is in the thousands anyway.

Not sure how to get started and need 1:1 help setting up your list? Let’s chat.