5 Killer Items to Include in Your Email Newsletter

Last week, Chris and Gena talked about the importance of building a simple newsletter for your audience. This week, they discuss five things you should always include in your email newsletter for maximum effect. If you’re not sure where to start, this is the place!

Here's something fun

Download this FREE PDF poster and hang it on your wall to remind yourself each day: YOU'VE GOT THIS!

Links:

• Get Noticed by Agents, Editors and Readers FREE PDF
• Mailerlite
• ConvertKit
• GetGist

Episode 14 Transcription:

[00:00:14].030] - Chris
Hello and welcome. Welcome to the Writing Momentum Podcast. This is Christopher Maselli and I'm here with my wife, Gena. How are you doing today, Gena?

[00:00:21].140] - Gena
I am doing so well. We're having fun.

[00:00:24].470] - Chris
Yes.

[00:00:25].060] - Gena
Doing this.

[00:00:25].880] - Chris
This is the podcast where we talk about writing. We talk about writing. We talk about publishing. We talk about branding yourself as an author. And we talk about what's the fourth one?

[00:00:37].880] - Gena
Publishing.

[00:00:38].810] - Chris
I said that publishing. Didn't I say publishing? Writing, publishing.

[00:00:43].510] - Gena
Branding. Branding.

[00:00:44].330] - Chris
Oh, and marketing. Selling your book. We probably need to be talking about selling your book, too. Don't do a whole lot of good to write a whole bunch if you're never getting that word out there.

[00:00:52].710] - Gena
Why are we here?

[00:00:54].710] - Chris
Why are we here? Well, today we're going to talk about five things to include in your email newsletter, because last week we talked about newsletters and that was episode 13. And we talked about how we create newsletters. We now just basically send out general emails to our audience and have just found that it's important to be consistent and authentic. But we realized as we were recording that we should probably also talk about what you should include in your newsletter. That's what we're going to do here today.

[00:01:25].540] - Gena
Yeah. We're going to talk about five things to include in your email newsletter. And the first one and we talked about this in our last podcast. If you haven't checked that one out, please do. But the first one is just a conversational tone.

[00:01:41].400] - Chris
Be yourself.

[00:01:42].360] - Gena
Yeah, be yourself. If you're funny, if you're quirky, if you're serious, if you're academic, whatever it is the people you're speaking to, we're not saying that you're going to win over every person who receives your newsletter. But if it doesn't speak to them, that's okay because the people you do want to speak to, the people who do understand you and appreciate you, they are going to tune in. And so you are building a relationship with people who enjoy what you're saying.

[00:02:17].380] - Chris
Yeah. We used to kind of freak out when we see our people unsubscribe from our newsletter and we'd see our numbers go down. And now we actually really like it because what happens is if people unsubscribe, that just means it's not for them. And when people do subscribe, that means it's probably for them. And what we've discovered is that the more people who subscribe because they want to subscribe because they like getting your newsletter, it makes your open rates go up. It makes the conversation go up. It's definitely worth it.

[00:02:43].750] - Gena
Yeah. And they respond. They respond, which then the beautiful side part of this, the effect of this is that you end up having a lot more fun.

[00:02:54].790] - Chris
Yeah, you certainly do. So the second thing we recommend you do. So the first one is having a conversational tone. The second one is personalization. Use people's names in your newsletter, and that can go a long way because it really helps establish that relationship. And if you've got some good newsletter software, we recommended Mailer Lite and ConvertKit and GetGist on the last episode, they can all do personalization. That is, they can go ahead and take the person's name from when they signed up and help put that in your newsletter. And that allows you to have a more conversational tone, doesn't it?

[00:03:28].100] - Gena
Absolutely. And then here was a big one that we learned is that if you are going to include a link in your newsletter and we recommend that you do, even if it's just a link back to your website, it needs to be a single link. You don't want to put a bunch of links in your newsletter. What we have discovered and what we have learned is that multiple links will dilute your effectiveness and they'll dilute your statistics. So that when you're trying to determine, is my newsletter working? Is it not working? Do people like it? Do they not like it? If you've got five or ten links in there, then you've got people, your readers are clicking different links. So it's kind of hard to know where people are at, what they're doing. And also it's hard for your readers to know what you're doing.

[00:04:22].520] - Chris
Yeah. So we should clarify and say when we say only a single link, we mean not including multiple links to different places. So you could have two or three links in your newsletter, as long as they're all going to the same place. The idea is you want to have a single thought throughout your newsletter, a single something that you're saying, a single place to send people. And you might include that link a couple of times. What you don't want to do is send them to one place with one link, another place with another link, because often when people click out, they're not going to come back and get to the second link anyway. So it's better just to have one single focus and have that single destination that all your links go to.

[00:05:02].210] - Gena
Now here's another thing that you want to include. This is the fourth item that you want to include in your newsletter. And people who are in the newsletter writing business, they know this, but it was fairly revolutionary to me when I started studying this, and that is a PS. So often people when they open emails and when I say this, you'll probably say, oh, yeah, I do that. They scan they scan the email and they'll go down and their eyes kind of gloss over everything except what really stands out. Well, what stands out? It stands out. That simple PS at the end of the email really stands out. So definitely include a PS. The statistics on PS I don't know what it is. I believe that it was like 50%, especially if there is a link in a PS that it will get like 50% of the click throughs will come from that PS.

[00:06:01].400] - Chris
Yeah. The post script is super important, too, because it often will include your very last link. Right. So often when I send out a newsletter, I will have a link early on in the newsletter to whatever we're talking about. Let's say we're talking about our latest blog post or podcast episode. And I might have a link to that early on in the newsletter. But a lot of people who don't click on that because they want to finish the newsletter, they're going to keep reading and they will click on it again, though, if you have it in the PS and they'll click on it there because it's the final thing for them to read in the newsletter. So always be sure to include that PS. And then the fifth thing that we recommend that we just started doing and, oh, we're so glad we do it. And that is we ask for feedback. Almost every email that we send out, we ask whoever is reading it to go ahead and hit reply and respond back to us. And that has been so great because not only does a few things, one, it starts a conversation going right.

[00:07:04].950] - Chris
And you get to know your audience better. You get to know your readers. You get to know those who like to respond back to you often. It can help you build relationships. Like, it's really a great thing to build that going back and forth. But the other thing that it does is it helps tell the email gods out there, right. The Gmail, the outlook, it lets them know that you're just not sending out. You're not just sending out spam. It lets them know, hey, this is an email that people are responding to and they will give you prominence because of that.

[00:07:45].730] - Gena
Well, and whoever responds, especially that person, you will automatically be moved to the safe list for that individual as well. So overall, it helps. But for that particular individual, it's a way to kind of secure their email and secure your email in their inbox as a safe list. So let me just go back over these five things to include in your email newsletter. One, you want a conversational tone. You are trying to get the conversation started and build a relationship with your reader. And that is so important when people feel like they are understanding you, they want to hear from you. So that is such a starter. That's where you start next. Personalization. We talked about three different services that we recommend, Mailer Lite,  ConvertKit, and GetGist. All three of them have the capability that when someone signs up for your newsletter and they input their first name, you then have the ability through those services to write it so that it's Hello, Linda. Hello, Bob. I'm so glad to talk to you today. That's what that personalization allows you to do, and I believe that they'll even allow you to personalize within your email as well.

[00:09:10].080] - Gena
So that's a really important element and capability. Next, you want to include a single link. There needs to be one what they call call to action in your newsletter. If you want the person to click through to something, you may have that email or that website in there multiple times, that link in there multiple times, but it is the same link every time so that you can people aren't confused by what you want from them, and you can also read the analytics a little bit easier. Next, include that PS seems like such a simple thing. It's that final word. What's the last thing you want to say to your person that you're talking to? What call to action do you have for them in that moment? Be sure to include that because statistics show that PS, the postscripts are one of the top read elements of an email newsletter and then also ask for feedback. Ask a fun question, get a conversation started, something like that where someone you're asking someone to respond. The reason for that is one it gives a person a sense that you're not just some faceless business, but they have a relationship with you.

[00:10:33].310] - Gena
They know you and they feel like they know you. And there's this relationship going. But also it helps the algorithms that are delivering the emails to make sure that your newsletter, your email newsletter is going to the inbox and not to the spam folder. So it helps protect you. So there you go, Chris. The five things to include in your email newsletter.

[00:10:59].080] - Chris
All right, so here's the moment of truth. Now, this webcast is called Writing Momentum, this podcast that we're doing, and we want you to have momentum in your writing, too. So I want you to think about these five things that we talked about today. The conversational tone, the personalization, the single link, the PS, the feedback that you're asking for. What's one of those things that you can include in your emails that you haven't been doing. Think about that. I challenge you to put it in your next email and just see what happens. And then let us know because we love to hear from you guys. Until next time, please rate, review, subscribe and share this podcast and we hope that you have Writing Momentum.