This Is the New Standard When It Comes to Newsletter Content Newsletters remain invaluable sales tools, but the old weekly-update paradigm is simply not enough to keep your brand uppermost in prospects' minds.
By Andrew Ryder Edited by Matt Scanlon
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Consider the insanity of this statement: "Recently it's become apparent that quality food and regular exercise are crucial to one's health. That's why I decided to eat a high-quality meal once per week and ride my exercise bike every Saturday morning." Everyone understands that engaging once-weekly in these actions isn't enough to be healthy…that we should be eating healthy and exercising every day.
Likewise, I'd suggest that the industry standard for email newsletters is wrong. It used to be that "Build an email list and mail it weekly, share your favorite articles, and use alliteration in the title of your newsletter" would suffice for a strategy, but no longer. While weekly pieces may be better than not writing at all, it is no longer the path to a healthy list, and many entrepreneurs will lose the attention of their audience by following it.
Serious business owners mail daily, not weekly. Still, untold numbers cling to a weekly structure, and there are several reasons why they might justify it:
• "Everybody else does it weekly."
• "I don't want to annoy my audience."
• "I can't think of enough ideas."
• "I don't have enough time."
Each of these justifications comes from a mindset limitation, which can easily be overcome so you can improve the relationships with your list and make more sales. Let's look at each in detail and then examine the what happens if you decide to mail daily.
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"Everybody else does it weekly"
Just because it's popular on Twitter doesn't mean it's the optimal approach. And actually, belief that everyone is mailing weekly is the best reason to mail daily. You will get seven times more contact with an audience than your competition, and when your prospect is ready to make an investment, you will be at the top of their inbox with a solution.
If you do what everyone else does, you'll get what everyone else gets. If you want to do better, you have to be better.
"I don't want to annoy my audience"
With respect to this concern, there is no real difference between mailing weekly and mailing daily. If you believe that your audience would be annoyed by valuable content that helps them solve their problems, then you shouldn't be writing to them at all. If you create useful content that an audience loves, why wouldn't you share more of it? Is it because that audience is busy and you respect their time? They may well be busy... reading your competitor's content.
If I could give you a $100 bill at a frequency of your choosing, would you prefer I did it once per month, once per week or once per day? The answer is obvious. If you believe that your audience doesn't want to be mailed, you either need to change your mindset or increase the quality of your work.
"I can't think of enough ideas"
If you can have one idea per week, you can have seven. The ideas are there, you're just missing them. There is a famous line from the English playwright W. Somerset Maugham, who was once asked if he wrote according to a set schedule or if he waited for inspiration. He replied, "I only write when inspired. Luckily, inspiration strikes every morning at nine o'clock."
Momentum begets momentum. The more you write, the more you'll find you have more to write about than you have hours to do it. To get started, spend more time reflecting on your life, current events or the experiences of your prospects and customers, and add to your list of ideas wherever and whenever they come to mind. (If you wait until you sit down to write them, you won't be able to think of any.)
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"I don't have enough time"
One of my track coaches used to tell us, "If you want more rest, run your intervals faster." This advice would be offered 75% of the way through a grueling workout, a time when each interval left us gasping for air and we were desperate for a few more seconds of rest. Now I get to pass this advice along to you: If you don't have enough time, write faster.
It's all about trust
The success of your newsletter is based on the level of trust you create with an audience, and by mailing daily instead of weekly, you'll create that faster. Writing daily demonstrates consistency. Your prospects will expect to see an insightful message from you every day. They'll grow accustomed to your rhythms, your viewpoint and your solutions to their problems. Consistently and dependably sharing valuable insights with prospects builds a relationship and positions you as a trusted ally in the battle against their problems, and trust creates sales.
These people are comparing a bunch of words on your website to words on a competitor's site. Which words do they believe? If your prospect trusts you, he or she will choose your recommendation, even if it's harder and more expensive than the alternative. It's all about trust, and the more you write the more you build.
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