You’re standing on a stage in a crowded auditorium. In the audience are your most supportive fans. These are the people who buy your products and rave about them to their friends. They’re the ones who read your blog posts and Instagram feed faithfully and leave you supportive comments. And now they’re all gathered in one place, looking up at you from their seats, waiting expectantly.
What are you going to give them?
This is the scenario I imagine each Tuesday afternoon when I open Mailchimp, click the “new campaign” button, and compose my newsletter. Each week I have the opportunity to make something special as a gift for my most loyal supporters – an email message.
You have the opportunity to do the same.
Many small business owners miss this opportunity all together by not collecting email addresses. Or, if they do collect email addresses, they rarely send anything. If you assume you have nothing to say and nothing to give, and that your loyal fans (the ones who trusted you enough to share their email addresses with you) don’t want to hear from you, you’re missing a huge opportunity. Your fans are gathered and waiting for you. You’ve got so show up!
Other businesses take advantage of this opportunity to a degree by setting up an RSS to email campaign. This means that every blog post they write is emailed to their fans automatically. It’s a good first step because at least their gathering email addresses and sending something out. It’s also the easiest option. You write one piece of content and publish it in two places – on your blog and as an email.
But is it the most effective option?
While doing research to prepare for my CreativeLive class on email marketing I spoke with artist Ann Wood about her email strategy and learned something really interesting about the difference between RSS and a newsletter. Ann told me, “I used to just send an RSS update, but it felt like a waste and a missed opportunity to connect with people. It seemed like an easy solution, but giving the whole post was a waste. I want readers to come to me and see everything I have to offer.”
Remember those faces looking at you from their seats in the audience. Is your latest blog post the absolute best thing you could give them?
Blog content and newsletter content are often written with different goals in mind. Here are some thoughts to consider about those differences:
- Frequency of the send– I publish blog posts three times a week. From talking with my subscribers, three times a week feels too frequent for an email. Other people update their blogs only a few times a month and that might be too infrequent for an email. With an email newsletter you can create a send frequency that’s optimal for email which might be very different from what’s best for publishing on a blog.
- Purpose of the content – When I write a blog post I often have a particular intent. This post about how to use safety eyes, for example, is referenced in many of my sewing patterns. That’s why I wrote it. This free pattern for a rag doll brings tons of traffic to my site from Pinterest. Part of my motivation for writing it was to boost traffic in an ongoing way. An email newsletter has a different intent. My goal for email is to nurture relationships with my most dedicated fans even when they aren’t buying so that when they’re ready to buy they feel like part of community. Sending them a tutorial isn’t necessarily the ideal step toward that goal.
- Intended action – What result are you hoping for when you send your email? If you use RSS to send a post in its entirety, your readers will read the post in their inbox. Is that the best action you can hope for or could you send something that would bring your readers to your site to read and shop instead?
An email newsletter also allows you to send out exclusive content to your most loyal fans. Ann told me, “Some of what you get in the newsletter is only going to be for you, you aren’t going to get it on my blog or on Facebook or anywhere else.” Treating your email subscribers as your special fans creates a sense of belonging, like being members of an insider’s club. That kind of intimate communication means that your subscribers are very likely to email you back, comment on your blog, buy from you, and share your products with their friends.
If you’ve already got an RSS to email campaign set up, you’re halfway there! To truly make the most of email marketing, take that RSS list and start sending something even better.
1. Import your list. If you’re not using Mailchimp now (and these instructions are for Mailchimp because that’s the email service provider I’m familiar with) you’ll need to download your list as a CSV file and import it into Mailchimp. Here’s how.
OR
2. Pause your RSS campaign. If you’re already using Mailchimp for RSS to email, you’ll need to pause your campaign. Here’s how.
Now you’re ready to begin sending out a newsletter. In the first issue you can explain that you’re now going to be sending a real email newsletter, rather than RSS. You’ll still link to or include your latest blog posts so your subscribers won’t miss out, but now you’ll be making your emails even more interesting and useful.
Email software like Mailchimp costs money, but like investing in a branding and website design, it’s a business expense that’s well worth paying for if you use it well.
Ann summed up her experience this way, “People engage much more with my newsletter than they did with my RSS to email. It makes my followers feel respected and connected. The difference was immediate and remarkable.”
Abby I just have to share with you that after your newsletter with info on the Hello Bar email pop up window, I installed it on my site and my blog and cannot believe how well it works!!! Love all these tips from you and am grateful that you’re willing to share all your knowledge to help all of us! Thank you!
Yay! I’m so glad it’s been good for you. It works so well. Thank you Hello Bar!
Abbey,
I hope other bloggers, and creative business people read this and take away the message. I had never thought it through, but everything you said, makes so much sense. I rarely sign up for subscriptions to blogs. I like the actual sites, and reading the post in the email is not the same. Your newsletter is a cut above the rest. Of course, I haven’t signed up for many of them. One craft blogger that I really enjoyed started really pushing for people to sign up for her newsletter. She rarely ever sends anything out! I know it’s all free content, but I now feel a little let down. Why they push to get people to sign up, and never send anything out?
Thank you for all of your insights, and well researched posts, and newsletters. I enjoy it all.
You’re welcome, Sarah.
YES to this whole concept. My e-newsletter is a major way to communicate so many things at one time to my Friends!
Awesome post Abby.
As someone who doesn’t blog but follows many blogs, I actually prefer to get an email each time a new post is added vs the newsletter feature. For some sites, info may be time sensitive and if you wait a week to read about it, it may no longer be relevant. So your suggestion may be beneficial for some I don’t believe it is a solution for everyone.
There is definitely not a one-size-fits-all solution to email marketing. That’s totally true. Like you, I follow many blogs (over 100) and really like having an RSS reader app such as Bloglovin’ where I can find news posts from all of them in one place. There are readers, though, who enjoy getting every post by email. It’s not my preference, though.
I agree with Melissa. I subscribe to a a number of blogs and I FAR prefer to get the entire post in my inbox by email. I am a little annoyed when I have to click to read more unless it is a posting like yours Abby where you give enough information about the story that I generally know if I am interested enough to follow the link to read the rest of the post. I don’t like BlogLovin as it doesn’t seem to be a “stable” platform (for lack of a better description) for reading on my IPad as it jumps around and is harder to read.
The thing I hate most though is to go to the website and then have to close ads in order to read content. I rarely will continue that relationship and I usually unsubscribe immediately. I think bloggers have a right to monetize their blogs if that is their desire but I’d rather pay a subscription fee than to be subjected to a barrage of ads. I have favorite blogs and I do buy patterns, rulers, books and other creations made by the folks I follow so I am in the category of fans you describe.
That’s interesting to hear, Barbara. I use Bloglovin on my phone to read blogs, and sometimes on my desktop computer, but not often on the iPad so I’m not familiar with how it looks there.
For bloggers whose business model is to sell ads it especially doesn’t make sense for them to have an RSS to email campaign set up. For every subscriber that sees the full post in their inbox they’re losing someone who could visit the site and see/click on the ads. I don’t have ads on my site, but I do have things for people to buy and I need for readers to visit my site and look at those things. An excerpted blog post is a good way to bring people here. Of course, my blog serves a much larger role for me than just encouraging shopping, but it certainly is one of it’s most important roles.
I completely agree having a newsletter is important – make that essential. But perhaps it can’t hurt to offer sending out a link to each new blog post via RSS to those who prefer to be immediately in the know? I don’t send the entire post… just the title and a snippet of text. If it interests the subscriber, they can click over to read the full post. I go back and forth wondering if people find this method helpful or annoying, but then I remind myself that most everyone likes options. Also, some deal more easily with just a small amount of content at a time rather than a link-laden newsletter. RSS post snippets are also a nice way for people to visit the blog where they might spot sidebar content that interests them. A win-win for the reader and the blogger.
I agree. There are some readers who will enjoy the RSS option. I think each of us knows our own audience best and can decide what they’d like most. I do feel like if you’re going to choose between RSS and a newsletter, the newsletter is the winning strategy though.
Abby,
I got so much from your CrativeLive course and now here you are sharing again. I have been stuck on how to create a successful newsletter for so long, ( even the technical side in mailchimp ) and your information sent me on my way. I published my first newsletter this week and have more ideas gathering for the next one. I really enjoy the Market Research you taught us too. So many creatives to be inspired by.
A big Thank You . . .
That’s great to hear, Julie. I’m happy to help along the way. Feel free to email me if you need some help or have a question I might be able to answer 🙂
Thanks for this post. It affirms what I’ve been doing the last few months. After a lecture I heard at QuiltCon, I felt encouraged to try publishing an email newsletter, and bought your ebook to get me going. I have always had the RSS option available on my blog, but do not automatically send to an email list or post to facebook etc. Only my newsletter goes to my email list, and it’s grown consistently since I’ve started. 90% of my newsletter content is not published on my blog, nor do I have anything for sale. So the whole concept of doing it as a gift of sorts to a select group is interesting, but considering I’m getting a good response, I’ll stick with it. All this to say thanks for unknowingly encouraging me along.
That’s great to hear, Debbie! I wonder which lecture at QuiltCon encouraged you to write an email newsletter? I wasn’t able to attend QuiltCon so I’m curious!