Do you really need a newsletter?

 

During the past year, I’ve read a lot of books about business growth. Actually, not just books, blog posts, too. I read because I enjoy learning how other people do it – and things change in business so quickly, it’s always useful to see things from other perspectives.

There are a few key things that are always mentioned in books and blogs about how to market and grow your business. Those are social media, blogging, and email lists. After all – business today is done online, so it makes sense that those 3 elements are brought into sharp focus. We need those elements to survive…don’t we?

OK, so the majority of the texts I’ve read say pretty much the same thing – having an email list, and a regular newsletter, is the holy grail when you’re growing your business. You simply must be creating lead magnets to grow your list, and then you have to nurture the hell out of the people who choose to be on it.

In doing so, they say, all the riches in the world will be yours. Or something like that.

A while ago, I wrote this blog post about how to write and keep up with your newsletter, where I mentioned how I had been working on improving my own offering (by the way, you can sign up to my newsletter here, if you want). But. As the title says, do you need a newsletter? Is it really so important? Here’s my two-pennies worth…

Your newsletter can bring you leads

My sources tell me that while social media is important, you don’t in fact own any part of it. Not the people in your audience, not the content your produce, and none of the information within it. If you’re banned, they tell me, then the whole thing is for naught, and you’ve lost everything.

Whereas your newsletter list, they go on to say, is filled with people who have chosen to receive your emails because they love you and they really want to buy from you.

I should probably mention that to date, I’ve only ever got one paying client through my newsletter, and that was almost 2 years ago. However, I should also say that until recently, my newsletter has been inconsistent, and a bit all over the place with regards to content.

Since I’ve been sending my newsletter to my list more regularly, and have used a familiar template each time, I’ve definitely seen my open rates increase dramatically.

Has it brought me new leads? Not yet, but it’s early days. And I don’t feel that I’ve reached that all important ‘know like trust’ factor yet.

Can it bring you leads? I think that yes, it can, but here’s the important bit…

Build your email list

It’s bloody hard work! If you’re going to commit to creating a regular newsletter, you have to continuously be building your list, creating the right content for your audience, and being consistent.

It’s not something you can just cobble together once a month and forget about it. It takes a lot of work, all the time.

That’s why during 2022, I’m going to work on getting more people on my list with lead magnets and opt-in sign ups. Because…

I believe that SME’s do need a newsletter

I read a quote somewhere “The money is where you deliver value”. You can only deliver so much value with a teeny post on a very overcrowded social media platform. But, email is a platform which most people are intentional about. They’re not just mindlessly scrolling – they actually choose to open an email and read what’s inside. Particularly if they recognise your name (which if you’re consistent, they will).

If you can spend some time creating a newsletter that gives your specific audience value, then those people will see that you understand their needs, and therefore they build a relationship with you and might even buy from you.

By sending an email, you’re getting in front of that one perfect person – not shouting into a crowd who aren’t that bothered about you anyway. I think that’s worth the effort, don’t you?