Newsletter tips

While Substack might not be the right platform for everyone, it does have some in-built features that make it easy to optimise your content. If you're not already using all of these, you should be.

What you need is a solution that streamlines the process of collecting their input while giving you a bank of content so you’re not starting from scratch every week

How can we involve our subscribers in our newsletters and why would we want to? Let's start with the why. Here are two useful insights out of many in The Local News Playbook, a new detailed report by FT Strategies into the sustainability of local news media: 1. “Effective audience engagement depends on creating direct, two way relationships that meet people where they are and feel personal, responsive and conversational.” 2. “Newsletters are the most important retention tool

We have previously covered how to write a welcome series of emails aiming at building engagement with new subscribers who are at their peak level of interest in your organisation at the point they sign up to your mailing list. But what if your newsletter platform only allows a single welcome email? This is most common when you are using the free or low cost versions of platforms that do not include automations as part of the package, but at the time of writing it is also true

When someone joins your mailing list, they are at their peak level of interest in your organisation and your mission. A well-planned welcome series uses this moment to build trust and provide clarity before you ever ask for a booking or a donation. What is a welcome series? It's an automated sequence of emails sent to new subscribers immediately after they join your mailing list. It is an essential tool for introducing your mission and building trust during the period when a

It can be really tricky to find the time in a busy week to write a newsletter. I've experienced this personally and in getting journalists in newsrooms to stay on newsletter publishing schedules when their jobs involve so many different elements. Here are 5 ways of ensuring you stay on track and keep strengthening your connection with your subscribers. They can be used for any regular task you find you're struggling to complete: 1. Block out time in your calendar: If it's no

Have you found yourself unsubscribing from lots of newsletters lately, rather than just ignoring or deleting them? Or are you planning a post-Christmas clear out of your inbox to start the New Year with less digital clutter? It’s pretty common for newsletters to see a spike in unsubscribers at this time of year for a number of reasons including: Our inboxes are flooded with promotional emails - sales, gift guides, last-minute shipping deadlines and festive messages - and it g

It's funny how people's usual preferences go out the window when it comes to Christmas. One minute you're all white walls and beige sofas and the next you're shinning up a drainpipe to stick a 10ft inflatable Santa on the roof. In November, you're sticking rigidly to a gym schedule and vitamin shakes, but come December you transform into a predominantly couch-based creature subsisting on pigs-in-blankets and mint thins. It can be the same for newsletter readers. Habits change

In a recent Kickstart Your Newsletter training session for creatives beginning a newsletter or wanting to revitalise the one they've already got, I shared lots of examples of artists, writers and other types of creators doing it well - but it took me ages to find them. That's because they take time to put together a fantastic email that engages with their community of subscribers - but they don't necessarily think about making it visible. There are lots of ways to grow your m

The reason for starting a newsletter is usually about what you want - you're looking for a new way to increase visits to your website, you're keen to share some of the expertise you've built up over the years, you want the chance to write. Those things are important. Without a clear goal for your newsletter you're likely to fall out of the habit of sending it and you may start to wonder why you began it at all. But equally as important is what your readers want from your news

Every content decision should start with your organisation's mission - each story, update and call-to-action should be illustrating and supporting your cause.

If you’ve ever promised yourself you'd finally send that newsletter but found yourself staring at a blank page, you're not alone. For...