You've kept to your new years resolution about sending out regular newsletters to your contact list. But now inspiration isn't striking like it used to. We've all been there!
Here's some tips to get you all fired up again and take some of the pain out of the writing process.
Topics you can write about in advance
- Check lists – eg the top ten ways to use garlic in cooking or the seven deadly make-up sins. These are not time sensitive (well, not much anyway) so you can write them and save them for when you are too busy to do it.
- Case studies – these are a lot easier to write when it's fresh, but can be used (and reused) at any time
- Product reviews – either one at a time or as an article about 'the top x solutions for managing xyz'. These are very popular as they help people make decisions. But if you are going to write this type of material, make sure you have actually used the product! Don't just list what they do or copy the vendors blurb off their website.
- Client spotlight – similar to case studies, but focus on the client/customer and less on what you did to solve a problem. These might be better if you want to illustrate the kinds of clients you work with or that use your product, rather than yourself.
How To's
A little over-used, but the good old fashioned how-to guide can provide a lot of value to your readers. These can be in the form of check lists, top x tips and step lists.
Focus on topics that you get asked a lot about that aren't going to go out of date, and you can do them in advance.
Inspiration from your industry
- Write about what's new: latest updates and important news your reader might have missed. Especially useful in fast moving industries. We could probably write a post about changes to SEO every day!
- You can piggy-back off the efforts of those that are better resourced than you by linking to articles and news items that others in your industry have written. It's even better if you ad your comment to what they have said. Use Google Alerts
- The world in review – write about 'top news stories for the last month' or just 'top stories on x topic'
Use Google Alerts to keep an easy track of news articles.
News from your company
- New product launches are an obvious one, but the completion of a project, new staff members, moving premises. Try and right them in a friendly, personal tone so they don't sound like a formal notification!
- Sneak previews and exclusive early bird deals offered to your list are a great way for the members to feel special
- Invitations to events
Dig out your data
- If you have statistics about your industry or perhaps can summarise it from client data, you can use this data to provide recommendations or insights to others. For example with everyone talking about the use of smartphones we can quote usage statistics based on our clients analytics data.
- Run a poll or survey and publish the results – or link to a bigger entity that has recently published a relevant report
Personalise it
Depending on your business, you can make recommendations based on previous purchasing or what is relevant to a particular customer group. Amazon send out recommendations for books on certain topics based on what has been bought in the past.
Link to your blog posts
This is content re-use. Don't assume that everyone on your email list visits your blog or even knows you have one. If there was a post from a year ago that has been your most popular ever, extend it's life by linking to it in your newsletter.
But in all cases make it:
- Well written. Spell check it and proof read it
- Relevant to your audience
- Informative and interesting
Happy writing!