How to start a Newsletter.
// I’ve been there.
During COVID, I started so many things - I was a perennial creator. I was creating a lot of content on my Instagram channel and then I shifted to video content because that’s the medium I enjoy creating. What followed then were vlogs, shorts and it basically turned into a cacophony of various types of content with no clear plan.
Throughout all this, I always had an idea to support my content efforts with a newsletter.. I coined the name ‘The Clique’ around 3.5 years ago, I recorded videos to set up the ‘welcome funnel’ and then I thought I needed to create a lead magnet to capture those all important email addresses but that led to even more procrastination as I just couldn’t figure out what to give away.
Weeks of planning turned into months of inaction and the branding/thoughts behind the Newsletter then slipped away into the ether. I still have those early ‘Welcome to my Newsletter’ videos and I still have the welcome funnel mapped out somewhere but none of that helped me get started on the newsletter that you’re reading today.
In fact, I would say that most of my time was spent procrastinating over the idea of a newsletter, not the newsletter itself.
I’m sure you’re in the same position - you want to share something with the world, you want to create a newsletter because it’s your own ‘owned’ space but then you get stuck on what to write, what is the point and what is the best way to go about it.
I’m here for you.
// The ideas have to flow.
Getting out of your own way is the biggest hurdle and the first step to that is to start when you have enough ideas to start. Now, don’t think you need to build a bank of awesome content with multiple blog posts all thought out but you do need to have enough to get you through the first month at least.
I have to write this bit in bold because I want you to take something away from it - don’t worry about what you’re going to write about for the first 10 newsletters, it won’t matter and you won’t have that many subscribers.
I would suggest that you do the following right now - open your Mail app and take a look at any newsletters that you’ve read recently and note down the topics which made you read it. If you’re interested in the topic then the chances are, you’ll want to give your take on it and that’s the best place to start (writing about something you’re interested in).
Then open your Apple Notes app (I don’t know what the Android equivalent is - maybe a slate with some chalk?) and open a new note - begin noting down your ideas.
What can you talk about?
What are your interests?
What newsletter topics have you read which you’d like to give your take on?
What is trending right now?
What’s happening in your life which people could resonate with?
If you only come up with one answer for each of those questions (I’d aim for two each) then you have the first two months worth of content mapped out.
I have now evolved my Apple Notes app now to contain a folder called ‘Newsletter’ and I write a note with the title/premise of the idea and then fill in the note with how the newsletter article should be structured.
This has evolved over time and I don’t expect you to have the same system - the thing is, I got caught up (as I’m sure you will) on what other people are doing to write their newsletter and then you procrastinate even more.
Any system to write something works specifically for the writer and it won’t necessarily work for you - don’t get hung up if you don’t have the perfect system from the start - the important thing is to start.
// Don’t have an aim.
“Your newsletter should contain a lead magnet” - to grab those all important email addresses was something I was hung up on and I’m telling you, you don’t need one.
You don’t need anything to giveaway and you don’t need to have some well thought out aim to start your newsletter. Another thing that stumped me was thinking 52 steps ahead and toying with the question of ‘How can I monetise that audience’ and it meant I approached the whole concept of writing from the wrong place.
If you’re thinking of how you can build an audience to monetise them then you’ll fail - yes, we all know and understand the game - that the whole reason we’re building these newsletters. To showcase what you can do and then get people to buy into something but that should never be the main aim.
The main aim of the newsletter should be for you to write something down which resonates with people. Jay Acunzo repeatedly says that you shouldn’t ‘Market’ more, you should ‘Matter’ more - that’s the best I’ve heard it said. When you’re writing to market yourself and your products then you just end up being in the same white noise as everyone else but if you focus on writing something that matters to you, then it will also matter to someone else.
I wish I had seen this article (this one I’m writing) three years ago and that’s something that Mark Masters also preaches - write to the person you were before you got to the place you’re at now and you’ll never run out of ideas. We’re all on a journey and we all take wrong turns, make mistakes and keep ploughing on - people are interested in those mistakes, not the perfect ideal scenario where you reward yourself with instant success.
Don’t make a lead magnet, don’t pull people in with promises of a cheat sheet - just launch the newsletter with your own voice and your own writing and you’ve laid the baseline on what people are to expect from you.
// Give yourself a deadline.
This newsletter/blog article lands in everyone’s inbox at 0730 every Tuesday morning and it means I have a time and a place to be. Mark Master’s email for You Are the Media lands in everyones inbox on Thursday morning and Jon Jenkins email lands on a Friday - having a set day and a set schedule means you make a commitment to yourself and to your subscribers.
It sounds logical but when I was first thinking about starting a newsletter, I didn’t have a schedule and I didn’t know when I was going to send out my email.
I can show this in real terms by pointing you to my LinkedIn version of the Clique - it didn’t last very long because I didn’t have a commitment to post on a specific day and days turned into weeks, which then eventually turned into months (and then a year between editions).
When you pick a day you need to make sure you have time to prep each week - I picked a Tuesday for a few reasons;
Firstly, it gives me the weekend to write my article, I can snatch 10-15 mins here or there to write and prepare the basis of my article.
Secondly, I have Monday to have a failsafe - I normally have things on during the day on the Monday but I have a non-negotiable hour to finish it all off.
Finally, my real fallback is to finish the article early on a Tuesday morning - I’ve done it a few times and it means I know I can definitely finish it off.
// F*ck Perfection
We’ve all been subjected to the most beautiful and well thought out welcome sequences - those that engage you on Day 1 through to Day 5 and then leave you wanting more.
We’ve all seen the most fantastic layouts - those emails which make you have design envy, thinking of things in emails which you wish you had thought of and laying them out in such a way which makes you want to recreate them.
But you’re not getting there straight away - every email newsletter starts with the first iteration and yours won’t be that good.
There won’t be anything innovative about it, there won’t be anything stand out and there won’t be anything that hasn’t been seen before but that’s ok - you’re starting and that the most important thing.
The thing about writing something is that you need to push yourself to write in your own voice with your own opinion and that doesn’t happen overnight - you need to work at it.
Then once you’ve written plenty of articles (this is number 28) - your audience will start to see that you’re willing to remain committed and there is an evolution of your work.
You begin to be present. You stick to schedule. You show up.
But you’re far from perfect and that’s totally ok - that’s the entire reason why we’re doing it. I guarantee that some people will look at my work and want to stick to it and have a newsletter like this which is entirely feasible, it just takes commitment.
// Get your supporters
The early stages of newsletter production is hard - you’re spending an inbalanced amount of time creating a newsletter for a very small audience. The work you put into creating a newsletter far outweighs any benefit you’ll likely get from a committed writing spell - you won’t see any monetary benefit, you won’t get a large engagement and you won’t feel good.
This is where having a base of people to bounce ideas off, get support from and share your newsletter is important.
I am lucky to be a part of a creative community which supports people like me - https://www.youarethemedia.co.uk/club/ - The You Are the Media club is a group of likeminded people who want to experiment, grow and its where people come together to give the honest feedback you need to improve.
It doesn’t have to be a paid community though, it can be your co-workers, your friends or just a handful of people who want to do the same thing as you - you just need a merry band of cheerleaders.
It’s after week 3 or 4 when you’ll need the support the most, once the enthusiasm starts to wane and the idea barrel is getting scraped. That’s when you need 1 or 2 people to ask if the newsletter is coming out on the day you said, its when you need that little pep talk about what you could improve - that’s where you will see the benefit because once you’re past week 9 or 10, you’ll be in your habit and you’re audience will start to grow and find common ground with you.
// In Conclusion
I understand, you're stuck in the tangle of ideas, battling the urge for perfection and you have doubts about your direction.
But amid this chaos, there's a glimmer of hope - a reminder that imperfection is not only okay but often better.
Remember, it's not about crafting the perfect welcome sequence or achieving instant success; it's about showing up, when you say you will and sharing your stories. So lean on your supporters, rely on your communities, and march forward together with resilience and passion.
Because in the world of newsletters, as in life, it's not the destination that matters most - it's the journey we take.