A Simple Way to Turn Your Email Subscribers into True Fans

Do you ever find yourself with a list of email subscribers, only to not know what to say or when to say it?

There is one simple way that content marketers and digital entrepreneurs can develop their relationships with their email subscribers.

It’s the tried, true, and often overlooked … email newsletter.

Creating an email newsletter for your audience is an exceptional way to build a trust-based relationship.

A consistent email newsletter enables you to give, give, give.

Giving makes it easier when it comes time to ask for feedback, input — or for the sale.

More importantly, it enables and allows you to listen and have real conversations with your audience. This is where you can begin to go deep and turn your email subscribers into a true audience.

Where does a newsletter fit into your content strategy?

Once you’ve created a smart content marketing strategy, you work hard to promote your valuable content.

With consistent and effective content promotion, people visit your website and you direct them to sign up for your email list.

Perfect.

Then you get busy creating more content, which also needs to be promoted. It can be a tough cycle. Luckily, as a smart content marketer, you are up for the challenge.

Your content’s goal shouldn’t just be to generate traffic; you should aim to connect with your audience — and draw them closer to your solutions.

Starting and running a remarkable newsletter is about creating an experience by enabling your subscribers to connect with you and your message.

Your newsletter is a valuable piece of content. Make it a priority in your schedule, so you can create an experience for your readers that will take them on a journey deeper into your brand.

So, which type of newsletter should you start?

There are three main types of newsletters to choose from.

Each has its own benefits and hurdles to overcome — but each will help and encourage your readers to know, like, and trust you.

1. Offer your best work

This email newsletter type (at least within the marketing space) has been brought to popularity by Chris Brogan and his weekly email. It must be unique and cannot be found anywhere else before it is sent to your subscribers’ inboxes.

Chris promotes his newsletter as simply the best work he does — and he follows through on his promise every Sunday morning.

According to Chris, his newsletter accounts for 70 percent of his revenue and builds authority for himself and his company, Owner Media Group.

Of course, writing a weekly email can be a lot of work.

Don’t make it an afterthought — think of it as an integral piece of your content strategy. This mindset shift will allow it to become as valuable to you as it is to Chris.

Your best-work newsletter provides the reader with a fresh piece of unique content and the feeling that they’re part of an exclusive group. It feels like a friend writing to a friend.

To craft an effective best-work newsletter, you will need to:

• Write exclusive content every week.
• Set a schedule and stick to it.
• Start writing even before you have a lot of subscribers.

Writing your best work each week is an effective way to show up for your audience, build relationships, and produce significant revenue.

But committing to the task may also be daunting. If that’s the case for you, you may prefer a different style of newsletter.

2. Curate content to become a helpful resource

Do you spend countless hours every week scouring blogs, news sites, and social media to consume all the latest and greatest information written in your industry?

Maybe you have what it takes to publish a curated newsletter.

Collect the most valuable information in your market, and then add your personality and unique voice when you summarize and introduce the links.

Most of us love to consume great content, but we don’t all have the time or patience to do the legwork and look for the best content. This is where your curation skills provide value for your audience.

Danielle Weisberg and Carly Zakin have done this with enormous success. The two have taken their passion for the news and turned it into a brilliant business.

They publish a daily curated email called theSkimm, and they have built an email list of more than 1.5 million subscribers.

To craft an effective curation newsletter, you will need to:

• Add your unique voice to the newsletter.
• Choose an overarching theme but cover several topics.
• Publish the archives to your website and encourage sharing.

As an effective piece of content and audience-building tool, a curation newsletter has been proven time and time again to be a component of a winning content marketing strategy.

Plus, you now have an excuse for endlessly browsing the web — you’re curating!

3. Summarize and highlight your content

What if your business already produces a ton of valuable, useful, and remarkable content each week?

If so, producing another piece of unique content may not be necessary.

This doesn’t mean you should overlook starting a newsletter. It simply means you have an opportunity to focus your time and resources on increasing the value of the content you have already crafted — you do this with a summary newsletter.

A summary newsletter specifically showcases the best and most valuable content your business has created throughout the previous week.

Sean D’Souza at Psychotactics writes my favorite example of this type of newsletter.

Sean writes twice each week and uses his newsletter to showcase his latest article or podcast episode, a product offering, a list of his top-selling products, and free resources. He uses a template for each newsletter, which makes it easier to produce.

To craft an effective summary newsletter, you will need to:

• Produce a steady stream of valuable and useful content.
• Have products or services to promote and showcase.
• Design a template and use a consistent layout.

Summary newsletters don’t typically have a lot of space for you to show your personality, but they are an effective way to regularly update your audience.

Make your choice and go deep with your subscribers

No matter what your content strategy or schedule looks like right now, you’ll benefit from putting an effective email newsletter in place and consistently staying in touch with your subscribers.

You can start today by committing to write a unique piece of content every week, curate the highlights from your industry, or simply summarize the content you have created during the past week.

The post A Simple Way to Turn Your Email Subscribers into True Fans appeared first on Copyblogger.

from Copyblogger http://ift.tt/1pxSOf9
via IFTTT