Every Small Business Should Have A Newsletter. Here’s Why.
4 Steps To Start Your Email Newsletter
Every small business should have a newsletter.
People in general like to root for the underdog and your business is no different. Creating a brand that lasts today means staying relevant in an overwhelmingly loud world. People are constantly shouting their messages everywhere you look, which means that your business should be no different if you want to stand a chance.
Thankfully, you only need to shout for so long in order to build a loyal following of raving fans.
Especially if you give them a reason to listen to you in one of the most intimate settings.
Not the bedroom, their email inbox. (although most people have their phone notifications going off in bed, so I guess you sort of have that covered too).
Step 1 - Define Your Newsletter Niche
Your industry is how you define your niche but you may also want to take over updates about your local news as well. It might be industry insider news, local news related to your business or anything like that.
A BBQ restaurant could run a newsletter about other local food places, upcoming events related to food, and specials going on specific to their joint. Then as they grow and maybe develop their own version of world-famous bbq sauce, they might start distributing it online and start to evolve their newsletter to be about bbq recipes and other product launches and they grow and scale.
Whatever you start your newsletter out as can evolve as you and the business evolve.
Long time readers will want to hear your thoughts and updates as you grow to gain more expertise.
Step 2 - Set A Regular Schedule For Your Business Newsletter
If you’re going to write a newsletter, commit to a schedule that you can maintain. Stick to what you can actually do. It looks unprofessional if you’re going to send weekly emails about news and promotions and then never email your list again. It’s the same thing I tell business owners about the “blog” on their website that they haven’t written a new post for in two years.
Decide on a frequency that works for you. You know how busy and strained you are with all the responsibilities in your business, so don’t also agree to weekly email newsletters unless you can stick to it. It’s ok to have some flexibility in the schedule but if you’re trying to create an industry-leading newsletter you want it to come out as reliably as football airs on Sunday night. You can also lean into using AI to draft and do a lot of the heavy lifting on preparing your newsletters for you.
How Often Is Too Often To Send Emails As A Small Business?
There are many extremely successful email marketers that send 5-7 emails a week to their list. I don’t think this is too much, even for a small business to do. In most of the customer journey sequences I set up, clients will get daily emails typically for the first week to catch them up with the brand. As long as the quality of the newsletter is good and you’re delivering the value your promise and not just selling in every email, you can have a high frequency newsletter that is an incredible way to stay connected to your audience.
Consider starting with a weekly or bi-weekly schedule and adjusting based on your audience's response.
Step 3 - Set Up A Simple, Low-Cost System
There are two clear-cut winners for how to start and run a newsletter for your small business:
Use a platform with free or affordable distribution if standing out online is part of your marketing plan.
Set up a no-cost or low-cost newsletter if you’re mainly focused on a local audience.
For the online route, choose a platform with sharing and distribution capabilities
Building a newsletter on a platform like Substack, Beehiiv, or Kit is the way to go for most small businesses running online or looking to build an online audience that scales beyond their local region.
These platforms allow you to collect email addresses which is still the most valuable part of the process, in case the platform ever decides to shut down. You can export your mailing list to migrate somewhere else, like to SendFox.
But these platforms offer other ways for you to grow and scale beyond trying to get people to subscribe from asking alone, which can be a hard thing to sell when everyone has a newsletter these days. When you can sponsor other newsletters or recommend them on these platforms that merge characteristics of social media with sending email newsletters, it can help you grow much quicker.
The other thing I love about Substack is that you’re getting newsletters, a blog, and a place to build a community all in one go.
Free Newsletter Platforms
Lifetime deals or low-cost options to run your email newsletter.
I love using Sendfox for building local newsletters. I set up almost every client I work with on a free account because you never know when you’ll want to send an email to your entire client list. When you’re just getting started you can use the free option as you begin to build up a list and then it’s only a one-time purchase of $49 for this lifetime deal on one of the easiest and best newsletter platforms out there.
The value of SendFox is incredible compared to most newsletter software companies charging more than $50 per month. You can build lists and automations as much as you’d like and I think every small business should have a customer journey sequence that onboards new subscribers so that you can share about what your expertise is and how you help your clients.
And because all three options of Substack, Beehiiv, or Kit have free pricing tiers, you can get started on any of them and see how it fits for your business before committing.
Step 4 - Start Publishing
Write, collect and curate from others, even dictate audio notes and use AI to convert them to a text newsletter.
Do whatever works for you to quickly create your newsletter update.
With the help of AI, you don’t have to be an expert writer to turn your newsletter into a great publication that readers look forward to. And with the help of platforms like Substack, you can have the audio version of the newsletter be the thing that shines through if that’s your jam.
Simply record the audio and upload it to Substack, then use a tool like Castmagic to have the transcript automatically produced and a newsletter written for you with the help of this AI tool.
It doesn’t have to be complicated or fancy.
Your customers want to know what you're up to and what excites you about your business. Keep your newsletter authentic and engaging, and it will become a valuable asset in your digital marketing strategy.