As I confess in The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook (now available for preorder and publishing September 15!), writing newsletters is one of my least-favorite tasks both as an author/yoga teacher and as a small business owner.
But that doesn’t mean they aren’t critical! Especially in times like these, where you may be changing your schedule or operating procedures week to week, having a newsletter list is crucial for helping you reach your most dedicated and interested customers.
Because that’s exactly what your list subscribers are: dedicated and interested. They asked to hear your news! If you find yourself dreading drafting a newsletter, as I frequently do, remember that a newsletter reaches your most eager and receptive audience. Share something of substance like a useful tip or link, and they will be glad to have it. (Or they’ll delete but still keep you in their awareness, which is also fine!)
I’ve found a hack (and this is not a paid post!) by using the Mail Poet newsletter plug-in for WordPress. It offers a “post notifications” feature, so that every post to my blog is pulled into a newsletter that goes out weekly if, and only if, there’s fresh content. But you can also use any of the familiar newsletter programs (MailChimp and Constant Contact are the current leaders in the field) to reach your audience.
You’ll find lots more advice on writing a newsletter and on content creation in general in The Professional Yoga Teacher’s Handbook, so please put in your preorder with your favorite bookseller today!
Sidebar 1
If you don’t find a newsletter useful, definitely unsubscribe! Any well-made newsletter should have a one-click unsubscribe button or link at the bottom. Since many small businesses pay tiered pricing based on the number of subscribers, unsubscribing if you don’t read the messages is actually a kindness to the business.
Sidebar 2
To get past spam filters, it’s a best practice to have a double opt-in setup, where people ask for your newsletter, then are sent a confirmation link. My list is set up this way, and just last week I re-sent all the confirmation e-mails that hadn’t been clicked on when they first went out. This bumped up my subscriber list considerably! You might be reading this because you saw it! Or, if you’re reading this after clicking through on social media or from RSS, you can subscribe to the newsletter right here.