Have you been told that you need to start an email newsletter for your small business but not sure what you to do?

Don’t worry I’m here to help you. I’m going to explain what an email newsletter is, why email newsletters are so important for small business and how you can start using an email newsletter in your business.

How to start an email newsletter

This post may include affiliate links, which means that if you choose to make a purchase, I may earn a commission. This commission comes at no additional cost to you.

WHAT IS AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER?

An email newsletter is simply an email that is designed specifically to send to multiple people on your mailing list. It is a type of mass communication, which simply means you make one piece of communication to be sent out to many people at the same time.

WHY YOU NEED AN EMAIL NEWSLETTER FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS?

I’m guessing if you are reading this article that currently you think you need an email newsletter for your business. The fact is lots of marketing gurus and business coaches preach about the importance of having a mailing list and regularly emailing that list but not everyone explains why it is important?.

An email newsletter can be a great marketing tool for your business for a number of reasons:

You can create emails that build your credibility and position you as an authority in your industry – You can use your email newsletter to share your expertise and help position yourself as an expert.
Your emails can help increase the know, like and trust factor – Unless you are working in a very small niche the likelihood is that you aren’t the only person who someone can choose to work with in order to solve their problems. This is where building the know, like and trust factor is key. Sending regular email newsletters will help your subscribers to get to know you better.
They can be used to gain further insight into your readers – Whilst everyone might receive the same email you can use their reactions to your email to gain further information to help segment your data. The more you know about your subscribers the more informed your future marketing can be.

Hopefully, by now, you understand what an email newsletter is and why it is important for your business so it is time to learn how to start your very own email newsletter.

STEP 1: CHOOSE AN EMAIL SERVICE PROVIDER

In order to send an email newsletter, you need to sign up to an email service provider. Your email service provider will give you the functionality to collect emails address (to build your mailing list), design your emails and then send your email to your mailing list.

Now there are hundreds of email service providers out there so how do you choose what is the best email service provider for you? Now without knowing you, I can’t tell you which will be the best for your business. However, my main advice is always to not look solely at the price, but to look at the functionality and choose a provider that can grow with your business.

The two email service providers I most frequently are Convertkit and Mailerlite.

Convertkit it was designed specifically for online creators, but don’t think that means it is just for bloggers. Convertkit has been designed to help grow your business and grow with your business. With great options for automation, segmentation and integration with other major online tools Convertkit will see you from 0 subscribers to 100,000. For more information click here.

Mailerlite is a great option for business owners on a tight budget because it has a free option for anyone with less than 1,000 subscribers. For years Mailchimp had been the go-to for new entrepreneurs their free option, but when they changed the rules around the number of lists you could have and removed the majority of the automation functionality I had to look for an alternative to try. I tried Mailerlite and I wasn’t disappointed. It has key functionality such as landing page builder, automation, segmentation so is a great option for email newbies. For more information click here.

Once you have made a decision it is time to open an account and move onto Step 2.

STEP 2: CREATE A FORM SO PEOPLE CAN SIGN UP

Before you can send an email newsletter you need to have email addresses to send the newsletter to. You will need to create a sign-up form so that people can fill in their email address to say they want to hear from you and your email service provider will create a mailing list for you, which is ready and waiting for when you want to send your first email.

STEP 3: DECIDE ON THE FREQUENCY OF YOUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER

One of the things you’ll need to decide is the frequency of your newsletter. Some people make the frequency public to followers. For example, over on PropelHer I promise to send a #MotivationalMonday email every Monday morning and I’ve been fulfilling that promise for years.

A weekly newsletter is a common frequency, but it isn’t the only one. Some people send a newsletter daily, some monthly and some quarterly. Choosing the right frequency is a balancing act. You want to always be sending high-quality newsletters, but you also don’t want to be emailing so infrequently that when you email people don’t remember who you are.

*PRO NEWSLETTER FREQUENCY TIP* – If you don’t feel ready to commit to a weekly newsletter don’t do it! In the online marketing space, lots of people recommend sending a weekly newsletter, but often this is being recommended by people with teams or at least a Virtual Assistant (VA). If you don’t think you can manage once a week at the moment don’t feel pressurised to do so. It is much better to set a schedule that is less frequent but you can stick to it than to set a schedule you can’t maintain.

STEP 4: CHOOSE THE FORMAT AND TYPE OF CONTENT YOU’LL INCLUDE IN YOUR EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Once you know when you are going to send your newsletter it is it time to concentrate on the format and content. When it comes to newsletters they come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

FORMAT – You can have a text-only or HTML.

DESIGNED – This doesn’t have to stay the same forever, but it is good to have a starting template. Some design choices are:

Do you have a totally designed newsletter?
Do you have a branded header?
What type of footer will you have?
Will you have separators?
Will you use images within your newsletter?

CONTENT

Now the content can change every single time you send a newsletter and in the beginning, it is a good idea to experiment with your content to see what works best for you and your audience, but some popular newsletter formats include:

One topic/story/theme that drives to the latest blog, podcast or video you’ve created
A newsletter made up of multiple sections such as What I’ve Been Up To This Week, What I’ve Been Listening To, What I Read This Month, Member of the Month etc.

STEP 5: PROMOTE YOUR MAILING LIST AND ENCOURAGE PEOPLE TO SIGN UP FOR YOUR NEWSLETTER

You’ve got your newsletter template built, you know your email schedule and you got an idea of what you are going to include. Now you are ready to go live!

First, you’ll need to put your sign-up form where people can sign up.

Create a page on your website specifically to embed the sign-up form.
Add the form onto your homepage.
Consider including it in your footer
Consider embedding it into blog posts.

Whilst it may be visible on your homepage, and other places, people aren’t just going to sign up. You will have to actively promote your newsletter and encourage people to sign up.

That’s it! Now you know how to start an email newsletter for your business.

Email marketing is one of my favourite types of marketing channels and sending newsletters is just the beginning. Once you get into a regular rhythm of sending a newsletter you can look at using email automation, segmentation and dynamic content. You can find out more about using automation, segmentation and dynamic content by reading the following articles:

3 Automated Email Campaigns Every Small Business Owner Should Consider

3 ways to start segmenting your mailing list

How to use dynamic content in your emails

And if this sounds a bit too complicated or technical for you check out how to work with me. As I mentioned at the beginning I love email marketing and believe it is a powerful, and very cost-effective, form of marketing. Together we can get your email newsletter set up in no time.