The Wonderful Thing About Newsletters…
There’s a lot to love about newsletters; they’re a wonderful, rewarding, rich way to build relationships, connect with readers, and make sales. And I’ve been spending more time than usual thinking up all my favorite things to love 
.
Here’s my list of the top five things I most love about newsletters. I’d love to hear your own list, too!
1. Newsletters let you be yourself. When you’re marketing your business, there can be a lot of pressure to be one way or another. And, even if you’re not completely comfortable breaking free from that mold in other forms of marketing, you can in a newsletter. Because a newsletter is just an email (or letter) from you to one reader–so, being yourself is actually the only “right” way to be.
2. Newsletters reward persistence. Depending on your personality, you might not think this is such a wonderful quality, but I happen to love it. See, I tend towards the stubborn, so a newsletter’s a great fit for me–I am determined to keep publishing forever and ever . Admittedly, some weeks, the only thing that *keeps* me publishing is that stubbornness.
3. Curiosity connects. Back in January, I mentioned that I’d taken up knitting and heard from a handful of avid knitters on my list. I love that I can share a new hobby (even if I’m still doing it very badly) and hear back from people, in this case, from all over the world who generously share their experiences with me.
4. Readers make great educators. Just from publishing this newsletter, I’ve learned things I never would have known, met people from all around the world, and gotten glimpses into new technologies, terminologies, cultures, hobbies, and so much more that I probably wouldn’t have stumbled upon alone. My readers (that’s you ) are so generous with their time and knowledge, and they’re nearly always very, very kind when pointing out where I’m uninformed .
5. It’s a great forum for experimentation. Coming up in the next few weeks, you’ll see more about this–but, suffice to say that newsletters are a great place to try out new products, explore changes to your writing voice, and strike a new course. Sure, trying something new isn’t not-scary in a newsletter, but it’s do-able in a way larger experiments might not be.
Of course, that’s not nearly everything I love about newsletters, and this newsletter in particular, but it’s my top five. I’d love to hear what you most love about publishing!
Lori Boothroyd
Thanks so much for all your attention to detail, your thoughtfulness in updating me thoroughly and for being such a delight along the way. It’s always such a reassurance and pleasure to work with you!
Why looking at things upside down might not be as silly as it sounds
A few days ago, I attended a workshop at The Home Depot on embellishing basic furniture pieces. The attendees had varying levels of experience–some had never done anything home-improvement-ish while others had tackled complicated projects. And the questions they asked reflected each person’s level of experience.
What was intriguing was that one woman who’d never picked up a paint brush asked really interesting questions–questions I wouldn’t have thought to ask. Sure, they weren’t advanced, but they were compelling nonetheless because they arose out of a deep sense of curiosity.
I may have done a bit more than just hold a paintbrush, but I still loved hearing the answers to her questions. In fact, the answers to her questions held the interest of even the most advanced attendees and prompted some of the best discussions.
As the expert, you might hesitate to cover more basic topics because you worry about the readers on your list who are more advanced. You don’t want to risk boring anyone with information they already know. After all, how can you establish your expertise if you’re talking about something any rank beginner in your field already knows?
The answer is to turn things upside down, inside out, really get in and examine the details. When you engage your topic with curiosity, the information that results can’t help but be compelling, dynamic, and useful.
Approach your topic with a sense of wonder and delight and you’ll communicate both to your readers. Even advanced readers will find themselves benefiting from the resulting discussion.
And there’s a more subtle benefit of this approach, too. When you take a straightforward beginner’s approach, you risk turning off advanced readers who won’t read the article because “I already know that.” But, when you take a new approach, even when your material is beginner’s stuff, readers will find themselves being drawn in and even those who are very advanced might just find themselves learning a thing or two. What better way to prove your expertise than that?
It’s all well and good to challenge you to turn your topic “upside down and inside out,” but what does that actually mean? Try one of these three approaches:
- Pretend you’re using a camera.
One of my favorite features on my camera is the zoom. I find the details of objects fascinating when viewed through the lens. Pretend you’re using a camera to take a picture of your topic and zoom in closer and closer until you’re looking at something that wouldn’t even fill a square inch of a photo. Then, challenge yourself to expand that one detail to fill an extra large canvas (or, in this case, feature article).
- Listen.
What do people ask about when they’re talking about your newsletter topic? What do they seem most interested in? Listen to their questions, listen to their assumptions, and see if you can’t hear what they’re not saying, too. But watch out–there’s one group of people you should never, ever listen to when it comes to your newsletter content–your competitors. Repeating what your competition writes about in their newsletters is a sure way to miss exploring the details that will highlight your expertise. - Use new language.
Whatever you do, stop talking like everyone else in your industry! If you keep well informed, this will be mighty hard because you’ll be so accustomed to reading and hearing people talk and write in a certain style. But, a simple shortcut is to start browsing the dictionary for interesting words and start using them. Yes, there will be a certain awkwardness as you start to outgrow your industry’s jargon, but you’ll find your new use of language helps you communicate more clearly with your audience, and, as an extra benefit, you also might find yourself experiencing amazing breakthrough ideas (because the way you see what you do will change as the words you use to describe it change).
Nothing demonstrates your expertise like taking a concept that’s pretty basic within your industry and explaining it in a compelling way. The beginners on your list will appreciate your meeting them on their level, and the advanced readers among your subscribers will admire your fresh perspective.
So, get busy taking a look at your topic in a new way and see what you come up with. I’d love to hear what you plan to write about as a result!
Frank Traditi
Jessica – you are 5-stars! Thanks for driving the technical issues through to completion and with such detail. You do a superb job of communicating all of the nuances and sticky stuff all along the way. I’ll recommend you to anyone!
Coach Frank Traditi
CoachFrank.com
Is it time for a bigger pot?
Image by gokoroko
I spent the weekend celebrating my birthday (thank you for the birthday wishes!) and out in the garden planting zinnias and planting my baby tomato plants in the garden. I mentioned before that this year I’ve grown a bunch of heirloom tomatoes from seed and it’s been really intriguing to watch them grow. They’re finally looking like real tomato plants so out into the garden they went.
What was interesting to me was the way their roots wound around the outside of the pot–checking that boundary and feeling their way against the plastic. Now that their roots have much more room to explore, I know they’ll once again test their new boundaries.
And, of course, while I was planting the tomatoes into the garden, I was thinking about your business and wondering if it’s time for you to “repot” yourself, too. I know for me, it’s been awhile since I explored those boundaries, and it’s also been awhile since I considered whether or not I needed a bigger pot.
So, what are some of the signs that it might be time? Some things I’ve been noticing:
- That restless feeling of wanting to stretch more and feel more sun (metaphorically speaking) on my face.
- Having way too much great stuff to share with you to cram it all into the confines of a weekly newsletter.
- Being chock full of ideas and finding myself running out of time each day trying to get them all implemented at once.
- Growing bored having certain conversations with my support team–thinking, “Let’s just scrap this program and move on to something new!”
- Being utterly enthusiastic about certain things on my to-do list… And completely uninterested in others.
- Finding that I’ve filled my personal creativity time with work, excusing it by saying “but the work I do *is* creative!”
- Feeling just a little bit cramped and like it’s been awhile since my last growth spurt.
Which ones of these are true for you?
If you can relate to these feelings, you’re really going to love these solutions that I’m implementing:
- More stretching in the business, please. I’m going to do more of that scary stuff out on the edge of what I do. More exploring to reassure myself that the world (or my business) isn’t flat and I will *not* fall straight off the map if I go too far.
- Blogging more. When you find yourself with too much to say to cram it all into your newsletter, it’s time to start (or reactivate) a blog or sign up for Twitter.
- Grow the team. Reorganize the priorities. I’ve bitten off more than I can chew , and I’ll admit it. So, that means some things are going to have to go. But, also, a lot of it is stuff that’ll help with the stretching I’m yearning for, so because I want to keep that, I’ll need to add some additional support to help the business accomplish more.
- Aha! Those things I’m feeling bored about, it probably *is* time to wrap up. (Hey wonderful client people–not a one of your projects is a boring project for me; these are business-y projects, joint ventures, that sort of thing.)
- See above. What other ways do you handle those things on your to-do list that simply don’t inspire you anymore?
- It’s time to push the work creative back into its own separate category from the personal creative. It’s time for me to get back into painting just for the sake of painting and to be more protective of my creative time.
- For me, focusing in on those big, stretchy projects will help me feel less cramped. If this is a feeling you’re having, write me and tell me how you’re going to stretch yourself out of it.
Just like those tomatoes can’t grow any bigger unless you plant ‘em in the ground, YOU can’t grow any bigger in the same old pot. I’d absolutely, positively LOVE to hear from you about the ways you’re feeling cramped in your current spot and what you’re going to do to stretch out.
Lovefest 2009 (wherein I get all sappy and introspective because I’m getting older and apparently that’s what happens. Age makes you mushy.)
Image by leovdworp
I’m love, love, loving this weather. Today it’s gorgeous out, Carolina blue skies, just breezy enough, and lush shade from my gorgeous, healthy trees. Sure, I’m currently *inside* typing this on a desktop computer (why am I not on the laptop, I’m finding myself wondering…), but all the doors and windows are open so it’s almost as good as being outdoors.
. Thank you.
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Thanks for letting me share what I’m loving about life today–I’d love to hear your list, too!
