Week 2: Power of email (continued)

We are in the middle of Week 2 of our 8-week program. In the last post, we discussed the importance of collecting email addresses and sending out emails such as newsletters and updates Yes, even in today's world, sending out emails gives you more return that the fleeting "likes" and "retweets" on Twitter. Now that you have the infrastructure in place, it is time to talk about content!

Any email you send should contain information that is of potential value to the people on your email list. Thus, creating content always starts with defining and knowing your audience. Emails are usually created in a way that they point to few new stories on your website. This way, you are providing an assembly of exciting, new content and the recipient can click to the content of interest. Here are few basic rules to follow:

1. Provide value (instead of just self promotion). You want to convince by the value of your content. Do your research or write about something personal. Create content that it is not easy to get otherwise. You have a unique set of experiences, perspectives, and pieces of knowledge. Combine them in an interesting way and share it with the world. Most of the web today is copy/paste the same old garbage. It is easier to stand out than you think if you provide quality and novelty!
2. Add visuals. Make sure that for every post for which you have a "teaser" in your email (first few sentences and a link) has a powerful image. Get your hand on some good (free) stock photos.
3. Learn how to write catchy headlines. For this, my advice is not to be afraid to sound like clickbait. After all, if you follow up with real content, this is justified.
4. On your site (where the readers land after clicking on your email), make sure there is more to do than just read the one article of interest. Make sure there are ample links to explore other aspects of your site. Ask for readers to engage by leaving comments and following you on Twitter.
5. Do not worry about the metrics. A newsletter email sent to 20 people may change the world, depending on your content. You need to be patient with this. Trying to grow rapidly can easily damage the quality of your content. Do not do that. There is already enough competition online for low quality, boring content.

With all this, I invite you to send out a first email that highlights your (perhaps new or upgrade) site and report back how it went either via Twitter or in the comments below.

Take care,

Flavio