How to Start a B2B Marketing Newsletter
Considering starting a marketing newsletter to promote yourself, your business, or products?
Here are two easy steps to get started:
- Write it
- Hit send
Ok, maybe not that simple, but I am sharing from experience after just sending my first newsletter (that isn’t really a newsletter) to over 4,000 subscribers.
These two simple steps are where most businesses get paralyzed by perfection and never start. I personally follow so many smart marketers on LinkedIn. I read their content everywhere they share it. I share their ideas! I think they are brilliant.
But here’s the thing. Part of the reason why they are brilliant is because they are sharing their ideas. They are putting themselves out there again and again.
If you have something worth saying, say it. Start there.
Then hit send. It can be hard, but this step is so important because if you don’t try, you will never know what resonates. You won’t get to see what people say in their replies. You won’t see what they click. Even if you fail, you will learn.
Developing a Newsletter Strategy
If you are still reading, I’d like to tell you more about my overall strategy. Like every good strategy, it started with goals and objectives. Building awareness for SmartAcre and generating new clients.
Before putting content out in a long-form style newsletter, I started getting my voice out on LinkedIn. This was important to me for a few reasons:
- I already had an audience here
- More of my target audience goes here for information
- I could try things and get data quickly
- I honed in on the topics that matter most to our prospects
For example, one thing I learned from my LinkedIn content is that every time I include a gif it performs better (silly but true). This became a tactic I tested and will test again in a newsletter format.
The second key part of my strategy was finding my tone and creating personalized content. Sure, I could share a bunch of links to SmartAcre blog content, but what would make that unique? Instead, I told a story. I shared my thoughts. Naturally that led to a few links back to our website and our partner’s content.
Next, I did make sure it was decent. I shared with my most trusted critics to make sure it didn’t suck. They helped me fix a few things, making it slightly easier to hit send.
Now, I’m looking at the data. Seeing who clicked and what they looked at. Connecting with people who opened on LinkedIn. Continuing the conversation with those who replied. And cleaning up our HubSpot database after the latest bounces and unsubscribes.
Lastly, see what I’m doing here? Yeah, this was a newsletter, but I’m talking about it here on our blog and on LinkedIn. Producing content takes time. I’m a firm believer in using it as many ways as you can.
Want more content like this?
Another objective of this newsletter and all email campaigns sent from SmartAcre is to show vs. tell. If you join me on this journey, I’ll share real-time insights from my experience of what is working and what isn’t.