SPECIAL SERIES ==> How & Why YOU Need an EMAIL NEWSLETTER Now! 📰<== | BATHROOM Break #41 (COLLAB: The Marketing Millennials + Do This, Not That)

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Do This, NOT That: Marketing Tips with Jay Schwedelson | SPECIAL SERIES ==> How & Why YOU Need an EMAIL NEWSLETTER Now! 📰 | BATHROOM Break #41"

Release Date: February 10, 2025
Hosts: Jay Schwedelson (Do This, Not That Podcast) and Daniel Murray (Marketing Millennials)
Presented By: Marigold

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Introduction to the Bathroom Break Series

In this special episode of the "Bathroom Break" series, hosts Jay Schwedelson and Daniel Murray collaborate to deliver concise yet powerful marketing insights tailored for busy professionals. The episode focuses on the critical topic of email newsletters, exploring both the why and the how of integrating newsletters into your marketing strategy.

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The Importance of Email Newsletters

Establishing Ownership and Voice

Daniel Murray emphasizes the significance of an email newsletter as an "owned asset" in the fluctuating landscape of social media. He states, “Your email database is the most important thing because it's your owned asset. You don't lose it, it can't get banned” (02:19). Beyond ownership, newsletters help in establishing a consistent voice for your brand. They serve as a medium to articulate and present information continuously, fostering a relationship with your audience that isn't tied to the transient nature of social media algorithms.

Building Trust and Expertise

Jay Schwedelson adds that newsletters are "the ultimate trust builder," highlighting their role in demonstrating expertise and providing consistent value. By delivering high-quality content regularly, newsletters position you as a trusted resource in your niche, which in turn makes your audience more receptive to future promotions and product offerings (03:37).

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Building and Maintaining a Newsletter

Strategic Foundation

Daniel advocates for starting a newsletter early, regardless of your current assets like podcasts or events. He explains, “You almost want to create this newsletter... not for what you're doing today, but for all the things that you have absolutely no idea that you're going to be doing a year from now” (04:46). This forward-thinking approach ensures that you have a dedicated channel to promote future initiatives, providing a sustained platform for audience engagement.

Content as a Multi-Channel Asset

Jay points out that newsletters can serve as a content engine, feeding into various other platforms. He mentions, “It's a way to distribute your ideas, but also it's a way to distribute things in a medium that other people consume” (06:01). Content from newsletters can be repurposed into blog posts, social media updates, podcast segments, and more, maximizing the reach and utility of each piece of content.

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Content Strategies for Newsletters

Actionable and Entertaining Content

Both hosts stress the importance of making newsletter content both actionable and entertaining. Jay advises, “Is it actionable enough? Is it giving tips that are helping someone be better at their job” and “Is it entertaining? Cause nobody just wants you to put out boring ass content” (07:52). The goal is to ensure that each newsletter provides tangible value while engaging the reader's interest, preventing the content from becoming mundane or purely promotional.

Maintaining a Compelling Structure

Daniel likens the email experience to a chain, where each element must hold the reader's attention. He emphasizes starting strong with a captivating subject line and pre-header, followed by compelling headlines and initial content blocks: “If any of the chain at the start is not compelling, you lose them” (08:58). By placing the most interesting and valuable information at the beginning, you increase the likelihood that readers will engage with the entire newsletter.

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Growing Your Newsletter Audience

Proactive Subscription Strategies

Daniel shares practical tactics for expanding your subscriber base, such as integrating subscription prompts into every client call. He mentions, “I have a newsletter, would you want me to subscribe you to the newsletter?” and highlights the effectiveness of this approach in attracting the right audience (11:05). This method ensures that your newsletter reaches individuals who are already interested in your services, enhancing the quality of your subscriber list.

Utilizing Website Pop-Ups

Jay recommends using pop-up forms on your website to capture email addresses from visitors. He explains, “It's easy, it's free, you're giving that free value. You're getting emails which you don't know 98% of the people coming to your website” (10:07). This tactic not only grows your email list but also allows you to gather first-party data, enriching your understanding of your audience and enabling more personalized marketing efforts.

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Common Mistakes to Avoid

Neglecting Engagement and Quality

Daniel warns against the pitfall of treating newsletters as mere checkboxes. “If you are checking the box that, okay, we have a newsletter... It's the worst experience ever” (06:48). A disengaged and poorly crafted newsletter can damage your brand’s reputation, making it essential to prioritize quality and reader engagement over mere consistency.

Avoiding Boring Content

Jay reinforces the necessity of avoiding dry, uninspired content. He encourages creators to ask, “why someone would read your newsletter and why should this even exist?” and to focus on delivering unique, niche-specific, and entertaining content that stands out in the crowded inbox space (07:52).

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Conclusion and Final Tips

As the episode wraps up, Jay and Daniel reiterate the multifaceted benefits of maintaining an email newsletter—from building trust and demonstrating expertise to serving as a versatile content hub. They encourage marketers at all levels to invest time and resources into crafting engaging, value-driven newsletters that resonate with their audiences.

Key Takeaways:

• Ownership: An email newsletter is a valuable, owned marketing asset.
• Consistency: Regular newsletters build trust and establish your brand voice.
• Content Quality: Focus on actionable and entertaining content to keep readers engaged.
• Audience Growth: Utilize proactive strategies like subscription prompts and website pop-ups.
• Avoid Common Pitfalls: Prioritize engagement and avoid treating newsletters as mere obligations.

By adhering to these principles, marketers can harness the full potential of email newsletters to drive sustained growth and foster meaningful connections with their audiences.

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Notable Quotes:

• Daniel Murray (02:19): “Your email database is the most important thing because it's your owned asset. You don't lose it, it can't get banned.”
• Jay Schwedelson (03:37): “It's the ultimate trust builder. Shows that you understand the topic.”
• Daniel Murray (04:46): “Create this newsletter... not for what you're doing today, but for all the things that you have absolutely no idea that you're going to be doing a year from now.”
• Jay Schwedelson (06:01): “It's a way to distribute your ideas, but also it's a way to distribute things in a medium that other people consume.”
• Daniel Murray (08:58): “If any of the chain at the start is not compelling, you lose them.”
• Jay Schwedelson (07:52): “Is it actionable enough? Is it giving tips that are helping someone be better at their job? Is it entertaining?”

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For more marketing insights and to subscribe to the newsletters mentioned, visit Marigold.

Transcript

[A]

Welcome to a new special series called the Bathroom break. That extra 10 minutes you either have to listen to marking tips or use the bathroom or both. But I don't recommend both. But that's your choice.

[B]

This collab is going to be super fun. We have Daniel Murray from the Marketing Millennials, and me, Jay Schwedelson from the do this, not that podcast and subjectline.com each episode in the series, we are going to go over quick tips about different marketing topics. And if you want to be in the bathroom, fine, just don't tell us about it. Thanks for checking it out.

[A]

Welcome back to another episode of the Bathroom Break. I'm here with Jay Schwedelson of Do this, not that Podcast. And I am Daniel Murray of the Marketing Millennials. Today we're going to talk about how to start a newsletter. But I want to ask you a question. So I. I get fed Tiktoks for Vinny's Cafe all the time and the Caesar wrap. So is it, is it worth the hype? Is it worth going to that cafe? Let me know. Okay?

[B]

So Vinny's is like two miles from where I live. And it's fine. It's definitely not worth the hype. But it's annoying. You know, when anything goes viral on TikTok, if it's in your neighborhood, it's very annoying because now you can't go to it because the line is so incredibly long. But I will say something about TikTok food trends and I want your take on this so my teenage kids will come home like, oh, there's a new recipe, TikTok recipe that's gone viral. So we should do it like, like, for example, like big feta pasta that went viral and we started making the house. It was so good. And what I've come to conclusion is these, these recipes on TikTok that go viral are really good. Do you ever make any of these recipes on TikTok?

[A]

I wish I was that type of person, but it actually, I remember that baked feta thing and I remember how they had all those ingredients were hard to find in stores after that went viral. So I think they do look good. And I wish I could make something like that, but I'm not a cook.

[B]

All right, I'll make something. I won't invite you over. So there you go.

[A]

Thank you for that. But I want to start about why to start a newsletter and how to start a newsletter, but do you want to kick it off on why you think newsletters are so valuable?

[B]

Yeah, look, coming out of all this TikTok nonsense stuff where things are getting banned and they're losing all their followers and all that, you'll hear everywhere that your email database is the most important thing because it's your owned asset. You don't lose it, it can't get banned, all of that. And that's all true. Okay, but that's not really the reason you want to have a newsletter. The newsletter does two things for you. Number one, whether it's coming from you personally or it's coming from your brand, it is establishing that voice, the way that you're going to communicate, how you articulate information, how you present information to your database. And the most important thing though is it is this thing where your company has to put it out or you have to put it out. And it's the ongoing stream of information, thought leadership, content, ways that you're staying in front of your person that you have to do. And it doesn't exist anywhere else. Everything else is in like these, oh, up and down calendars. Oh, we're going to do this promotion, we're going to do this event, we're going to do this thing. It's not continuous. And so having that newsletter as the continuous piece of your brand, I think there's extreme value there. What, what do you think? Why should you have a newsletter?

[A]

I think it's one of the best expertise builders. I think you have to go into it and thinking, I'm going to put out the best content for the audience. I think you got to think of it as, this product is going to be the best in my niche with a unique angle or take. Otherwise I wouldn't start a newsletter because I. Obviously the consistency is important, but I think once people see you are giving so much value and you're giving it for free, they start ignoring asks. And that's what you want to get to the point of, hey, we're having this virtual event, People will start signing up. Hey, we're having this, people will start signing up because you're putting out so much things that help them get better at their job, entertain them. That's how you have to think about it. It's the ultimate trust program. Shows that you understand the topic. Whatever product or service you're pitching, it shows you understand this product. So I think it's the ultimate trust builder. Along with that, it's algorithm proof. So you're owning that you can move it around, you're building something, you're getting more emails. So I think those are the reasons.

[B]

Why I went yeah, let me build on something there, what you said, which is when I started my newsletter, I didn't have any conferences, I didn't have a podcast, I didn't have a lot of stuff. And when I started doing my newsletter, I was able to build it up. And then when all these things that we decided to do, events and whatever came to be, I had somewhere to promote them. And so you almost want to create this newsletter, whether it's your brand, your company's newsletter, or your personal newsletter, not for what you're doing today, but for all the things that you have absolutely no idea that you're going to be doing a year from now, two years from now, three years from now. Because it takes a lot of time to build up this audience, to build up that presence in their mind, like Daniel was talking about, about you being relevant to them. And so in a year from now, after you've started it and you have this new thing you want to promote, you will have somewhere to promote it. So you don't want to do it for what you're doing today, you want to do it for the unknown, which is down the road. And the other key thing is it doesn't matter if you have 5 subscribers, 50 subscribers, 10,000, 100,000, if you have a handful of people that are willing to get that newsletter, you should be doing a newsletter, in my opinion.

[A]

I also think just like a podcast, it's an ultimate way to put your thoughts in a long form piece of writing that could be chopped up into short form pieces of writing. So one, it's a way to distribute your ideas, but also it's a way to distribute things in a medium that other people consume. So say you have a podcast or something like that, or a virtual event, you could take the key takes and put it in your newsletter. It's also the opposite way. You could take an idea that resonates with people in a newsletter and make it into other things. So a lot of people that I know use it as a way to create multiple pieces of content. So that's how they start and think about it at first, as a way to start as a content engine for themselves.

[B]

Here's the worst thing that you could do with a newsletter, whether it's your newsletter or your company's newsletter, if you are checking the box that, okay, we have a newsletter, we, we got it out this week, thank God, I can't take it. It's the worst experience ever. And then you don't even think about it again. And all you're Doing is just, just trying to get it out the door. And you're not really saying, okay, how are we going to make this really engaging? How are we going to make this something people really want? You're literally just going through the motions. And you know that your newsletter they're putting out is epically boring and terrible. Don't do it. Okay? You're actually creating, as Daniel will talk about, a negative signal for your brand. Right. And that's terrible. And then I get messages all the time where people say, well, Jay, I work in a regulated industry. I work in a really boring industry. We sell boring products. I can't make it interesting, I can't put out content. It'll be off brand. And I couldn't disagree with you more. There are so many little things that you could do, content blocks that you could do. I don't care how boring your industry is. That is interesting to the people that are potentially going to read it. Yeah.

[A]

And that goes in the point of. When you're thinking about starting a newsletter, the first thing you should ask yourself is why someone would read your newsletter and why should this even exist? And the ways to think about it is what niche are you going? Is it, is it specific? Don't be. I'm going to write a business newsletter, go more deeper. Like Jay having email marketing tips. So if you're in email marketing tips that specific, then the next filter you have to say, is this an actionable newsletter? Does it give someone a reason to open every email? Is it actionable enough? Is it giving tips that are helping someone be better at their job? The next filter is, is it entertaining? Cause nobody just wants you to put out boring ass content. So don't put a. Make another. Nobody needs another dry corporate newsletter. They want it to be entertaining. So that's like the first thing I think about when you ask it, like, why does this, who's it going to serve? And what is the deep, niche and unique angle I'm going to take in this industry to stand out and write something unique for that audience.

[B]

And the thing I would always think about is email is like a chain, okay? And if anything breaks in the chain, then people will stop paying attention. So you start with, you know, that subject line. Okay, great, interesting. I'm gonna open up and you have your pre header and then you have your headline that you're messaging and then you have that first content block. If any of the chain at the start is not compelling, you lose them. And the mistake that's made with a lot of newsletters is they put some of the best stuff towards the bottom, right or in the middle. But if you don't have something awesomely interesting at the top of your newsletter every single time, that's it, they're gone. And you want to make something fun. Even if you're in a boring industry. You could put, you know, the wildest industry fact that you never heard about right in your plumbing industry. Right. Or it could be this week's behind the scenes fact or tip or video clip or anything to show you what we're doing behind the scenes that you never get access to right at the top of that newsletter. Make sure the top of that newsletter keeps them wanting to read the rest, no matter how boring your sector is.

[A]

I think the another thing I want to add, and you say this a lot, having a, a pop up form on your website, this is one of the best things to have a pop up form to collect more emails on your website. It's easy, it's free, you're giving that free value. You're getting emails which you don't know 98% of the people coming to your website. So you're getting more information, more first party data coming in. You can enrich these people through an enrichment database. So it's a way to start getting at least top of funnel. Not everything needs to be a middle funnel and bottom of the funnel play. You can start getting people on your list, nurturing them, showing your expertise before they even know everything about your product. So I think that's one of the biggest reasons too is you can start capturing people on your list, do what we said before, market to them in the future or show, show that you are the most trusted resource in the industry for X topic.

[B]

Yeah. And you know, if you're really just trying to get going and growing it. I do this on almost every call that I'm on with new people that I'm talking to. If the call is going well, I'll say, by the way, I have a newsletter, would you want me to subscribe you to the newsletter? Because that's where we're sharing a lot of information. And I say that like a broken record on almost every call that I'm on and everybody on the call like, oh yeah, I would love to get your newsletter and then we sign them up and then they start getting it. Because those are the people you're trying to get their business, you're trying to stay in front of them and it's a golden opportunity to add the right people to your newsletter. So you want to kind of always be thinking about, how do I get more of the right people onto my newsletter? Even if you're doing it one at a time, because you'll turn around after a week, you're like, oh, my God, I just added 20 people I spoke spoke to this week on Zoom Calls. And they're the exact right people. So.

[A]

And it also sets a standard for you to write better news. That is, I think once you start getting the right people, you and people you respect, I think you as a writer or a company, start actually saying, like, this needs to. We need to invest time and energy to put out great content and that the content doesn't always have to be used for the newsletter. So getting that in your head, this content could be used as a blog post, could be used as a, as a social post, like 10 social posts. You could use a Twitter X thread. It could be used as an eight quotes on Instagram. You could use it for so many different things. So think of it as a way to create more content and in depth content for your audience.

[B]

All right, since we're over time here, everybody go and subscribe to Daniel's newsletter. You find it the Marketing Millennials. It is absolutely the best marketing newsletter on the planet. I'm not even going to tell you about mine because who cares about mine?

[A]

Oh, go subscribe to Jay.

[B]

He's going to be nice and you all are awesome. We'll see you at the next one, Daniel. Come on, man. I got to get back to work. Get out of there. All right, while he's still in there. This is Jay. Check out my podcast, do this, not that, for Marketers. Each week we share really quick tips on stuff that can improve your marketing and hope you give it a try. Oh, here's Daniel. He's finally out.

[A]

Back from my bathroom break. This is Daniel. Go follow the Market Millennials podcast, but also tune into this series. It's once a week, the Bathroom Break. We talk about marketing tips that we just spew out. And it could be anything from email, subject line to any marketing tips in the world. We'll talk about it. Just give us a shout on LinkedIn and tell us what you want to hear. Peace out.

[B]

Later.