Whether you’re already writing a newsletter for your business, you’re planning to or you wish you could be remotely regular with it, a key element worth understanding is the storytelling.
The girls and I went to the library the other day, as we usually do. I'm an avid book reader and love pouring over as many books as time will allow. It fuels my love of all things storytelling.
On our return home, I picked up the bright yellow phone book that was lying at the front door, as happens at this time every year.
Ella, 11, looked at it puzzled.
"What's that?" she asked.
"The phone book," I replied.
"What do you mean a phone book? Did you get that at the library?"
"No, it's a book every household gets each year with everyone's phone numbers in it," I said.
She looked as if a purple pig had just flown by.
"Wow. That's so cool." And off she skipped, ready to look up the phone numbers of her teachers and mischievously laughing about how she could prank call them (thankfully she doesn't have a phone!).
It's moments like these that remind you just how much things have changed, when a phone book and memories of a bulky phone with a rotary dial and heavy handset were once the norm but are now foreign concepts to a new generation.
I've been in business since 2009 and one thing that hasn't changed in my business is a weekly newsletter. I've missed the odd one here and there, but for the most part I send a newsletter out to my subscribers every week. I even did this back in my mum blogging days.
The reason I still do it, is because it works.
While there might be new flashy options available for us in marketing, you can still rely on getting your message out via email. After all, you own your email list and no one can take that away from you.
I can't say the same for my Facebook fans, who barely hear from me these days, or my BLAB followers, because the platform no longer exists.
Like the phone book, it’s a reliable means to achieve a goal.
I didn’t quite realise a newsletter’s impact back in those early mum blogging days and probably didn’t use it like I should have either. But having started so early has meant there are people on my newsletter list now who have been with me since I started.
They know me well, have experienced all the varying facets of my business and, the thing that’s most important for us in business, they trust me.
If you're still struggling to figure out how to make a newsletter work for your business, I've put together a guide that will step you through the system I use to ensure I have high open rates and click-through rates each and every week.
Here are the elements to an effective newsletter - how to create a newsletter for your business using storytelling.
Writing a storytelling newsletter
Why do so many people have a fascination with business storytelling right now, yet few people are using it?
The reason is that it takes an enormous amount of effort to come up with the creative stories that match the message you want to share to alter someone’s behaviour or change their perception. Who has time to figure out what moves people?
Sometimes it’s easier - and quicker - just to throw something together and get it out there.
But when you DO take the time to find out what will resonate with the people who are most likely to work with you, you achieve incredible results.
The truth is, we all tell stories. We even all have a bit of a structure about how we do that. But when it comes to business storytelling, we want to do it better.
We want to have purpose.
The thing is, those who do want to learn it are reading books about storytelling structure, characters, plot, rising action, etc…
And yes, these things are all important to tell a story.
However, people then focus so much on trying to fit their story into a structure, that the whole thing falls flat.
Why? Because it lacks the one key ingredient that makes every story great.
Emotion.
When you write or tell a story and it just falls flat, you know there was something missing.
It’s like at a party when you tell a story to a group of friends, completely excited by what you’re sharing. But they merely look back at you, their faces resembling deer caught in headlights.
You realise they clearly missed something, so you end up throwing out a line like: “OK, so you had to be there”.
The way to “get them there” is actually to include the emotion. Because the reason the story fell flat is because the emotion was missing.
And I don’t mean that the story had to have you rolling on the floor laughing or that ache in your chest as a tear escapes your eye.
It just has to make someone “feel” something.
The six emotions that elicit a “feeling” are -
- love,
- fear,
- joy,
- sadness,
- surprise and
- anger.
To be able to embed one of those emotions into a story, you need to have empathy.
When you research storytelling, you hear story after story taken from famous movies to try and explain how to craft the perfect marketing story. Star Wars seems to be the favourite.
But the greatest lesson you can take away from all those trainings is the ‘change” that someone goes through. And that change in their perception of the world is led by the emotional journey.
When it comes to our ideal client, we need to understand the change they need to make to go from the situation they’re in now to one that will see them experiencing life from a new perspective once they’ve experienced our service or offering.
We need to understand what will drive the behaviour to create that change.
That’s more than knowing demographics and psychographics of ideal client profiles.
You need to be prepared to dig deeper.
Does newsletter story structure matter?
So does story structure not matter then?
I’ve tried to write this point about story structure and ended up writing a completely new blog post. So I’ll save much of it for that post.
For now, realise that by trying to understand all the variations on the technicalities of writing stories, you could well end up creating some rather bland and unengaging stories.
Forget about 3, 5 or 12-part story arcs and stick with the emotion FIRST to avoid overwhelm.
You don't want to end up in a space where you simply start spinning your wheels, rather than actually creating quality content.
Wait for the post on story structure coming out soon and that may help you in your quest for better storytelling structure. In the meantime, tap into your emotions.
Newsletter outline
When we’re talking about newsletters or email marketing we don’t have a lot of space, so we need to get to the point quickly.
Not a lot of space, you ask?
OK, so you do have a lot of space, but the reality is the majority of people don’t want to read long emails. If you find you write long newsletters and also have a low click-through rate, it’s likely because either they couldn’t be bothered reading all of the newsletter OR they were “full” from what you provided from your newsletter and didn’t need to take the next step with you.
What’s the right amount? There’s no definitive answer to this one, so test what works for you.
So here’s the general outline I use for writing a newsletter that ensures I keep on track, provide entertainment, give value and invite people to take the next step.
Ready?
Storytelling opening
The first few paragraphs are a story that hooks into a theme or message I’ll be sharing within the newsletter. These stories DO need to have a purpose.
Don’t just tell a random story and then jump to something else straight afterwards. You want this story to grab their attention and then seamlessly move from story to the next step (which we’ll get to in a tick).
What I want you to think about with this story is something that’s personal, something you saw recently that made you stop and think or something that elicits an emotion in your reader.
Here is a story prompt to get you started: What moment have you experienced this week that mirrored one of the beliefs or values you hold hold about your business/industry?
Get my Storytelling Map for endless story prompts you can use to help start your next newsletter.
Transition to the lesson
The second part of the newsletter is a few lines that transitions to the lesson from your story. What do you want them to understand or believe?
I often ask a question at this point to get people thinking. I don’t expect the reader to hit reply and tell me what they’re thinking, but sometimes they do.
And I love that!
During the writing process, often I will start with the lesson or message BEFORE I start thinking about a story that fits.
Other times the story comes first and has a few lessons or messages within it. I can take the one most relevant to the next step in the newsletter to make my point.
What is the point of your story? What lesson do you have to impart?
End with a Call To Action
The final part of the newsletter is a transition to the call to action (or CTA).
If you’ve ever walked through sideshow alley at the local agricultural show, you’ll know that having 10 people shouting out at once that their sideshow attraction is THE one you need to experience is pretty overwhelming.
Often having too many choices leads us to not making a decision at all.
Newsletters are much the same.
As they wander through the copy (and images) in your newsletter, the more offers you make the less likely they are to click as the choices become too much.
Have ONE clear call to action in your newsletter, but ensure you repeat that call to action three times.
The reason we pick ONE theme or lesson for our newsletter is so we can lead to ONE invitation.
Again, this is up for testing, but my tests have repeatedly shown when I have more than one thing I’m directing people to, my click-through rate goes down.
When I have ONE thing I want them to go to, then my click-through rate goes up.
Now, those tests also revealed that when I make the ask THREE times within the email - and in different ways - the clickthrough rate goes up again.
So I might:
- hyperlink a word
- show the full URL
- embed a button for them to click
- add an image that asks them to click
- add an image of a video for them to click
What offer are you making? How are you leading to that one offer?
Add a PS to your newsletter
This one is optional, but effective.
There are some readers out there who want to find out what you’re writing about before they start reading and so they scroll to the bottom of the newsletter first.
This is not a habit I'm prone to, but when I mention this in workshops and trainings, a sea of heads start nodding in agreement. Maybe that's you?
So where you can, have something in the footer or end of the newsletter that recaps everything you’ve just shared.
This avoids missing out on the thing you most want to have people do - which is that call to action.
Occasionally - and only occasionally - I may have a footer image in my newsletter that leads to something “related” but not the same as the core offer (see, even I break my own rules sometimes). I view this as a form of “banner ad”.
As with everything I teach, and as I’ve mentioned before, test, test, test.
What works for you?
Newsletter subject lines
One question I hear often is: how do I get more people to open my emails?
There’s two ways, really. And the first and most important has nothing to do with subject lines. It’s your relationship with your email subscriber.
Before they look at the subject line, they look at your name. And if they feel you’ve given them value before, been entertained or educated by your content in the past, or feel they have a relationship with you, then that will be the first trigger to them wanting to open your emails.
This is why storytelling becomes so important - it helps build relationships.
The next trigger is, you guessed it, the subject line. This is similar to blog post and opt-in headlines – you want to grab people’s attention by understanding their greatest wants, address that in the subject line and make it “clickable”.
My advice for writing your subject line is to:
- Write the email before you even contemplate a subject line
- Once written, see what the hook is and hang your subject line on that.
One thing that has also been a great help is having a swipe file in my inbox. If I come across a subject line that just has to be clicked, I'll put that email into a folder in my email client called "Swipe File". It's great for inspiration when you're feeling stuck when writing a newsletter for your business.
Here’s a list of ideas you can also tap into:
- The worst thing you can do (after, before or during an activity)
- (Subject 1) vs (subject 2)
- Start your (topic) with this
- Stop (doing this)
- I need your help – (topic)
- (Subject) not (outcome)? This could help
- After you’ve (activity), don’t do this
- The (5-minute/7-step) technique to (benefit)
- Can (your target audience) use (platform/strategy/technique)?
What subject lines have you loved? Do you have a swipe file for inspiration?
Frequency of Writing A Newsletter For Your Business
The frequency of writing a newsletter for your business has to be one of the top questions I receive.
I can't give you an exact answer. However, I do have some things for you to think about.
Firstly, what do you believe your audience will be able to tolerate? For some audiences, once a month is enough. For others, it's 2-3 times a week. If you really have no idea, then you have to pick a frequency and test from there.
My clients often start with fortnightly. If after a few newsletters their unsubscribe rate is low, then we switch to weekly.
The only thing you need to be aware of is not to do less than once a month, otherwise your audience can forget who you are.
Oh, and don't commit to more than you're capable of producing. Be realistic.
Best day and time for a newsletter
Right behind frequency, the next most asked question is what the best day of the week and time is to send your newsletter.
This is again going to come down to your niche and audience.
I've long sent my newsletter on a Thursday morning Australian time. But regularly I'll try different days and times to test whether that still is best for my audience. For example, Friday night and Sunday night have both produced strong results.
You have to consider your ideal client's lifestyle. With many of my subscribers being parents, they're home on a Friday night and catching up on reading. A younger audience may well be out partying instead.
Another client is a real estate agent who needs her newsletters to be timed with weekend open homes and auctions.
What timing works best for your audience and business?
Kellie, this is great stuff. In my experience, the email newsletter is often the last thing the comms team wants to think about and it is often hurriedly smashed together at the last minute, used as a dumping ground to get information out to an audience without thinking about strategy for engagement. Absolutely love your thinking points here!
Thanks so much, Felicity. So glad you liked it. I completely agree! I’ve seen on more than a few occasions where email newsletters aren’t given the attention they deserve. Love the line “used as a dumping ground to get information out”. Yes! Writing a newsletter is one of my favourite marketing tasks within my business.