If you have a blog or a business, or are planning on launching one soon, you most probably came across the concept that collecting emails and creating a newsletter is something your “baby” must have in order to succeed in the long run.

It seems as if suddenly everybody wants to create a newsletter, but most don’t really understand why they even need it…

Before we begin, let’s try and understand the meaning of the word “newsletter”:

“A newsletter is a printed report containing news (information) of the activities of a business (legal name; subscription business model) or an organization (institutions, societies, associations) that is sent by mail regularly to all its members, customers, employees or people, who are interested in.” {wikipedia}

Now, the idea of a newsletter is all good, but you know what happens when people do something only because they were told it is important, and they really have no idea what for? They simply give up on it because it seems like a big hassle, or they do it only to say they have it, but in practice it’s really not used properly or effectively.

And that is exactly what happened to me.

For some reason, the mere word “newsletter” really overwhelmed me at first. It seemed like something terribly big that I would have trouble tackling, along with all of my other blogging chores. Besides, I thought to myself why bother learn a whole new system before there was a little more “meat” to my blog and social networks.

Boy was I wrong… One of the biggest mistakes I made as a beginner blogger was that I did not initially have a newsletter to send out from day one.

Only two years later did I decide to really give the whole newsletter thing a chance. I chose a mailing platform, encouraged subscription via my blog and social media, and began sending emails regularly. At first it was a bit of a challenge, but as I carried on sending weekly emails, I felt an enormous change in the way in which I connected with my audience and potential clients. I had also established my community in a way no other tool had ever allowed me to do so. I have no doubt that if only I had created a good quality newsletter for my blog from the start, I would have by now been able to reach a much larger scale in traffic, subscribers and community. But, as they say, there is no point crying over spilled milk… Instead, I’d like you to learn from my mistake, and take the time to think about preparing your own quality newsletter right now.

This is precisely why I decided to devote an entire post to the reasons for which you should have a newsletter for your blog or business right from the start, and treat it as the most important asset alongside your blog.

{Spoiler alert: By reading on, you will understand why keeping up a newsletter is even more important than the obsessive upkeep of social networks!}.

Newsletter – 5 Reasons That Will Get You to Start Yours Now

REASON NO. 1 – YOU ARE THE OWNER OF YOUR DISTRIBUTION LISTS AND YOUR NEWSLETTER

Today, social media is a necessary tool for growing a successful and profitable blog or business. It reinforces the brand, connects you to your community, allows you to share what goes on “behind the scenes”, and creates traffic. But, they do have one very big drawback, even huge – you can not control them. You do not own Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest or any other social network, and therefore, even if you’ve put in a lot of effort to create quality content for your social networks, and you’ve reached a nice amount of followers, you can never be sure that your followers will indeed receive your updates.

Enter, newsletter.

Your distribution list is the only tool, aside from your blog {that is, if you have an independent blog} that completely belongs to you. You are its owner, and you call the shots. Even if tomorrow Instagram’s algorithm will change for the worse and barely two followers will see your posts, you will still be able to promote what is most important to you via the newsletter.

You could be thinking – “Yeah, but I know someone who earns a ton of money only through Facebook or Instagram… which proves you can make it without a newsletter!”, and you are partially right. It could very well be that at the moment their business is extremely successful, but what you must understand is that they don’t have complete control over their business. The social media algorithms and search engines change very frequently, and any small change can be, in the long run, quite damaging to a business based only on visibility on social media.

The finest example would be the changes in Facebook’s algorithms in recent years. From a previously organic tool, it has become a heavily funded one, forcing advertisers to pay in order to have their posts visible. These kinds of changes constantly occur without warning and can ruin the businesses which do not have the financial backing to pay for sponsored promotion.

So yes, it may be amazing to have 20K followers on any one of your social networks, but you are not in full control of your content’s exposure. This is why you should start a newsletter of your own, and begin encouraging your community to subscribe to it. This way, you can be sure you are not putting all of your eggs in somebody else’s basket 😉

REASON NO. 2 – AN EMAIL IS WAY MORE PERSONAL

Email is a much more personal tool to keep in contact, more than social networks, and even a blog, for a number of reasons:

a) If somebody let you have their email address and decided to let you access their personal inbox, a stronger bond must have been formed with them than with the rest of your followers. I mean, it is so much easier to click “follow” on Instagram than to let someone have your personal email. Those who have signed up for your newsletter care a lot more about your brand and your updates than those who simply follow you on social media. Those same people probably admire you and your work, and don’t want to miss out on anything. Through the newsletter you can create more established relationships with them.

b) When you send out a newsletter, the person on the receiving end will consider the email a much more personal gesture than if you had shared the same information on one of your social networks. Email feels much more like a dialogue, unlike social networks that often feel like a one-sided conversation.

c) Many people don’t like to feel publicly exposed. So it is likely that they would find it easier to take part in a discussion, ask questions, or give answers to any questions raised by you, in the private realm of their inbox.

REASON NO. 3 – BUILDING A COMMUNITY

Following the previous reason, creating one-on-one personal contacts via email helps build the trust that is at the heart of any successful community. By means of the newsletter, you can send out exclusive messages, the kind you would share only with the members of the community, and not publicly on the blog. This would be the place to raise questions and share things like new experiences, interesting tips, and even little things you’ve found online that may also interest your community. Special content of this kind turns your community into a sort of “members-only club”, where only the members of the community are entitled to special benefits. I, for example, launched my blogging course to my newsletter subscribers two weeks before the initial launch on the blog and social media, and I also drew a special giveaway available for newsletter subscribers only.

REASON NO. 4 – IT IS THE EASIEST WAY TO KEEP IN TOUCH

They say consciousness creates reality, but the truth is that as much as we’d like, and try to believe it with all our might – people will not visit our blog each day to check if we’ve posted anything new {unless of course they are totally addicted! 🙂 }

But there is one thing we all do each and every day, and often more than once a day… we check our email! Now, don’t get me wrong, the intention is in no way to harass your list of subscribers with every little thought that comes to mind… If you do that, they will very simply, and rightly so, remove themselves from your mailing list. The best way to use the newsletter would be to send a weekly update {or bi-weekly, if you find it hard to keep up each week} that will include what’s new on the blog and anything more you’d like to talk about. On the other hand, if you have a particularly important message, that you would like to make sure your readers receive at a certain date {for example, an announcement about a giveaway or a special offer}, the newsletter is the perfect sidekick for this mission!

REASON NO. 5 – LARGER CONVERSION RATES FOR FUTURE PURCHASES

Whether you run a professional blog {as marketing tool for an existing business} or whether you plan on selling products or services via your blog in the future – a newsletter will become your best selling means.

Studies show that conversion rates through email marketing {newsletter} are a lot higher than those used on social networks. {Read more about that, here.} As I said, if somebody decided to let you in to their private email, they probably really like what you do and most likely very involved in what is happening concerning your brand. So, if you’ve tended to your newsletter subscribers over time, and provided them with real value, they will probably become your most loyal customers in the future. In addition, a newsletter is an excellent tool for maintaining existing clients. This is because if someone once purchased a product or service through you, and was satisfied, they may very well become a regular customer if you continue to keep them updated via the newsletter on any future products you will be marketing.

The bottom line is, if you do not already have a newsletter accompanying your blog, I highly recommend that you start one as soon as today. There are many online companies that supply platforms for creating a newsletter, some of them are free, while others request payment. Currently, I use MailChimp, which is, undoubtedly, the best option out there for beginner bloggers since it is completely free for up to 2,000 subscribers, and also because it is easy to use and create professionally and aesthetically pleasing designed emails. The only two disadvantages I have encountered on this platform are: 1. A limited font selection  2. If the same email is listed on more than one distribution list, it is counted more than once, and then you cannot know the precise amount of subscribers. In my opinion, MailChimp’s advantages surpass its disadvantages, and so even though I’ve exceeded the first 2,000 free subscribers, I choose to pay, and continue using it over other platforms.

Did I succeed at convincing you to create a newsletter for your blog or business ASAP?

If you have any questions about constructing your mailing list and newsletter, you are welcome to do so by leaving me a comment below 🙂