Upcoming Event
In a few weeks I'm co-hosting a free, interactive roundtable with authority development strategist Erica Holthausen. Discover how to transform your viewpoint into a lasting body of work and build an email strategy that consistently engages the right audience.
Get all the details here.
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When I look back at the first iteration of this newsletter, I had not a damn clue what I was doing
(Ironic for someone who has a business doing email marketing. 🫠)
I had no clearly defined audience beyond "people who probably use Kit." Nothing that differentiated me from all of the other Kit pro's out there.
And because my work existed in the technical realm, I assumed that my content should also skew technical. Looking back, my earliest newsletters make me cringe:
This morning as I was sitting down to write this email, mulling over how to start to it, I started thinking about habit stacking.
Habit stacking is the concept of connecting a few small activities together -- say, brushing your teeth, washing your face, and flossing -- into a chain.
One activity in the chain triggers the next, which triggers the next, and so on.
A series of habits that become one.
The idea is that you ultimately use less brain power trying to remember to do all of these activities and they become routine...
...Kind of like link triggers with email marketing.
Link triggers (or trigger by link click or link actions, they're all called something slightly different depending on what email service provider you use ) are a really simple yet powerful email marketing automation tool.
One ultimately saves you valuable time -- and brain power -- while also helping you to better serve and understand your clients.
Excerpt from one of my earliest newsletters. Holy snoozefest!
At the time, I was writing a newsletter multiple times a week. 😱
Turns there's only so much you can say about the technical stuff before you run out of things to say.
(Or quite frankly, before your subscribers leave out of sheer boredom. Unless they happen to be a fellow systems nerd.)
So I needed to figure out - for my own sanity and for my readers' - what actually set me apart from every other person doing the technical side of email marketing.
And I had to get creative if I was going to be able to sustain this, especially at a weekly cadence.
I began incorporating ideas that were totally unrelated to email marketing, such as the intent versus impact framework, and ideas that my colleagues were writing about that impacted how I thought about my work.
In the process, I began developing a unique point of view. And at some point I had a realization:
Writing this newsletter is so much more than marketing.
It's a creative practice, one that enables me to take concepts and frameworks and intriguing things I've read and apply it to my own thinking of email marketing and newsletters.
But perhaps more importantly, the practice of writing and showing up weekly was helping me define my own viewpoint and differentiate myself from everyone else doing this work.
For a while I figured that was just... a me thing. A nice side effect of writing a weekly newsletter.
Then I connected with Erica Holthausen, an authority development strategist with more than two decades of experience as professional writer, editor, and content marketer.
We hit it off immediately, like we'd been friends for years. And we knew we were destined to work together.
After we got off our first coffee chat, I devoured her content, digging into her blog posts and watching a training she gave inside the Deeper Foundations community we're both part of.
I had a full "oh" moment.
I hadn't made this up.
The practice of writing a regular newsletter is a fantastic way to build authority.
The process of writing regularly - showing up, making that public commitment - forces you to think creatively in order to differentiate yourself.
And having the privilege of showing up in people's inboxes to share those ideas?
Priceless.
That's why Erica and I are hosting the Authority Engine Roundtable.
It's a space to think through what showing up regularly, in writing, could actually do for your business and your authority.
Our approaches overlap in a really natural way. Erica comes at this from the ideation and writing side, while I come at it from the distribution side.
If you've ever felt like your newsletter (or the idea of starting one) is just another thing you "should" be doing without knowing why - or you already have a regular newsletter practice and want to sharpen your unique viewpoint, I'd love to have you there.
Get all the details here
Take it one step at a time,
Bev
P.S. If you know of anyone in your network who would be interested, can you please forward this email to them?
Done-for-You Kit & Email Marketing Strategy Services
Or if you're ready to work together, book a call.
Power Hours
Get an hour of my eyes & brain for email marketing strategy and/or tech support:
6 spots currently available for the beginning of September
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