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I was on a call yesterday with two other marketers* to connect and commiserate on being in similar industries.

(*Is it me, or does that sound like the start to a really bad joke? "Three marketers walk into a bar...")

One of the topics that came up was newsletters, and whether they're supporting our businesses. As the only email marketer in the Zoom room, they were curious to hear my take.

It's one of those questions that on the surface seems rather straightforward. You send an email, said email leads to sales. After all, that's how it's supposed to work.

Right?

Well, yes....and no.

For some business models, like selling digital products and group programs or doing fundraising, that's usually the main goal of email marketing, and you can often see the direct payoff. Granted, it's not always immediate, and it's not always this email led this person to buy this product.

But for many of my clients - and for myself - the outcome of sending a newsletter at a regular cadence isn't always that cut-and-dry.

Thinking of it that way puts a ton of pressure on you to make sure each newsletter you send leads to sales, which can lead to:

• avoidance, because you don't want to come off as salesy or annoying (and therefore miss out on the other benefits of email marketing, which we'll get into in a moment)
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• desperation to make it work, using sales and marketing tactics that turn off your audience (and possibly you as well)
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• feeling demoralized if it doesn't lead to sales

Framing it this way also misses some of the less obvious ways email marketing supports your business.

For me, writing this every week is a creative act that also enables me to test my messaging and ideas, and sharpen and differentiate how I talk about my work.

Some of this writing started as a newsletter, got repurposed into LinkedIn and blog posts, which later turned into client work. It's also led to invitations to be featured in other people's newsletters and on podcasts - which has expanded my reach and brought in new clients.

I see this same non-sales impact for my clients, too:

One of my clients sells professional licensure test prep courses. During their Email Roadmap, we identified a gap: they had no way to know which of their students actually passed the notoriously difficult exams.

After working with me, they now have an automated email that collects that data after the results are released. It also points anyone who needs to retake the exam on how to request an extension on their exam prep material and gathers testimonials from students who passed.

(Within hours of that email going out, they had five glowing testimonials ready for their website and marketing emails!)

For my client Mark, a financial advisor, his weekly newsletter does more than showcase his firm's deep expertise to prospective clients. It's also a value-add for his current ones because it's chock-full of relevant content.

And for Chelsea, a therapist with her own private practice, hiring me to set up the infrastructure in her Kit account meant she could finally email different buckets of subscribers with ease.

That includes sending two monthly newsletters to her professional network, sharing behind-the-scenes glimpses of her life (including the nonprofit she started) in one, and inviting those who are interested in non-sales connection calls.

Those monthly emails aren't about selling. They're about staying in touch - and top of mind - with her network.

(Who, by the way, are more likely to refer her because of it.)

I'm curious to know, in what ways does your newsletter support your business? Or if you don't yet have one, what do you intend for it to do?

Reply and let me know!

I read and response to each and every one because this newsletter for me is also a way to connect with you, human-to-human.

Take it one step at a time,
​Bev