You may not realize but you’re sitting on a mountain of great, established content that could be quickly turned into a trove of powerful newsletter emails.
Remember that not every one of your site’s visitors will have read every piece of content (it’s very rare) and even your most loyal member of your community has barely scratched the surface of what you’ve previously covered; for this reason, you’ll be able to mine your content in the following ways:
- Dig through the Archives – Go back through your archives or pay close attention to which of your posts/articles have received the most amount of action (social media, traffic, etc). Look at which content pieces have worked before and which that has been passed over by your community (that you wish they read). Compile a list of your ‘best of’ and export your content to its own folder which you’ll later use to build upon your email newsletter.
- Find Synchronization – Look at your content and see what syncs with one another; try to find common ground between topics which can easily become a chain of great emails for your subscribers. You get bonus points, in my book, if you’ve already created a series of posts.
- Find those frequently asked questions – Don’t forget to look through your comments and replies from your previous posts because they too may hold many great ideas for your email newsletter. Pick out great responses from yourself and your commenter’s which can be used as a base for your emails.
- Expand on the Alternatives – Consider creating videos or audio recordings of your content (these give a fresh approach to each piece as you get to add little rifts and rants about each topic). Private Label Rights (PLR) content can also be used as a foundation if you don’t have much time to work on your newsletter regularly. You may compile lists and roundups such as resources, tutorials or interview questions; the possibilities are endless once you are aware of this mountain of content.
With newsletters, you have two choices: text and html. Within each formats, you can include additional links for multimedia but for the most part you’re going to be using text (duh). Your blog content may be formatted in a way that doesn’t quite fit that of emails; people are very busy and email can quickly turn to junk if they are too lengthy or unorganized.
Here are some quick tips for building effective emails with existing content:
- Headlines that stick – Work intently on your headline; it’s the most important item in emails. Without a great headline, your emails aren’t going to be opened. Use the best of your ability to create witty, informative or quips that spark curiosity of the recipient.
- K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple (Stupid), don’t overload your reader with lengthy memoirs and ramblings; keep it short and to the point, don’t have your readers guessing what you’re talking about.
- Structure matters – Break up your existing content into sections much like how you most likely have them now with headings but edit down to the very basic information. Structure your emails so people can skim and jump around.
- Lead out – Always include a call-to-action (like in sales copy) to let people know what you want them to do after reading your email. Your call-to-action doesn’t have to be anything big or send people through loops but utilize your contact with the other person to at least get them to share the content with others or click on one of your links.
- Don’t forget the P.S.! – People often jump right to the bottom as they scan your email; don’t forget to craft a great P.S. that’s equivalent of everything you’ve talked about in your email all bundled into one sentence (or two).
- Turn a gigantic tutorial into multiple emails that is delivered once a day until it’s complete. Simple, right?
- Learn, Test, Optimize, Repeat
Optimize your email to get people through each topic without any hiccups. Get right into the meat of the email, optimize your email copy so it resonates and creates a fire for them to open the next.