I love the e-newsletter business! Without a shadow of a doubt, it is my favorite business model.
Before we get started, I’m referring to free e-newsletters you send at least once per week. Today I’m not referring to paid newsletters, however, paid newsletters can be a product you offer as your list grows.
Here is how I describe the e-newsletter business model. Free e-newsletters are a proven business model that focuses on a specific audience, provides valuable content, builds a list of subscribers interested in the content, and then monetizes the list in various ways. As the list grows, so does revenue.
The model is based on magazines from the 1940s and 50s through the 1980s and 90s. They had a very similar model — provide valuable content, build a list of people who are interested in the content, and then monetize the list.
The difference between today’s e-newsletter and a magazine is that an e-newsletter:
- Requires little capital to start
- Easier and less expensive to build the list
- More ways to build the list today
- Can build the list faster than traditional offline methods
- More ways to monetize the list now than magazines could in the past
Second, the e-newsletter business is fundamentally based on direct marketing, which is my other passion. Direct marketing identifies a specific audience and then provides measurable, relevant offers to the audience. It then focuses on cultivating strong relationships with the prospects and customers who respond to the offers.
Ultimately, developing relationships with prospects and customers leads to a higher lifetime customer value, which essentially means the business earns more money.
A couple of my favorite quotes about direct marketing are from my professor, Dr. Lisa Spiller. She designed the entire marketing curriculum on direct marketing when I was in college. What she taught me completely changed my life — she sparked a fire by igniting my passion for direct marketing, which continues to grow and blaze today.
Here are two of her quotes:
“Most businesses look at the customer as a means of earning a sale. The most successful businesses view the sale as an opportunity to earn a lifelong customer.”
“Direct marketing is like shark marketing on a minnow’s budget.”
E-newsletters are fantastic at cultivating relationships with subscribers, and you can use direct marketing to build the list.
I think of an e-newsletter business like this: if you add new subscribers to your list each day, then it is like daily compounding interest…
An E-newsletter’s Compounding Effect
Here are some of the ways a newsletter can have a compounding effect on your writing skills, career, and the money you earn — and why I love the e-newsletter business model.
Improves Your Copywriting Skills
Writing a weekly newsletter requires commitment. The repetition of writing the weekly newsletter leads to improving your writing skills. When I look back on some of the newsletters I wrote many, many years ago, it is easy to notice how my writing skills have dramatically improved. My writing skills will continue to improve the more I write — yours will too.
Writing the weekly newsletter also leads to developing other copywriting skills. For instance, to build a list, you often need a lead magnet, a landing page, a welcome email, Facebook ads, and more.
As you develop your own products, you may need to write promotional email campaigns, sales letters, and other types of conversion copy, like reports and case studies.
Primarily focusing on writing a newsletter creates a compounding effect because it can develop your copywriting skills for the entire customer journey.
Improves Your Calendar Planning Skills
With an e-newsletter business model, the email calendar is one of the most important components for growing the list and driving revenue.
When you start an e-newsletter, first you might plan the newsletters you will send each week.
As your calendar and skills evolve, you might add promotional emails to the calendar. You have seven days each week to send emails. Planning the calendar and the emails is crucial to maximize revenue and growth. Before you know it, your calendar may have affiliates who are promoting your offers to their email lists.
Next, you might add media buys to other lists. This is where you are paying companies to promote your offer to their list.
Most email calendars are planned at least a couple of months in advance.
It’s easy to see how complicated the calendar can become. I will do an entire article about planning the email marketing calendar in the future.
Planning the emails and promotions can be essential for success, especially when you have a booming email newsletter business.
The good news is by planning and pre-scheduling your emails, there aren’t many surprises with this business model. It can become very predictable and scalable.
As you build your calendar, it creates a compounding effect on growth. Your list grows faster, and you earn more revenue from the offers as your list grows.
Plus, each piece of content you create, each article you write, and the other newsletter content becomes an asset for your business that can be reused and repurposed to create other content.
Leverages Your Time
There aren’t many other types of writing that can leverage your time like a newsletter.
First, writing a newsletter doesn’t require any more time, whether your list subscriber count is 100, 10,000, or 100,000. But a newsletter’s impact on your business as your list grows can be substantial. I think of subscriber growth as compounding interest.
Another of my favorite ways a newsletter has a compounding effect on your time is the money you can earn as your list grows.
Think about this: a 10,000-person list with a half-percent conversion rate is 50 people. A 50,000-subscriber list with a half-percent conversion is 250 people.
As your list grows, it significantly leverages your time and the money you can earn.
Earning More Money
Revenue from an email newsletter compounds in multiple ways.
When you first start, you may not have many products to sell. However, you can earn money with your copywriting skills by promoting other people’s products as an affiliate.
Eventually, you will want to develop your own products. As your product line grows, it should lead to increased revenue.
You will have more products to serve more customers.
You can create different products according to your audience’s skill level, beginning, intermediate, or advanced. Or offer a variety of price points from low-price, mid-tier, and high-priced products.
Products can also be based on the experience provided. A book provides a different experience than a course or an in-person retreat. A workshop is very different than group coaching or a conference.
Creating a line of products that provide unique experiences can significantly increase revenue.
The next compounding effect on revenue is how newsletters cultivate trust with subscribers. Consistently sending newsletters each week builds a relationship with your subscribers. As people get to know you, it can lead to increased trust. Trust leads to increased open and click-through rates. Trust leads to higher conversion rates and more revenue.
As you earn more money, you can invest part of the money into building the list faster. Other areas can be investing in retaining current customers so they become even more valuable and profitable to the business.
This approach provides compounding growth for the business in lead generation, customer acquisition, and retention. This can fuel even more growth, revenue, and profit.
What Are You Waiting For?
Starting an e-newsletter can help you improve your writing skills. Plus, you can write about a topic you are passionate about, which makes writing a newsletter fun and enjoyable. As your list grows, it can lead to earning significant revenue.
You can start your e-newsletter as a side hustle, but it can grow to become a primary source of revenue.
What are you waiting for?
There has never been a better time to start an e-newsletter. It is a great way to leverage your writing skills and your time.
What are you passionate about?
Brainstorm ideas for your newsletter, choose a niche, select a theme, and then pick a couple of topics and start writing.
It is okay to send your first newsletter to your immediate family and friends. Everybody’s list size starts small, with just a few subscribers.
But remember, you can never underestimate the power of taking the first steps.
Even if you are not ready to start, begin, because it does take time to establish an e-newsletter.
Before you know it, your newsletter might become a substantial business with significant income, and your writing skills will improve.
Regardless, if you commit to sending each week, you will experience aspects of an e-newsletter’s compounding effect.
