Should you publish a newsletter for your business? This may not be a popular answer, but… It depends. Your goals, audience, and personality all play into picking the best email marketing strategy for you. In this blog post, we give an overview of the goals of marketing email newsletters and when they can be helpful for your business. We also present some alternatives that you might prefer.

The Goal of Marketing Email Newsletters 

Marketing email newsletters are one of the most familiar forms of email marketing. The form has been around for hundreds of years. Even if we’re reading emails instead of pamphlets in the town square now, culturally, it’s a comfortable way for a lot of people to consume information. Newsletters serve a few functions. They can be a way to:

• Disseminate news
• Highlight a product or service
• Share around connection points (not explicitly business-related things that help your audience feel connected to you on a human level)

Many of us have seen marketing email newsletters that are highly branded and elaborate in terms of layout. Luckily, you don’t have to have a PhD in graphic design to publish a newsletter. People appreciate consistency and clarity over jaw dropping visuals when they’re trying to read.

Marketing email newsletters can be a good way to pack a lot of information into one email. If your goal is to get people to your website, podcast page, or elsewhere, it can be a great option. Remember, though, even if you decide to do a newsletter monthly or quarterly, it doesn’t have to be the only email marketing tool in your belt. 

Alternatives to Newsletters

A lot of entrepreneurs don’t realize that there are equally as effective options as marketing email newsletters. The right one for you, like I said before, depends on a combination of your goals, your ideal clients, and your personality. Maintenance emails and nurture sequences are the two most common approaches to email marketing outside of newsletters.

Maintenance Emails

If you Google “maintenance emails,” you won’t find much. It’s a term Theo and I coined to describe the practice of regularly emailing your list on an ongoing basis. I do this for subscribers on my copywriting services email list. Three to four times a month, I email my list with a mix of content ranging from what book I’m reading to my favorite SEO blogging tips to announcements for new services. The idea is to keep people engaged and keep yourself at top of mind for when they eventually need you. 

The cool thing about this approach to email marketing is that you can speak to clients and potential clients regardless of where they are on their journey with you. It’s a chance to personalize your content as you go, too. Since you’re sending emails more frequently, you can tailor your content depending on what you find to be successful.

Nurture Sequences 

Nurture sequences, in some ways, are the best alternative to marketing email newsletters for many entrepreneurs. A nurture sequence follows the sales funnel model of marketing. (Get an intro to sales funnels here.) More people tend to find nurture sequences approachable because they’re automated.

You read that right. 

Here’s how it works:

• Someone requests a lead magnet or opts into your email list through a form.
• That triggers a sequence of emails to send automatically over a set period of time.
• The emails are designed to bring people from the first exposure to your brand all the way to inquiring without you having to actively nurture them.

Nurture sequences require more work on the front end. I craft lead magnets and nurture sequences through Your Orbit, my signature email marketing service. The process takes three weeks from start to finish for copy. My clients love that, once everything is set up, they can put their email marketing on autopilot.

Your Perfect Email Marketing Strategy

The best strategy is the one you’ll follow through on. For solopreneurs and small businesses, it comes down to personality. It’s true of email marketing as much as anything else. Marketing email newsletters could be a great option for your brand if:

• You prefer long-form writing to creating social media captions and video.
• You want to make announcements about your offerings and availability regularly to your list.
• You are good at following through on routine tasks.

On the other hand, you might have more success with a nurture sequence if:

• You want to set it and forget it.
• You like thinking on a systems level about your sales funnels.
• You’re interested in building out your passive marketing.

Are you still trying to choose between marketing email newsletters or a nurture sequence for your small business? We’ve created a quick quiz to give you insight to the perfect marketing strategy designed for your personality! Take the Entrepreneur Archetype Quiz and get a peek at the best way to connect with your dream clients.