You captured the names of your website visitors?

You follow up regularly with your list?

Great, then the basics are covered.

Now the next bit is to take special care not to commit any of these newsletter mistakes:

1.      Lack of focus. When preparing your newsletter article / content, do a last check before sending it out. Is it relevant for your whole list? In case not, chances are that you don’t have a narrow enough niche. This was the exact issue I encountered when I started up with my career coaching business. I identified 8 areas I could help my clients with and only upon writing the first newsletter that I realised there is no single topic that can be of interest for all of them. Conclusion: have a well-defined niche so that you have 1 common topic to write about.

2.      Lack of regularity. Sometimes starting coaches make the mistake of not keeping regular contact with their tribe or not writing to them often enough to be able to build a relationship. If you thought of sending out a newsletter once a while or once a month, think of the opportunity you lose out on to engage your tribe, to get them across your value get enough visibility to convert them into a paying client. Even if you are afraid to bother them, your competitors surely will. Also, just think of that fact that people signed up to your list because they chose to. And should they feel they are spammed, they can choose to unsubscribe at any time (hint: spam is not a mass mail; spam is the feeling of getting no relevant content). Conclusion: keep regular and close contact with your tribe.

3.      Too much info. Especially those people who don’t write in high enough frequency to their tribe, they decide to put all information to their monthly newsletter – 2-3 articles, plus lots of other stuff. Once you give out a newsletter that is too long, it will shy away people from reading it. The same happens with too many links to send your readers to. They might choose to follow one and might miss out on others. Conclusion: include only 1 article per newsletter. If you have 2, even better – split them and it will give you good enough occasion to keep contact with your tribe during 2 newsletter phases.

4.      Lack of relevancy. Okay, this one might be similar to the first reason (lack of focus) for the first glance. The difference is that here we are not just talking about finding 1 common topic for our whole list but also a message that is highly relevant to your tribe. Something that triggers them and is linked to their pain/pleasure points. And in order to establish this, you need to interact with your list. If there is no interaction, you might think you know what those people need, whereas in reality they want something else. Conclusion: talk to your tribe, survey them on their biggest challenge and use this as newsletter message / content.

5.      Talking to a group. Have you ever received an email saying “Dear Colleagues” or “Dear Coaches”? Did you feel this email spoke to you? Probably not. You might have had the feeling that it speaks to a mass of people and not specifically to you. And that is a mistake because you won’t feel important and treated as a “king”. Conclusion: write your newsletter as if you would write it to one single person and reinforce this by using their names (autoresponder messages give great possibility to personalise your emails).

6.      Not writing as you talk. Hang on, what do you mean here? Yes, you read it well. Sometimes people feel like using a different language when writing than in speech. This might mean longer sentences, more formal expressions etc. The problem with this is that it will hardly be engaging for your readers. They have to feel that your email is personal, it is easy-flowing, reads well and get the eagerness of keeping on reading your story. Conclusion: write your newsletter as if you would be speaking to someone.

7.      Lack of promotion. This is probably the biggest of all newsletter mistakes – sending out newsletters with valuable content but never ever giving information on how you could help your readers further. Just imagine – your reader might not even be aware that you are a coach or that you are open to take up new clients or what services you offer. What a missed out opportunity to help people! Conclusion: include a call-to-action in your newsletter to a free consultation, to a free Teleclass or to a paying program (don’t overstuff though your newsletters with these!). And if you are afraid that would be too harsh and pushy, there are so many methods you can use to make it softer. How about including it in the P.S. for example?