Many people are a little put-off by the idea of doing a newsletter, but let me offer you a bit of encouragement to take a leap and try it!
3 Benefits of Having a Newsletter
1 - It’s a direct form of communication with your subscribers
Sure, you could use social media, have a podcast, and wish and pray that clients or customers find you… But having a simple-but-useful “thank you” gift for people who decide to follow you? And then being able to communicate with them periodically? Why, that’s priceless! You get to know them. They get to know you. You can build community and at the very least, show that you’re serious about serving them - not just selling to them.
2 - It builds your credibility
Sharing what you know says bucketloads about your character and your commitment to serve. And why you might not think that matters…think about the last few people YOU did business with. Any fly-by-nighters? (And are you gonna buy from them again?") Or how about those who dropped their ad or spam-mail in your feed or inbox asking you for money from the get-go? See what I mean?? Yuck
3 - It can be a way to grow your client roster and fill your calendar
You might be aware that I have STR courses and products to help people build their hosting/co-hosting business. But I also have clients whose properties I manage, as well as managing my own. So besides this newsletter that you’re getting, I have one that I send out monthly to past guests. I give them updates about interesting activities or events in some issues, inviting them to stay with us. Or I offer a discount, or a traveling tip, or simply warm wishes around the holidays. Links always lead to my direct booking site (you have one of those, right?), and receiving an email from me now and then helps to keep me “top of mind” when they’re making their traveling plans.
A newsletter can be as simple as periodically sending out a plain text email from time to time, but as you start building an email list, you will want to consider hosting it on a platform such as Mailchimp (what we use) or MailerLite or Constant Contact or Convertkit... Using these platforms enables you to keep track of your subscribers and minimizes the chance you’ll be sending spam - since your readers can easily unsubscribe if your content if no longer relevant. Spam, as we all know, is bad-news all around and will not serve you OR your readers!
What about you? Do you have a newsletter? If not, what’s holding you back? Hit reply and lemme know!
