If you’re wondering how you can start reaching your audience and are considering a blog feed or newsletter to send out to subscribers, there are some things to consider. Below we’ll cover the benefits and uses of both so you can make an informed decision.
Whether You Choose a Blog Feed or Newsletter Depends on Your Goals
Choosing whether to put out a blog feed or a newsletter will depend on what you want from your efforts.
For instance, if you’re wanting to gain subscribers a blog may be best for you. Are you wanting to reach your existing audience and speak to them directly? You may opt for a newsletter.
Making a choice between a blog feed or newsletter will also depend on how much time you have to create them.
Are you an entrepreneur? An author? A speaker? What is your area of expertise? Will you actively be doing regular promotions? Sharing your knowledge?
All of these are questions you will need to ask yourself. Keep in mind though, that you can always switch it up when your needs change. Nothing is set in stone. But to start something, you have to know where to start!
Blog Feed or Newsletter? There are Benefits to Each
Each one of these ways to keep in touch with your audience has its benefits. And some drawbacks. But as we mentioned, it will depend on your goals ultimately, when it comes to choosing to create a blog feed or newsletter.
Benefits of a Blog Feed
- A blog feed allows you to grow your subscriber list because blogs are public and shareable.
- Writing a regular blog boosts your SEO and can build your audience.
- Blog feeds are automated. All of your blogs automatically go out to subscribers on a schedule. This can save effort and time.
- A blog feed is a great way to share your knowledge and expertise, so if that’s what your audience looks to you for, then a blog is best.
On the other hand, a blog post that goes out directly to subscribers doesn’t always help your website SEO in and of itself. They don’t have to visit your website to view it. Blogs can also be impersonal, and if you want that feeling of communicating directly with your audience( though blogs should be tailored to your audience) a blog feed may not be enough.
Benefits of a Newsletter
- A newsletter is a great way of keeping your audience up to date. If you’re an author or speaker and have events and new books to promote this is a great way to keep them posted.
- Newsletters can be more personal and more personalized. You can send out super focused content to different subscribers, reaching micro audiences within your larger audience.
- Choosing a newsletter over a blog feed is a good choice for those that don’t have a high output of content.
- Because newsletters are less focused on SEO and growing your audience they offer an opportunity for more variety and creativity.
The downsides of a newsletter are that they must be planned still, you have to come up with the content strategy just like you do a blog. This also means you have to organize and collect timely content. However, newsletters do tend to go out less frequently than a blog feed. They also make it harder to grow your audience directly, as we mentioned. If you’re good at self-promo though, you can find ways to entice new subscribers.
We’d like to note that if you do happen to put out A LOT of content, you don’t want a blog going out to your subscribers every day. We say once a week is enough. The same can be said for newsletters. You don’t want to seem spammy. You also don’t want to put out so little content that your subscribers forget you exist. So plan on doing either a blog feed or newsletter at least once a month.
¿Por Qué No Los Dos? You Don’t Have to Choose Just a Blog Feed or Newsletter
Guess what? You don’t have to be stuck with either just a blog feed or newsletter. We think by doing both a blog and a newsletter you can have the best of both worlds. What, did you think we were ever going to say NOT to blog? With the option of a regular blog AND a newsletter you have the benefit of boosting your SEO, gaining a new audience, and you can keep your regular subscribers updated on all the important or interesting stuff you have to share.
How, you say? Well, we’re working on a model where we continue to publish and share weekly blogs on social, but as for our subscribers? They’ll get these blogs as links within our newsletter. They can open the ones they want to read, and get updates on all sorts of things too.
You can do this too! If you have a link to your blog within your newsletter and your subscribers click that link, it boosts your blog page views, which can in turn help your SEO.
What Changes for You? Your Subscribers?
Well, it simply means committing to writing up a brief newsletter at least once a month, though we suggest twice a month. You can fill your subscribers in on what’s new with you, or your company. You can give them tips or alert them to things they may be interested in. It doesn’t have to be a novel. But it can be about your novel, if you’re writing one! And of course, include links to your latest blogs for those that don’t want to miss any of them.
This will require taking a few minutes of your time. You’ll need to begin tracking and collecting shareable stuff to add to the newsletter. You’ll also need to choose a service for sending these newsletters(like Mailchimp or something similar) and create a template to ensure consistency in how it looks and to save yourself time.
Because we’re in the process of this transition right now, we’ll be doing the research and finding out what works best for that kind of stuff. And of course we’ll share that information with you. So look for upcoming blogs on tools and templates for creating the newsletter (or blog feed)YOU want to send.
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