5 ways to add more personality to your small business newsletter - Astrid Bracke
Astrid Bracke is a mentor supporting small business owners, freelancers and creatives to run a slower, gentler and more profitable business. Her new self-paced course Small Business Newsletter Magic helps you make your newsletter finally work for you. Find out more about Astrid and the course on her website and sign up for her own small business newsletter.
Your newsletter is one of the most powerful marketing tools you have in your small business. It can create community and connection around your business, attract new clients and customers and be a joy to write and receive. But how do you make your newsletter stand out? In this post, I share 5 ways to add more personality to your newsletters, without feeling like you have to share it all.
“Showing your personality is a great way to show your humanness and create connection with your subscribers.”
How to add personality to your newsletter
Our humanness is our biggest strength as small business owners. It is our superpower that sets us apart from big companies like Amazon which flood our inboxes with impersonal emails.
It is this humanness that resonates with people and why they buy from small businesses like yours. Showing your personality is a great way to show your humanness and create connection with your subscribers. These are five things to try.
1 Pictures
Your newsletter doesn’t have to consist of only words. The pictures that you choose to add say something about you: are you choosing stock images, or images created by you? Pictures created by you—whether they’re photographs, drawings or other graphics—create a deeper connection between you and your readers. They say something about how you see the world, what you’ve noticed this week or month, and the kind of story you want to tell around your business.
There are lots of kinds of images you can add, such as:
• seasonal photographs of your favourite outdoor space;
• a picture of your studio;
• photographs of you, if you feel comfortable;
• an illustration of a moment from your week;
• a drawing of the favourite tool you use in your business.
2 Anecdotes
An anecdote immediately draws your reader into your newsletter—and gives a glimpse of your life. You can make your anecdotes as personal as you want: if you’re comfortable, you can share that time that your entire day went off the rails, or a family story. Or perhaps you reflect on a book you recently read, or a film you watched. Small observations can lead to connection because they are often so recognisable.
3 Favourites
Every month, I’ll collect 3 to 5 things in my newsletter that made me happy that month, from the changing seasons, to (always) books I’ve read to a podcast or film I really enjoyed.
Lots of people share favourites in their newsletters, and I always scroll down for them. These lists are a great way of giving a glimpse of who you are. You might inspire someone to listen to the same podcast you enjoyed, or create a deeper connection because a subscriber also loves that film that you love.
“You might think that your subscribers don’t want to hear about what it’s like to run your business. But people love to hear the story behind the business.”
4 The story of your business
You might think that your subscribers don’t want to hear about what it’s like to run your business. But people love to hear the story behind the business. Your experience of learning pottery and throwing your first mug is interesting for people who are not potters too—it’s a story about new beginnings, about trying something, about going outside of your comfort zone. It adds texture and layering to your business (or to put it differently, your brand), and that is what makes people want to buy from you.
5 Voice
Your voice is how you sound in a newsletter, the kind of words you use, the references you make. It’s an elusive thing to capture, but something that you already have. Often it’s just a matter of feeling more confident.
When you’re writing your small business newsletter you’re not writing an essay for school and you don’t need to sound ‘professional’. Instead, you want to create a connection between the person reading your newsletter and you, between them and your business.
If you suddenly forget how to sound natural in a newsletter, that’s okay. It happens to all of us. A distinct voice develops over time, but this can help:
• turn off your inner editor while you’re writing, at least until you have a first draft;
• focus on how you want your readers to feel when they read your newsletter and channel that as you write;
• try speaking rather than writing, using voice-to-text software, if that feels easier to you;
• and remember: you don’t have to sound like anyone else.
Protecting your boundaries
While our humanness and personality are our superpowers as small business owners, we certainly don’t have to share more than we’re comfortable with. It’s your business, your newsletter, and you get to share whatever you want.
When I started my newsletter I thought that sharing more of myself was unprofessional. But showing personality is not being unprofessional. We want to connect with other humans and we want to buy from humans, not faceless corporations.
These days I enjoy showing more of myself in my newsletters, but I also have clear boundaries. For instance, while I’ll mention my partner, I never mention his name. I won’t share anyone else’s story or experiences. I don’t make explicit where I live (a no-brainer really), and I tend not to share bumps in the road as they’re happening.
For you, these boundaries might look different. But no matter what they are and what your level of comfort is, there is always a way of adding more personality to your newsletters. What will you try first?
If you want to make your newsletter the powerful yet gentle tool it can be, Small Business Newsletter Magic is for you. In this self-paced course, I walk you through everything you need, from making your business a more organic part of your business to writing, sending and growing your list. Find out more about the course here.
