We all know that life is unpredictable. Things can show up that can be pleasantly surprising or downright challenging. As organized as most of us may try to be, even the best-laid plans can go awry at times. You have every intention to work out “x” number of times this week, but you’re working late…again and just can’t seem to make it to the gym or yoga class. You’ve finally set aside some long-awaited “me time” but the phone rings and before you know it, you find yourself once again taking care of unexpected emergencies.
What does this all have to do with newsletters you ask? Well, our business life is not immune to these uncertainties either. You may have resolved this year to finally stick to your publishing and posting schedule but things come up. You might have tried to get systems in place to juggle all the various parts of your business, but you still are left feeling overwhelmed and scattered. The plain and simple truth is that things can get out of whack with just a few days of caring for a sick family member or other day-to-day “emergencies” that are a built-in part of life.
When these things happen, it can, unfortunately, throw your business off course. And one of the first things to go when life shows up is marketing, especially as it relates to thoughtful content creation like a weekly newsletter. And it shows up in many forms to get you sidetracked. Have you ever experienced any of these situations?
- You’re flooded with ideas but don’t know how to narrow down and start writing.
- You scramble to pull together content to promote your upcoming event.
- You get busy with family activities and now it’s time to publish a new article but you’re lost on what to write.
- You are absorbed by running your group program (which is awesome!) but you are now feeling behind in other areas of your business.
- Or maybe you have so many clients coming at you that you simply have no time to write a newsletter.
These are all very real situations where your newsletter might get pushed onto the back burner. And sometimes it just feels so time-consuming or frustrating to sit there staring at the monitor trying to figure out what to write. Not to mention the research and publishing that go into creating a great piece of content.
Well, I’ve been there myself. As a busy professional and mom, it’s not always easy to keep all the plates spinning in the air.
Here are the top five issues many health coaches have with their newsletter and how to overcome them.
1. Publishing inconsistently or randomly
Although you’re an excellent writer you are writing sporadically, only putting out content when the variables in your life are perfectly aligned (which is rare). HUGE mistake. Your past, present, and future clients need to hear from you consistently. Being inconsistent almost implies that you don’t value them. Also, if people are going to develop and maintain healthier habits, they need the information consistently so that it becomes ingrained. So, decide how often you can actually publish your newsletter without over-extending yourself and then stick to that schedule. If you need help with ideas and a tool to help you stay on track, download our free Newsletter Planner for Health Coaches.
2. Separating social media, your newsletter, and your blog
It’s a mistake to think that your various forms of content are unrelated. Actually, some of the most effective campaigns are made up of a comprehensive marketing plan that blends all of your channels into a single unified strategy. Your newsletters are related to the posts on your blog, and your social media posts should make the connection with fans but also work on driving traffic back to your website where you offer irresistible free offers and high-value content to keep your visitors returning to read your stuff. Sounds complex right? It’s actually not so difficult when broken into simpler parts. Here’s an example of how you can take a baby step towards this. The next time you write a blog post, go ahead and create 3-5 related social media posts. While you’re at it, write a newsletter article that further illustrates your views on the topic of your blog post. Stretch your content so your content works for you.
3. Passing up opportunities to let clients provide content
You likely have health coaching clients who would be willing to share their stories and perhaps their own expertise on a topic. How about letting them help you create content. You can do this by securing testimonials (with appropriate releases), reviews of your programs, or by even asking them to contribute to your blog. Then link to those posts when you publish your newsletter!
4. Not dedicating a budget to marketing
Many coaches don’t factor in the cost of running a newsletter into their business plan. This results in them missing out on the 4300% return on investment that newsletter and email marketing can give their business when done consistently. With affordable solutions available nowadays, there’s simply no reason you should not have a newsletter in place. It’s an essential piece in growing your business. For example, our Wellness Newsletters Series is a very affordable option for coaches who simply don’t have time to research and write a newsletter. Take a look and you’ll see what I’m talking about. Putting a solution like this to work in your business will help you keep consistent content going out to your subscribers while freeing you up to focus your CEO efforts on growing your business.
5. Letting your existing content collect digital dust
You know and I know that you’ve probably collected and created a ton of content. But you’ve probably published only a mere fraction of what’s on your cloud drive. Set aside time to go through your drive(s) and filter those files into a dedicated folder for your newsletter. Use this stash to create newsletters that include links to your blog posts, recipes, health and wellness tips, and even create a bank of copy for your promotions and offerings. You’ll see how much time you can save, not to mention the frustration you’ll avoid, once you implement this method. You’ll also find yourself cutting down on constantly searching for new content, because more likely than not you already have it!
Get organized!
There is so much health and wellness content out there nowadays, it’s extremely overwhelming. Be selective in what you subscribe to and set up a system to save and organize the content that you will eventually want to refer back to for content inspiration. A few great tools to use are Evernote and Google Docs. Also, having a great system to save and categorize content is a great investment as well. You can organize folders and files with a cloud storage solution such as Dropbox, One Drive, Google, Drive. When you get an idea, jot it down so you’re not scrambling for ideas when it’s time to publish a new post.
Get Started with Your Email Newsletter
Take our FREE Course, Start and Grow Your Wellness Newsletter, to learn a simple, step-by-step system to build and grow a community for your newsletter.
Whether you’re a seasoned or beginner coach, having a regular newsletter or email marketing strategy is critical to the success of your business. This course gives you the step-by-step action plan to start your newsletter and overcome any hurdles that may be stopping you.
Your Turn!
Have you experienced any of these 5 issues in creating your newsletter campaigns?
Next, take a moment to plan out what content you wish to publish for the upcoming weeks and months, and develop a clear strategy around it. Being methodical in how you approach your content creation will give you better results with less time and much less effort so you’ll always be sending valuable, consistent content to your list!
