Membership Newsletters: Can Starting a Substack Boost Your Coaching Business?
It seems like everyone and their mother has an email newsletter right now. Platforms like Substack, Revue, and even LinkedIn all claim to make newsletter creation easy and profitable for the average business owner…but that doesn’t mean it’s truly the right fit for anyone. As a coach, you may have been considering whether or not starting a paid, Substack-style newsletter for your business is the right next step. So, let’s break it down!
How Does a Subscription Newsletter Work?
You’ve probably read some newsletters created with Substack or Revue. While those platforms are popular, it isn’t Substack itself that necessarily makes or breaks a newsletter’s success. Those platforms are just tools that facilitate sending an email and hiding some of the content behind a paywall. Typically, non-subscribers can read a few newsletters as a sample and then opt to subscribe for full access. The subscription might be free, paid, or exist at varying tiers.
You can do all of that with your existing email service provider (ESP), your website, and membership software (sometimes this is already part of your website, like Squarespace Member Areas!) So if you’re interested in starting a member newsletter, don’t feel like you have to transfer all of your contacts and learn an entirely new system. If you already have an email marketing strategy in place, it will probably be much easier, and more versatile, to stick with the ESP you already use.
How Often Should You Publish a Newsletter?
A big part of successfully monetizing email newsletters is consistency. If you’re charging your subscribers for access to premium newsletter content, you need to deliver. This can require a considerable commitment of time and effort. You should typically be writing paid newsletter content every other week, at minimum. Weekly is ideal.
Be honest with yourself: do you like to write? Is that how you prefer to communicate with and teach your clients? Or do you prefer 1:1 video calls, recording podcast audio, filming YouTube videos, or teaching classes? There are several ways to montetize your email content so don’t feel like you have to commit to writing a paid newsletter if you won’t enjoy it.
What are the Benefits of Email Newsletters?
If you do feel like writing a paid email newsletter is up your alley, have fun with it! Email newsletters are a chance to be more conversational and build relationships with your subscribers. They’re typically more personal than the usual email marketing blast or course funnel. You can use your newsletter to create member benefits like:
Giving followers insights into your business and thought processes
Sharing your failures and lessons learned, in addition to the successes you might publicly share on social media
Sharing free downloads and perks like advance access to content
Distributing bonus content from blog posts, interviews, podcasts, courses, and more
Group discussions — you can carry this over to a private community, Slack channel, or WhatsApp thread just for your subscribers
How to Start Your Paid Newsletter
If you already have an email service provider, or have been meaning to set one up, this is the place to start your newsletter. There’s no reason to have two ESPs when you can do everything you need to all in one spot.
Our monthly email management package takes care of the entire process for you. We’ll send out your weekly newsletter, manage your marketing sequences, and make sure your account is performing well.
And if you aren’t sure whether or not a newsletter is the right path for you, we can help with that, too! Book a 90-minute consultation to chat all things email and figure out the best path forward for your business.
