Happy National Pen Pal Day! Did you ever have a pen pal? I had several when I was a kid, and I LOVED getting those envelopes. They were so cool with their overseas envelopes and their foreign stamps. This got me thinking about a really helpful way to describe what a newsletter actually is: your newsletter is the closest thing to a pen pal letter that exists in business today.
Think about it. A pen pal letter was personal. It showed up in your mailbox on purpose. You knew who it was from. You actually wanted to open it. And the person who wrote it was writing to YOU, not broadcasting to a crowd.
That is exactly what a great newsletter does.
When a subscriber opens your email, they're choosing to spend a moment with you. That's a completely different relationship than someone scrolling past your social media post while waiting in line at the grocery store. Your inbox is personal space, and your subscribers invited you in.
The thing I see trip up a lot of small business owners is thinking their newsletter has to sound like a press release or a sales pitch. It doesn't. The best-performing emails I've seen from my clients read like a note from someone who genuinely cares about the person on the other end. Because they do.
So here's my question for you: What's one thing you do in your emails to make them feel personal and not "mass-produced"? Maybe it's using the subscriber's first name. Maybe it's telling a quick story. Maybe it's writing the way you actually talk. I'd love to hear what's working for you.
ELITE Advocate | Small Business Expert
