Josh Spector’s Post

5 Things You Need To Do With Your Newsletter (If you want it to grow your business.) 1. The value your newsletter delivers needs to align with the value your business delivers. If your business helps entrepreneurs generate sales, don't write a newsletter about work-life balance. 2. Publish at least two newsletter issues per month. Ideally at least once a week. If you only send monthly, you're only taking 12 shots a year to grow your business. That's not enough. 3. Pay attention to who clicks what. The links people click in your newsletter reveal what those people want. That can - and should - influence your messaging, marketing, products, and copy. Your audience is literally showing you what they want. 4. Your newsletter needs to be about your audience, not yourself. A newsletter isn't a promotional tool. It's a value-delivery tool. 5. Don't write ABOUT the "thing" - help readers DO the "thing." Ask yourself a simple question about anything you share in the newsletter: What can my readers DO after reading this that they couldn't do before? The way a newsletter grows your business is by helping people take meaningful action toward their goals. Not just by giving them stuff to read. ---- Want to see how I use my newsletter to grow my business? Check it out at the link in my profile.

7 Ways I Grow My Newsletter Without Spending A Dollar 1. Word Of Mouth The best marketing tactic in the world is a valuable product. My newsletter is awesome. So readers tell others about it. Seems obvious, but most creators spend more time looking for "growth hacks" than they do improving the newsletter itself. 2. Optimized Social Bios My Twitter and LinkedIn bios are designed to drive people to subscribe to my newsletter. There's a clear call to action in the bio and the link takes people straight to my newsletter signup page - not the home page of my website. 3. The ConvertKit Creator Network and SparkLoop The best newsletter recommendations tools around. 4. Pre-Promotion Of Upcoming Issues On Social Media It's fine to promote your newsletter after it comes out, but it's more effective to do so BEFORE it's published. Teasing it with the specific value people will get from reading that issue gives people a clear reason to subscribe so they don't miss it. 5. Signup Forms and Links Everywhere If you read one of my blog posts (old or new), it's impossible to not know I have a newsletter. There are forms at the bottom of every post and mentions of the newsletter with links to my signup page within the content of most posts. 6. Cross-Promotions The single best way to get new subscribers for free is to find someone with a similar audience and offer to promote their newsletter in exchange for them promoting yours. When a cross-promo works well, do it again a few months later. And again a few months after that. 7. My Podcast and YouTube Channel Just like with my blog posts, it's impossible to listen to my podcast or watch the episodes on YouTube and not know I have a newsletter. Most importantly, the topics of my podcast are in alignment with the topics of my newsletter. If you listen to my show because you're an expert who wants to grow their business... Chances are you're going to be interested in my newsletter which is about... (You guessed it!) Learning how to grow your expertise-based business. Speaking of which... If you haven't checked out my newsletter yet, you can do so at the link on my profile. It's in my bio. 😉

Do you publish a newsletter? I just shared a ton of tips about how to grow and monetize your newsletter on SparkLoop's Send and Grow podcast. 9 things you'll learn: 1. How to grow a newsletter if you only have 10 minutes a day to spend on it. It's at the 4-minute mark. 2. The one newsletter metric I'd track if I could only track one. It's at the 9-minute mark. 3. The small change that makes a huge impact on your clickthrough rate. It's at the 15-minute mark. 4. The one question to ask yourself before you buy a newsletter ad. It's at the 23-minute mark. 5. The one lever I'd pull if I had to double my newsletter revenue in 3 months. It's at the 26-minute mark. 6. A simple way to use link click data to surface business leads. It's at the 30-minute mark. 7. The one thing that drives the biggest jump in my ad sales. It's at the 34-minute mark. 8. Should your newsletter also have a podcast? It's at the 39-minute mark. 9. The one thing almost every newsletter writer does wrong. It's at the 46-minute mark.

Delete your intro. Whether it’s your newsletter, LinkedIn post, blog post, podcast, or videos... Your intro is weakening your content. Throw the audience right into the action. Like a James Bond movie. Those don’t start with James telling you how he’s about to have a car chase. They start with him being chased. PS: Notice I didn’t start this post by saying I was going to give you a tip about how to write a stronger introduction? I just told you to delete your intro!

Knowledge will be dropped. 😉

If you share your expertise on LinkedIn, ask yourself 3 questions before you publish your next post: 1. Who will care about this? 2. What will it help that person accomplish? 3. What’s the most surprising thing you mentioned in the post? If the answer is “nothing,” go add something surprising to it. *** Btw, here’s how I’d answer those questions for this post: 1. Experts who share their expertise on LinkedIn will care about it. 2. It will help them write stronger posts that connect with their audience. 3. They’ll be surprised by the concept of analyzing posts for surprise factor. (A tip they’ve probably never heard before). And they’ll be surprised I ended the post by analyzing the post itself. So… Were my assumptions correct? 👀

The next time you help a client accomplish something, do this: Write a one-sentence summary of who the client is. (You can use generalities if you want to protect their anonymity). Write a one-sentence description of the problem they came to you with. Write a one-sentence description of the advice you gave them. Write a one-sentence description of the result they got from implementing that advice. Combine those four sentences. Publish it on your social channels. Congrats! You just created a powerful piece of content that will provide value to others... And attract new clients.

Have you written a book? My new podcast episode shows you how to get more value out of it. (Without selling many copies!) 8 things you'll learn: 1. The one thing your book and business need to have in common. It's at the 5-minute mark. 2. What a book ACTUALLY is. It's at the 7-minute mark. 3. Three ways to use your book as a launchpad. It's at the 9-minute mark. 4. How to calculate the value of your book. It's at the 14-minute mark. 5. The 8 people you should give your book to for free. It's at the 17-minute mark. 6. How to establish authority. It's at the 30-minute mark. 7. A surprising lesson the movie business can teach you about authority. It's at the 32-minute mark. 8. Three misconceptions experts have about authority. It's at the 35-minute mark.

Want to get more out of your website? Consider these 10 questions: 1. How do visitors get to it? 2. What pages are they entering on? 3. What are they looking for? 4. What do you know about them? 5. What do they know about you and your work? 6. What do you want them to know about you and your work? 7. What's currently the most obvious next step for them to take? 8. What do you wish was the next step they'd take? 9. How can you make the next step you wish they'd take the most obvious one? 10. Have you given them a clear reason to come back or connect with you?

Customers WANT you to charge more for your product. Because the more you charge, the more value you’re able to create for them. An exaggerated example I’m considering at the moment as a thought exercise: I currently charge $350 per year for my Skill Sessions membership. It’s a solid price and members get a LOT of value for their investment. But… What would happen if charged $3,000 per year for a membership? How much more value would that enable me to create for members? What might I be able to offer as part of the membership that I can’t currently offer? These are interesting (and valuable) questions to consider. Because charging a higher price isn’t just about increasing the profitability of your product. It’s actually a way to increase the VALUE of it.