I don’t care if you only send one email to your subscribers each month, have a newsletter.

It’s been said time and time again that owning your mailing list of people interested in what you have to offer is one of the most valuable assets to your business. If your business is being a creator, I would argue that it’s by far the most valuable. It doesn’t even matter what you create.

I’m going to share the two simplest and most important reasons why.

1) You own it

If every current online platform were to fall apart tomorrow, you’d still have access to those on your mailing list.

2) Direct access to your people

This isn’t where you post something which is followed by hoping that some feed doesn’t bury your best pitch or whatever you had to say underneath the ice cream flavor of the week.

A newsletter allows you to skip past the social media finger-crossing, and hand-deliver your goods to people who already said they were interested.

Allow me to elaborate

I’m not sure what else needs to be said. Of course, me being me, I’m gonna say some more because it’s what I do.

Maybe you have some questions…

1. Where do I start?
2. Won’t this cost me money?
3. What would I even include in my newsletter?

Let’s tackle them, shall we?

Where do you start?

Take a pause from reading this right now, and either search Google or Yeehaa, or whatever your favorite search engine is these days for the best free mailing list. If you want to skip the search and check out a few, here are some options of what’s out there:

• MailerLite
• Substack
• ConvertKit
• Mailchimp
• AWeber

Not a single affiliate link here, just some to check out. I recommend looking at the pricing options for each, seeing what’s included, and choosing what works best for you.

What’s the cost?

Each of the options that I’ve just listed has a free version, or at least free for up to a certain amount of subscribers. Once you surpass that number, you’ll have to pony up a little cash to reach more of your people.

If you reach that relative number, chances are you’re catching onto this whole thing and doing well enough to invest the small monthly fee your chosen provider charges. Once you go up a tier or two, they usually throw in some extra goodies to allow you to get even more value from your list.

Some newsletters even offer the means of having your subscribers pay you for something, easily offsetting the price once you graduate from the free option.

What’s in a newsletter?

Perhaps the best part of it all…

Whatever you want to include.

I’ve learned that brevity is the key. Even though your mailing list includes people that said that they want to hear from you, that doesn’t mean that they want you to talk their ear off. Have some long intro in your email and not only will you probably lose them in the first few lines, but they also might skim for the unsubscribe link.

Keep it on point.

Mine is simple. I say a quick hello, share a couple of my own personal discoveries of the past week, and point them to something that I want them to read, aka, one of my recent articles.

That’s it. Just keep it interesting.

Still on the fence?

If you’re still thinking about it or wondering if you need to have a newsletter? The answer again is a resounding yes. Once you sign up for whatever service looks good to you, get that link at the bottom of everything that you’ve ever written.

Start even if you aren’t sure what you’ll do with it yet. The value of having direct access to the people that believe in you is invaluable.