Do Open: How a simple email newsletter can transform your business (and it can) (Do Books Book 15)

by David Hieatt

Here’s why. Because your design can say things about your product or your service without having to resort to using words. It can say ‘high quality’, it can say ‘fast service’, it can say ‘craft’, just by the look and feel you choose.

The typography will say something about you. The layout will say something about you. The photos you take will say something about you. Of course, your words will say something about you. But what do you want them to say? How do you want to position yourself: Fun? Serious? High quality? Innovative?

Before you design anything, you should have a clear picture of your intent. Our design ethos at Hiut Denim Co is for understated, simple and well-made premium jeans. We use the design of our newsletter to back those values up.

What are your values? Write them down. Before you ask a designer to look at your newsletter, ...

Here are some questions to ask about those who you benchmark: — What is it they do well? — What is the essence of what they are doing? — How often do they send out a newsletter? — How balanced is it? Give vs. Sell? — Are they giving value? — What could they improve on?

INSTAPAPER WEEKLY instapaper.com Instapaper’s newsletter curates the seven top stories from the week with a focus on tech, design and business news.

CUSTOMISE We use MailChimp as our email sender. For us it is the simplest, the best, and it offers lots of templates that can get you started quickly. They have some big pluses. They are the turnkey – ready to go – and designed for sharing across other platforms like Facebook. But when you code something yourself, it allows you to design something that exactly matches what you have in your head. This helps you to stand out. It shows that you care about design, that you have a great eye. And, it sets you apart from templates that anyone can use.

BUILD A COMMUNITY NOT A LIST I would hope you want to build a community. A community is actively engaged. A community will tell you when you get it wrong. And when you get it right. A community will make suggestions, will give you ideas, and will share with other people on your behalf. How do you build a community? The best way is to make them feel something for what you do. Reply to their comments. Have a dialogue. Have a conversation. Show you care. And they will show that they do too. This is not a difficult thing. This is not rocket science. But you will only make time to do this if you care about your community. You can’t fake it.

HOW DO YOU FIND YOUR COMMUNITY? It’s a good question. But it isn’t a complex answer. Like attracts like. If you start talking about being a great cheese-maker, other people from the cheese community will find you.

Yes, you can help that along a bit by telling the ten ‘influencers’ in your world that you are making great cheese. Hey, send them some. The mistake most people make is they want everyone to know what they are doing.

A THOUSAND TRUE FANS Kevin Kelly, the founding executive editor of Wired magazine, wrote a great piece about the music business.

So, the importance of this theory is to know that you don’t have to go broad to make your business work; instead you have to go narrow in order to mean a huge amount to a relatively small number of people. And build from there.

DON’T DILUTE — BE NARROW

To build a strong and fiercely loyal community, you have to have a point of view.

The mistake a lot of brands make is they want to be everyone’s friend. And that makes the ...

It is better to mean a great deal to a smaller community than meaning next to nothing to a huge community.

IF PEOPLE AREN’T ENGAGED, YOU KNOW WHO TO BLAME? The law of interesting is simple enough. Do interesting things and interesting things happen.

THE JOB OF THE EDITOR IS TO EDIT

If you want people to spend time, their precious limited time, reading your darn newsletter, it’d better be good.

Find new things. Find old things. Find amazing things. Put the hours in. Get known for finding great like-minded stuff. As their trusted editor, it is your job to find ‘the gold’. So they don’t have to.

There is no map — pioneers have to imagine the way, not read it

WHAT DOES A SMALL TEAM LOOK LIKE? Well, if you looked in the mirror this morning, that would show you what a small team looks like. You have to wear many hats, huh? If you run a small business, as well as running the company and answering the phone, you are also the entire social media department.

AN EXAMPLE OF A SMALL TEAM Hiut Denim Co. team members: — David: Writer/Planner/Editor — Huw: Curator/Builder/Optimiser — Paige: Designer/Outreacher The simple fact is we all find content throughout the week. We use the ‘read laters’ of Instapaper and Pocket to save all the bits we find throughout the week. Then during the content meeting we’ll decide on what are the ‘standouts’.

Remember, if you share great stuff, your community will trust you and therefore your ‘open’ rates will be above average. Consistency builds your community. The moment you begin to let average content go out, then they trust you less.

Everyone should know their role. But everyone has to contribute towards finding and creating great content.

A five-person team with only one person finding content is not as strong as a three-person team all on the hunt for great stuff. Law of averages. Also, law of diversity.