How To Promote Your Blogs via Email (WITH Examples)
One of the best parts of blogging in your business is that your blog content can really be the driver for the rest of your content on other platforms.
Instead of feeling like you have to reinvent the wheel on every single platform you want to show up on, you can START with your long form blog post first and let that content guide the type of content that you create everywhere else.
When I work with clients and help them step into this way of creating content, it’s like a fog is lifted and they can finally feel excited to create content in their business again.
Prior to creating content this way, it can feel super overwhelming and daunting and it might even feel like creating content in your business is a total chore.
Instead of being something that you WANT and LOVE to do, it might feel like something you *have* to do.
And that’s the very opposite of what you want!
At its core, your content is supposed to be the thing that provides tons of value for your audience and truly benefits them, but when YOU as the content creator feel overwhelmed by it and view it as something that just needs to be checked off your list, you lose the intentionality part of it.
This is why I’m so passionate about helping people flip their content funnel and learn the BETTER way to create content in their business.
It doesn’t have to be overwhelming. It doesn’t have to be daunting. And it definitely doesn’t have to be the chore that you dread every single week when you sit down to work.
So, what exactly does that new content funnel look like? I’m glad you asked.
The Content Marketing Funnel That Makes Your Content Creation 10 Times Easier
At the top you have your long form content, which could come in the form of blogs, podcast episodes, or YouTube videos.
(Of course, I recommend that you choose blogs for a few reasons, but to each their own!)
And I know what you might be thinking… “You want me to START with the longest piece of content first?? That’s going to take soooo much more time.”
I hear you – but let me explain! There’s 2 main reasons you want to start here:
You have much greater ownership over this content and there’s less risk of losing it. (We can’t say the same for social media.)
This content has the longest shelf life, meaning it can serve you for YEARS to come – especially blogs. Click here for more of a deep dive on the shelf life of those posts!
From there, you let that content guide you into the second tier:
And no, the 3 channels you see listed here weren’t picked by random.
Email
Just like you don’t own the content you post on social, you also don’t own your social media followers.
If you have 10,000 followers, I love that for you and you should be proud, but let me ask you: if your account disappeared today would you still have a place to connect with those 10K followers?
If not, it’s time you focus on growing an email list!
The GOOD NEWS is that when you already have your blog content, creating your email content is already half way done.
More on that in a minute…
Pinterest
I’m no Pinterest expert (although I do know one!), but what I do know is that Pinterest actively drives people back to your website and goes hand-in-hand with blog posts.
What other social platform out there actually encourages its users to go OFF the app?! I can’t think of one!
LinkedIn
Again, I’m no LinkedIn expert, but the reason this platform falls here is because your posts on LinkedIn actually have the potential to show up in Google search results.
Additionally, LinkedIn is one of the only social platforms that naturally supports long form content, so you’re able to repurpose super easily.
If you want to level up your LinkedIn game, I encourage you to learn from my friend Lindsay!
Finally, at the bottom of this content is our beloved social media content.
The reason this content comes last is because as I’ve mentioned many times already, you don't own this content, so you want to make sure you're putting more effort into leveraging the platforms that you have more control over FIRST.
Additionally, most social media platforms have the shortest shelf life, which means you could put all of your time and energy into creating an amazing social media post just for it to die off a few hours later and no one may ever see it again. Pretty depressing, right?
Most of the time when working with clients to grow their consistency with blogging in their business, the next most common question I get is, “okay… so how do I apply this to email exactly?!”
In the last month alone, through hosting Blogmas – a 3-week challenge focused on helping people develop the habit of blogging in their business before the new year began – I received this question at least a dozen times.
When I receive this question, I honestly love it because it tells me 2 things:
People have committed to blogging in their business and want to make sure that they’re using their blog content to its utmost potential
They’re ready to focus on what I consider to be the second most content channel you can have – your email list
After receiving this question a few times, I started thinking, “what if I just created a training on this?!” So I’m going to!
On January 17th in The Writer’s Room – the ultimate done-with-you blog and email writing membership – I’ll be hosting our FIRST bi-monthly training all about How Your Blog and Email Content Can Work Together In Your Business.
This will be a members only training and if you want to be part of it, you can enroll NOW through January 12th for only $97/month!
Your membership includes:
Bi-monthly trainings with Natty (centered around marketing, blogging, email marketing, and more) 💻
Quarterly Guest expert calls (featuring industry adjacent guests that I personally know, work with, and trust) 👩🏻💻
Bi-weekly Co-writing Wednesdays (to hold you accountable for consistent writing in your business) ✍🏼
Quarterly Blog Content Planning Parties (so you can have a strategic blog plan ready to implement) 🎉
Writing Resource Vault (all of my best writing resources in one place) 🔐
Weekly Feedback Accessibility (so you can feel confident in your content creation before you press publish) 📝
Slack Community (for access to other members to brainstorm, support, provide feedback, etc.) 👥
CLICK HERE FOR ENROLLMENT DETAILS!
But for now, I want to give you some tangible ways that you can promote your blog content in your emails WITH examples.
First, I want to start by saying the way you do this will vary based on the type of email content that you send your list.
Generally I see two types of emails: newsletter style (which is how I have my weekly emails structured in Notes From Natty) and more content specific emails.
Let me explain the difference:
1. Newsletter style emails will typically have the same structure each week that’s broken into specific sections that include various information.
Each week in Notes From Natty, I include:
an introduction that’s more storytelling or anecdotal
followed by Your Weekly Digest, which provides a quickfire list of what the rest of the email includes
then move into the bulk of the content that provides a business or blog specific lesson with tangible takeaway or quick wins
finally, I end with the latest blog post that I’ve posted OR a roundup of blog posts that are relevant to the story or business lesson that I just shared
Here’s a visual of this structure so you can see what I mean:
My approach with email content is to lead in with a story or another form of "email exclusive" content topic that directly correlates to the weekly blog post itself. The blog content is the thing that inspires the storytelling and business lesson that I’m writing about.
2. The other option for your emails is more content specific which means you have one goal: to direct your email subscribers to your blog post of the week.
Many of my clients take this approach and there’s really no right or wrong way to do it – it comes down to personal preference!
For content specific emails like this, you’re often taking the approach of giving your readers justtt enough content to get them interested, so that they feel inclined to click through to your blog to read more.
And no, this doesn’t mean that you “trick” them into clicking. It simply means that you’re giving a small snippet of value (that’s often already written in your blogs) and then simply saying, “hey! Want more where this came from? That’s exactly what this week’s blog post is all about.”
(You might not say it in those words, but that’s essentially the point you want to get across!)
Examples of How I’ve Promoted Blog Content In My Past Newsletters
To help you see this in action, here are a few examples (with explanation) of how I’ve personally promoted blog content in my past newsletters.
In this email, I wanted to promote my weekly blog post which included 3 overarching points on What To Do If You Don’t Know What To Write About.
Typically, when I have a listicle style blog post, I’ll take ONE of the main points from the blog post to create email content around it
For this email specifically, I was also able to promote on social media by saying, "if you're interested in learning more about XYZ, subscribe to my list" which made my email list feel exclusive because I provided content that wasn't covered in the blog, while also still driving my subscribers to the blog post itself.
The content topic for this email was "3 things that qualify a good read" which perfectly led into my weekly blog post of Binge-worthy Business Blogs.
This additionally gave me the opportunity to link another past blog post I had published prior about my favorite personal and professional development books.
Lastly, this example is a quicker lead into the blog post itself, but you can see how it still starts with an anecdotal story before pushing to the blog post itself!
Want More Training and Resources For How Your Blog and Email Content Can Work Together?
Hopefully you can see that your blog and email content really can work together seamlessly, regardless of the structure that you choose to incorporate for your emails!
If you’re in search of more training and resources for how your blog and email content can work together, The Writer’s Room is your next best place to be.
On January 17th, I’ll be hosting our first bi-monthly members only training for this topic specifically where we’ll go more in depth and give you a chance to ask questions for your specific business.
❗️ENROLLMENT CLOSES ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 12TH❗️