The Top Five Beginner Newsletter Mistakes To Avoid

The new monetization module releases into The 6-Figure Creator Newsletter Blueprint this week, and we have had dozens of deep dives at this point, but...

I realized while we may have covered all of these things on my social platforms, and even a touch here and there in some of our deep dives, I haven't specifically covered the top mistakes that beginners make when starting their newsletter.

So that's exactly what we're breaking down in this one.

One important detail that I want to point out right away is that there is going to be a recurring theme you'll notice among a handful of these mistakes.

It'll all come full circle by the time we reach the end, so don't worry if you don't catch it as we're making our way through.

That said, while I won't be using specific examples of top creator's newsletters for every single mistake we go through - I will link out to some examples within other deep dives, and share quotes and references when relevant.

For our first beginner mistake I'm starting with one that comes with a contingency attached to it (which is why it's coming in first).

 Using Double Optin

Note: In some countries it is required by law to use double optin. Which is why I'm starting with this one on our list and making a specific note about it. 

That said, if you are NOT in one of the countries that require you to use double optin, you can be losing upwards of 20-40% of your subscribers that optin.

By using double optin you're essentially trying to put some of the extra steps (that you should be doing yourself either way) on your audience.

Here's what you should be doing either way:

• Cleaning Your List: Either way you should be cleaning your list. That means after a certain amount of time (usually 90 days or so), if people on your list haven't engaged with it (opens/clicks) then you want to remove them from your list.
• Optional Win Back Series: Another layer of cleaning your list that a lot of creators can (and probably should) use is a win back series. This is when people hit that time period in which they'd be removed and you send them 1-3 emails to try to "Win Them Back" before you remove them.
• Sender Reputation: The reason we want to clean our list is one of the same reasons why we would want to use double optin. And the reason is right in the name...to keep a clean list! Our sender reputation, which is what will control whether we end up in our audiences mailboxes (or promotions, for example), will be influenced by the amount of engagement we have from our subscribers.
• Bonus: The next mistake is something that has a ton of overlap here and will result in a much more engaged list. No spoilers .. yet.

So if you're using double optin as a way to keep your list clean, you're essentially taking the risk of sacrificing 20-40% of your subscribers as a way to not have to do the things we should be optimizing for anyway!

Additional Note: I have researched the world's top newsletters. When you subscribe to them, you will not find a confirmation email (double optin). Instead you will find a highly optimized Welcome Flow, which is what we will talk about next.

 No Welcome Flow

Next up among the top beginner newsletter mistakes is not having a Welcome Flow.

A Welcome Flow is:

• Welcome Page: The confirmation/thank you page that people are redirected to after they subscribe to your newsletter.
• Welcome Email: The email that is sent to your subscribers immediately after they subscribe to your newsletter.

Not having a Welcome Flow is the newsletter version of ghosting someone.

We have an in depth deep dive breaking down the most optimal Welcome Flow for your newsletter, so I won't be going into too much depth here, but I will say that not having a Welcome Flow (yes, BOTH elements of the Welcome Flow), is one of my biggest pet peeves.

Whenever I get a green "confirmed" message I'm sitting there with my hands up...confused. 🤷‍♂️

That said, I do want to just quickly go over some of the key elements and goals of our Welcome Flow that will allow us to increase the overall engagement of our subscribers (opens/clicks).

Here are some of the things we're immediately doing:

1. Getting A Reply: Get our audience to reply to our email.
2. Move To Primary: Get our audience to move our email to primary (if it didn't land there).
3. Get A Click: Get our audience to click a link within our email.
4. What To Expect: Tell our reader's what to expect and get them to look forward to our future emails (more opens, higher future engagement).
5. Built Trust & Authority: We do this by providing immediate value (with some of our top resources, for free), and sharing a bit of our background.
6. Immediate Value: This has direct overlap with getting a click, and building trust but I want to make a special note here because this is something we're going to see consistently throughout all of our beginner mistakes (Leading with value solves these mistakes!)

Your Welcome Flow is an absolute must. 

I don't care if you want to use your Welcome Page as a way to sell your paid newsletter, or survey your audience, or even just sell a one time offer - that's fine - but you need to be utilizing both layers of your Welcome Flow, or you're wasting earned attention.

 Optimizing For Subject Line Instead Of From Line

Next up among the top beginner newsletter mistakes is thinking that your subject line is the most important part of getting your audience to open your emails.

I will say this before I even start sharing some more newsletter creator's opinions: If you need to rely on your subject line to get more opens, you are not building enough trust with your audience - which means you are likely not providing enough value.

In the image about you see a Tweets from some of the top creators in the newsletter space including Louis Nicholls, Katelyn Bourgoin and Ann Handley.

I want to highlight Ann Handley, who has been publishing email newsletters for 25 years -first at ClickZ - and now Marketing Profs and her personal newsletter; but first I'll discuss a bit about the two other creators (which lead us right into it).

Here's what we're looking at to start:

• Louis Nicholls, who runs the Grow Your Newsletter newsletter, and is also the co-founder of SparkLoop, a tool designed to grow and monetize the world's largest newsletters (also owned by ConvertKit) tweeted about the fact that people will open your newsletter because they see your name pop up in their inbox, NOT because of your subject line.
• Katelyn Bourgoin, who runs Why We Buy (and is a creator we have seen frequently within our deep dives), chimed in, agreed with Louis, and proceeded to mention Ann Handley, a newsletter GOAT.

As I mentioned, Ann Handley knows a thing or two about newsletters.

In a tweet discussing “11 things I've learned from 25 years of email newsletters...”, Ann shared:

1. Number 4: Your From Line matters more than your Subject Line.
2. Number 4 1/2: YOUR FROM LINE MATTERS MORE THAN YOUR SUBJECT LINE.

She proceeds to say: "This is the single biggest thing I've learned in two and a half decades as a Marketer."

Naturally, out of the 11 things she learned, that is the only one Ann took the time to say twice (hence the "1/2").

And just to be clear: We are saying "From Line", but what we mean is your name (or your brand name / newsletter name) in your audience's inbox.

 Landing Page With Multiple CTAs

We have a massive deep dive on how to optimize your landing page using my 4x4 formula, but I wanted to make sure I touch on it here for people who are starting with this article and may still be making some of these mistakes.

Let's start with what you should, and shouldn't be doing:

• Should: Only have TWO options on the entire page: Subscribe to the newsletter, or exit the page.
• Should NOT: Have multiple CTAs or a cluttered landing page like the ones shown in the images above the optimal subscribe page I shared above.

As you can see, I used two different images of Milk Road because I wanted to show that they still have a home page that optimizes for optins to their newsletter (while having a menu bar and looking/functioning like a normal "Home" page), but that is NOT their landing page.

Their landing page is the one shown below that only has one CTA.

Just to give you a quick idea of what The 4x4 Landing Page looks like:

1. The 4 Essentials
2. The 4 Sections

Which are each made up like this:

The 4 Essentials:

1. What do you do for your audience?
2. When should they expect it in their inbox?
3. How long will it take to read?
4. How many others will they be joining?

The 4 Sections:

1. The Main Heading
2. The Secondary Heading
3. The Call To Action
4. The Sub-Text (Optional)

But if you want the full rundown you'll have to check out the entire deep dive and make your way through all the examples and optimizations.

 Backwards Repurposing

This is a mistake I see mainly from beginners, but there are even creators with thousands of subscribers who still make this massive mistake.

This one comes all the way back to our content system, and what we've seen from top creators like Dan Koe and Justin Welsh.

Here's what I'm referring to:

• DO THIS: Write your newsletter first and then repurpose to social content.
• NOT THIS: Write short form content first and then repurpose to your newsletter.

I even wrote a full deep dive on just how Dan Koe writes his newsletter for 30 minutes per day and then repurposes it to over 5 different platforms.

Koe says:

“When I focus on writing my newsletter for 30 minutes every morning, all of my other content is handled. It's as simple as deconstructing the newsletter and repurposing it everywhere in less than 10 minutes a day (once you have the process down)."

And just to build on this, I also want to discuss Justin Welsh.

Justin teaches his own methodology with his "Hub And Spoke Method", and states:

"Nothing is easier than writing a newsletter and then looking back at the newsletter and easily, inside of it, seeing 5-7 pieces of content.”

Justin's Hub And Spoke Method teaches writing your newsletter first and then being able to do exactly what he describes in that quote:

Pulling 5-7 pieces of different content that get added to your content system over the course of weeks into the future.

As you level up as a newsletter creator your content system will also level up and you'll realize just how important this one is.

 The Value Creator: Value First, Sales Second

I talk about this a lot, but it really does all come full circle back to being a value creator.

When you focus on providing value first, you are able to hit all of the things we're discussing above.

Value Creator Content System:

1. Write an incredibly valuable newsletter once per week.
2. Repurpose to all your social platforms.

It's as simple as that.

Here's how being a Value Creator helps fix these mistakes:

1. Welcome Flow (and therefore Double Optin): When your goal is to immediately provide value to your audience you want them to instantly have your best free resources as they subscribe, and therefore are already optimizing your Welcome Page and Welcome Email.
2. From Line: When you build trust, authority and relationships with your newsletter (which is done by providing your audience value), you don't need to worry about click-bait subject lines because they will open your emails because YOU send them.
3. Landing Page: When your newsletter is built around providing tons of value it becomes the lead magnet. You can portray the massive value people are going to get right on one page with 4 simple elements.
4. Repurposing System: When you write a weekly newsletter that has tons of value you can easily pick out content to repurpose to social; where-as if you tell a bunch of stories in hopes to make some sales, it becomes a lot harder to repurpose.

None of this is news to you if you've read through my deep dives.

You likely already know that my entire system revolves around providing immense value, for free, because our audience will be willing to pay for access to MORE (to make it easier, faster, hand held, etc.).

If you want to learn more about being a value creator with your newsletter, I'd also recommend reading through some of these deep dives:

• The Top 5 Spots To Sell In Your Newsletter
• How To Run A Successful Product Launch
• 5 Differences Between An Email List and a Newsletter

And if you're ready to dive in and start scaling your own creator newsletter you can also check out my course The 6-Figure Creator Newsletter Blueprint.