Get no nonsense, super useful blogging & productivity tips in your inbox every week...
Why writing emails feels so hard (and how to fix it)
|
Hi Reader, Does this sound familiar? It’s time to write your weekly email newsletter. You sit down at your laptop, ready to type… and then? Nothing. Your brain is as blank as the screen in front of you. So you scroll social media… Make another cup of coffee… Reorganize your desk… Eventually, you get something written – but it takes forever, you’re not happy with it, and honestly? It all feels a bit pointless. You can’t help but wonder if writing a newsletter is even worth the time. If that’s you, you are definitely not alone. “I never know what to write in my email newsletters” came up as one of the top 3 email marketing frustrations, when I surveyed this list a few weeks ago. But here’s something I wish more people knew: The problem isn’t that you are bad at writing emails. The problem is that nobody ever taught you the right strategy. Because there’s a secret that far too many email marketers keep to themselves – and once you’re in on it? Writing emails stops feeling like a burden… and starts becoming something you actually look forward to! And that’s what today’s newsletter is all about... Psst… This is Email #3 in a series where I’m sharing solutions to your biggest email marketing problems. If you missed the first two, you can catch up here: Email #1: “My email list isn’t growing” Email #2: “My email list doesn’t earn me any money” The real purpose of email marketingIn order to flip things so that writing your weekly newsletter stops being a chore and starts being something you actually look forward to each week, you need to understand the true purpose of email marketing. The true purpose of email marketing isn’t just to “stay in touch” or “send updates”. It’s to build a relationship with your audience that turns casual visitors into loyal customers. Every email should be moving people along a journey: Stranger → Engaged Subscriber → First Time Buyer → Loyal Customer That’s it. That’s the job. How weekly newsletters fit inOf course, if you were to try and hard-sell your products in every newsletter, your list would quickly burn out! People would tune you out, stop opening and eventually unsubscribe. That’s why – like we talked about last week – the rhythm that works best is: Nurture → Sell → Nurture → Sell. Your weekly newsletters are the NURTURE part. To your subscribers, they should be value-driven and genuinely helpful (something they actually look forward to opening). But on the back end? Every newsletter should be gently nurturing toward the next sale. But how exactly do you do that? Enter: The 6-Week Nurture ArcThe secret is to creating value-driven, genuinely helpful newsletters that naturally move people closer to buying is to build a nurture arc. In a nurture arc, each email has a job. It’s either…
String 6 of those together and – voilà – you’ve got a 6-Week Nurture Arc: a sequence of 6 weekly newsletters that provide genuine value to your subscribers, but also set up your next promotion, without ever feeling pushy. At the end of this nurture arc, you run a sale on your product to your now much warmer list... and watch the sales come flooding in! An Example In ActionTake Jessica, a healthy food blogger who sells a meal prep course that helps busy people prep nutritious food so they don’t have to rely on unhealthy takeout and microwave meals. Here’s how one of her 6-Week Nurture Arcs might look:
In this 6 week newsletter series, every email provides genuine value to her subscribers – so much so, that they really look forward to her weekly newsletters. But also, every email build trust and creates genuine desire for Jessica’s meal prep course. So that, by the end of the arc, her subscribers are practically falling over themselves to buy her course! That’s the power of the 6-Week Nurture Arc. Your Next StepHere’s how to put all this into practice:
Now every week, instead of staring at a blank screen, you’ll have a detailed plan. You’ll know exactly what to write AND exactly how it fits into your overall strategy. You’re no longer just sending a random “update” for the sake of having something to send. Every email is strategic. Every email has a job. Every email gently nurtures your subscribers toward the next sale. The Tip Of The IcebergOf course, this is only the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much more to email marketing strategy (and to newsletters in particular) than I could ever fit into a single email. Which is why I’m creating a brand new course that will teach you how to: ✅ Grow your list fast – with the RIGHT subscribers Plus there will also be templates, swipe copy, examples and support every step of the way to help you confidently turn your list into a money making machine. For newsletters specifically, I go much more in-depth into how they fit into your overall email marketing strategy, how to create a promotional calendar, how to create a 6-Week Nurture Arc AND how to write the actual emails – with prompts, detailed examples, templates and swipe copy. So writing your newsletter stops being a chore and instead becomes your favourite part of the week! If that sounds like something you’d be interested in click here to join the waitlist and I’ll send you over some more details! SEO & Blogging News Google: Searchers Want AI Summaries Not Links This is really not good news for bloggers, but also not entirely surprising… A Google representative said this week that user behaviour shows that Google’s users prefer AI overviews over links to publishers. However, they did also concede that to help the ecosystem and the value exchange, Google will continue to provide links. In other words they recognise that if they were to do away with the "10 blue links" completely, there would be no incentive for publishers to create the content that they use to generate AI Overviews. Basically, just another reminder that if you are still heavily dependent on borrowed traffic from Google, it’s getting ever more urgent that you pivot away from that model. ChatGPT Study: 1 In 4 Conversations Now Seek Information And here’s another nail in the coffin for the old ways of doing things… A study came out this week showing that “24% of ChatGPT use is information-seeking” – up from 14% this time last year. In other words, increasingly people are using ChatGPT in the way they would have used Google Search in the past. So, more people are using ChatGPT for search, but what does that mean for us the publishers… well this article answers that, saying: “ChatGPT users are more engaged than Google searchers. But AI traffic comes in much smaller volumes.” This is based on an analysis of data over the last 18 months. In other words, AI referrals bring highly qualified visitors, but in much smaller volumes. This is potentially good news if you sell something (highly qualified = more likely to join your email list and buy your products), but terrible news if you still rely on high volumes of traffic. (This is also similar to what Google representatives have said in the past about "fewer clicks, but better clicks".) Why local SEO is thriving in the AI-first search era But it’s not all doom and gloom – it turns out that, while in most niches search engine traffic is declining, this is not the case for local SEO. Now of course, local SEO is not something I normally talk about, as it is not relevant for most bloggers. But I think this article is worth a read as it shows how, if you can provide something AI is not good at, or you cover a subject where people don’t want AI summaries or don’t trust AI summaries, you can still do well in traditional search. Over to you…I’d love to hear from you… have you been struggling to write your weekly newsletter? If so, which of the tips in this newsletter would you like to hear more about? Hit REPLY and let me know! Happy newsletter-writing! Eb 😊 P.S. Want to stop staring at a blank screen every newsletter day – and finally have a system that grows, nurtures, and monetizes your list? Join the waitlist for my new email marketing course! |
Productive Blogging
Get no nonsense, super useful blogging & productivity tips in your inbox every week...
Hi Reader, In case you’ve not heard, both Raptive and Mediavine have dramatically changed their requirements recently. First came the news that you can now join Raptive ‘proper’ with just 25,000 pageviews. (It used to be 100,000 pageviews.) Read about that here >>> Raptive Drops Traffic Requirement By 75% To 25,000 Views Then came the news that Mediavine is basically changing everything! From 15th January 2026, bloggers will be able to join Mediavine Journey at just 1,000 monthly sessions....
This email contains affiliate links. If you click on a link and make a purchase, I may get a commission. Hi Reader, Today I want to tell you a story… It’s the sad and sorry tale of a café owner who went bust... Let’s call her Ruth. It was Ruth’s lifelong dream to open a café. However, from a young age she had always been taught to be careful with money. Her parents had taught her things like: Watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves. A penny saved is a penny earned....
Hi Reader, Have you ever felt like your email list is just… sitting there? You’re sending emails, showing up for your audience, doing all the “right” things – but it doesn’t actually make you any money… It feels frustrating. And honestly? It’s one of the biggest reasons people don’t really prioritize email marketing – it feels like a huge time suck, with very little reward. If that sounds familiar, you’re not alone. In fact, when I recently surveyed this list about your biggest email...