What if writing a newsletter didn’t take hours every week?

Hey there, 

A couple of days ago a friend of mine who’s recently started an agency, asked me about the best funnels that he could launch to build his client base and a waitlist while he’d be increasing the capacity to service more clients.

Naturally, I suggested setting up a newsletter funnel as it’d meet all his needs:

• Easy to plug

• Evergreen 

• Acts as an organic waitlist for his services

• Nurtures his client base

While he agreed with all of these arguments, one thing that was holding him back from launching a newsletter was his worry that “it’ll take a lot of time.”

He was afraid that launching a newsletter would mean that every single week, he’d have to jump on a content hamster wheel and devote an entire day just to make sure he sends another email.

And he isn’t wrong.

Growing a newsletter takes time and effort.

A common misconception in the creator world is that you can just add a newsletter into your content stack without spending too much time on it.

After all, how hard can it be to send one email a week?

Well, quite hard as it turns out.

So, today, I wanted to share 3 tips on how you can save hours every single week putting your newsletter together.

We’ll focus on practical, set-and-forget tips so that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time you sit down to write the next edition of your newsletter.

🗓️ Tip 1: Have a content calendar / idea bank

There’s nothing more scary than a blank page.

Writer’s block is real and is applicable to those writing novels as well as niche-specific, educational newsletters.

The easiest way to cope with that is to have a database with all potential ideas for your newsletter.

Even a simple Kanban board that you can pull from can save you from hours spent thinking about newsletter ideas.

And the best part is that you probably already have a lot of content either on your Twitter/X profile, YouTube, or LinkedIn.

Use your best-performing content and translate it into a more concise, written form.

🖼️ Tip 2: Create a template

I can’t stress how important it is to have a plug-n-play template.

Yes, there are people who prefer and work best with a completely loose format. Think, writers like Dan Koe.

But most creators and founders are not writers or they just don’t want to spend hours writing and refining their newsletters.

The best way to solve this problem is to work from a template.

Here are a couple of good examples:

Ali Abdaal’s Life Notes:

• Fairly loose first bit to let Ali choose a topic and expand on it as he wants

• Sponsored segment

• Favourite things from the week

• Own products and services

Alex Hormozi’s Mozi Minute:

• “Words I like”

• Mozi Money Minute

• Own products / services

The Coast

(This is a local newsletter which topic-wise won’t be applicable to most of you but I think the template they’ve created is a great example of utilizing a repeatable format)

• Editor’s note

• Traffic & Weather

• Need To Know

• Sponsored segment

• In Other News

• Things to do

• Where To Eat & Drink

Find a format that suits your writing style, the information you want to convey, and the resources/advice that you want to share.

The great thing about having a newsletter template is that once you create and refine it, you can use it pretty much forever.

🆘 Tip 3: Write an SOS edition

This is something that I don’t see many people talk about.

If you’re a creator, you know that there are millions and one thing that can derail your plans to create content that week.

The same goes for writing a newsletter.

Yet, consistency is one of the most important things when it comes to growing a successful newsletter.

Therefore, one of the best things you can do to (a) get some stress off your shoulders when it comes to writing the next issue of your newsletter and (b) ensure that the next edition goes out on time is to have a couple of SOS editions in the pipeline.

You can use more generic, time-agnostic ideas to create these issues.

Something that’s fairly timeless and will be applicable no matter if you send it today or in the next 6 months.

Having even one SOS issue in the content bank can save you a lot of time and potential stress.

So, there you go. These 3 tips will save you hours every single week and it’ll only compound as you keep sending more and more issues of your newsletter.

Other resources to help you grow your newsletter

How to Make $100K+ as a Local News Creator (link)

We’re witnessing a complete takeover of local news by newsletters.

And while most people don’t want to start (specifically) a local newsletter, a lot of advice that Michael from Catskill Crew newsletter shares in this podcast interview applies to growing a newsletter (in general) and, most importantly, building a loyal audience that even gives you ready-to-use product ideas.

How to Start an Unstoppable Business in 10 Minutes (link)

While this isn’t newsletter-specific advice, Dominyck is very much in the newsletter business (he has his own newsletter and a newsletter-specific agency). And even though he’s a young entrepreneur, he shares fairly simple advice that I think is one of those things worthy of being reminded of from time to time.

We made $800,000+ with an email sequence. Here’s how: