I made the plunge this week. I started an e-newsletter. When I started sending out the sign up link I felt kinda like a high schooler with a class ring asking the entire knitting internet to go steady with me. Because to me it is a commitment. A commitment to send out what I hope is an attractive, informative, and possibly at times entertaining document to everyone every month.
This is a little bit of the first issue.
It’s the every month thing that is a bit daunting. You mean I have to come up with something to say, something to show, every month? Yes sir that is what I am saying (I have conversations with myself frequently).
There was a bit to think about. What should I include? What will people find interesting? I asked my Ravelry group and someone was kind enough to mention that they would like to see sneak peeks of what’s coming. Which piqued my interest. Revealing what I am working on has been something I have wrestled with for years. There is the element of surprise when I release a new pattern fully formed that I think is kind of magical. Do teasers enhance or detract from that experience?
And then there is my timeline. From concept to execution can be as long as 6 – 8 months and do people want to wait that long? Well, the suggestion spurred me to get off of the fence on this issue and decide. There will be teaser/sneak peek photos of things that I am working on in the newsletter.
And only in the newsletter.
I am still hesitant to put them on the internet but I will send them privately to you. Like a secret that we can all share. So if you are interested in sneak peeks – sign up.
Another issue I pondered was incentives. Many designers, when starting a newsletter, offer a free pattern. And that is a fantastic incentive and I am grateful for each one that I have received (I get a lot of newsletters, love them). But you know me, I want to do something different because that’s just how I roll. So what I have decided to do is put a 25% off coupon code into each issue of the newsletter. It will be a one time use code generated specific to your newsletter for you to use. Good for 25% off one of my Ravelry Patterns. It will not be something that will continue forever but is a little something extra for early adopters. I figure it will last at least 4 – 5 months (because 25% x 4 = 100% and that is like a getting a free pattern).
This decision caused me some headaches figuring out how to make MailChimp put a different code in each email but I managed to bully it into submission. Me and technology, we have an uneasy relationship.
The next issue will go out on the first Thursday of June and then the first Thursday of every month after June. If you have any thoughts or suggestions as to what you would like to see in a newsletter I am all ears! Please feel free to comment below or on Ravelry or on FaceBook or Tweet it at me …. you get the idea.
Tumped Duck 