2024 Guide: Why Every Freelancer Needs a Newsletter + How to Start One | HackerNoon

While it’s easy to look at successful freelancers with their significant social media audience and question the value of a newsletter, the truth is — it’s beneficial at any stage of your freelance journey.

For newbies, it’s a great tool to showcase your work, grow your audience, land clients, and build trust. For seasoned experts, it enhances your credibility, keeps you connected with clients, and strengthens those relationships.

As someone who’s been freelancing for a while, let me walk you through making your own.

Understanding the Freelancer Newsletter Landscape

Having your audience on X (Twitter) or LinkedIn is good, but having a newsletter is even better.

While TikTok might be leading with a 4.25% engagement rate per post, outdoing even Instagram and Facebook, it’s email marketing that’s really catching eyes.

Around 60% of marketers around the world see over 20% open rates in their email campaigns. Clearly, focusing on newsletters is a smart move.

With social media saturated, everyone’s fighting for the same piece of the pie. Those on it for years know it’s cluttered. On the other hand, newsletters offer a direct, unfiltered line to your audience — personal and cutting through noise.

5 Ways Newsletters Can Help Your Freelance Business

Newsletters are more than just email lists. If you build and scale it, it can very well be a real game-changer for you and your business. Here’s why.

• Direct and Personal Connection: Newsletters let freelancers talk straight to their audience, cutting through social media clutter for deeper connections.
• Authority and Trust: Sharing insights, stories, and professional achievements helps freelancers position themselves as credible and trustable authorities.
• Client Acquisition: Valuable industry insights within newsletters can attract new clients looking for expertise.
• Stay Top of Mind: Consistent, high-quality content keeps you front and center in clients’ and prospects’ minds. This increases the likelihood of being their selected provider when needs arise.
• Control Over Content Distribution: Newsletters give freelancers complete freedom, ensuring that their message reaches their audience without the interference of algorithms.

Creating Engaging Content for Your Audience

To enhance your newsletter’s effectiveness and make it stand out, consider the following expanded strategies.

• Balance Educational and Promotional Content: Strive to provide value, insights, and helpful tips. This ensures your newsletter remains informative and engaging while subtly promoting your services.
• Set Clear Expectations on Subscription: On your subscription page, transparently communicate what subscribers will receive and how often. This clarity builds trust and minimizes unsubscribes.
• Craft Compelling Subject Lines: Use subject lines that spark interest and highlight key themes.
• Maintain a Focused Theme: Keep content coherent with a consistent theme to boost engagement and comprehension.
• Optimize Design and Content Delivery: Adopt a minimalist design with concise content. Ensure mobile compatibility to cater to a broad audience. Regularly curate relevant content, personalize, and segment your audience for targeted engagement.

Why should you listen to me? As a seasoned content marketer with over six years of experience, I have successfully built and scaled my own newsletter – Candid Content Conversations, reaching over 700 subscribers in just three months.

Create Your Newsletter’s USP

To distinguish your newsletter in a competitive environment and connect with your audience, you need to build your own USP.

• Focus on a Specific Niche: Consider what unique knowledge your subscribers gain from your newsletter that they can’t easily find elsewhere. This specialization not only showcases your expertise but also draws in a dedicated readership.
• Sharing Personal Insights: Think about the unique personal stories and experiences you can include. These elements add a relatable and engaging quality to your newsletter.
• Detailed Analysis: Use your specific expertise to provide thorough discussions, perspectives, or commentary on recent trends or happenings in your field.
• Maintaining Authenticity: Your newsletter should be a true reflection of your personal brand and voice. Authenticity is vital to set your content apart from others.

Monetizing Your Newsletter Content

A thriving newsletter can also bring multiple opportunities for monetization if done right. Once you scale it, here are some potential ways to generate revenue from your newsletter.

• Paid Subscription: You can start offering a premium version of your newsletter once you have substantial subscribers. It could contain exclusive, high-value content like detailed articles, special reports, or personal access to your insights.
• Sponsorships or Ad Space: If you have a growing newsletter, brands will be more than willing to pay to get featured. Create ad tiers to cater to different advertiser needs.
• Promote Yourself: Your newsletter is an ideal place to subtly introduce your products, services, or courses. Although, it’s important to balance promotional and informative content to maintain the newsletter’s value.

Newsletters for Client Acquisition

By showcasing your expertise and offerings, you can turn your newsletter into a funnel for client acquisition. Here’s how.

• Case Studies: Share your work + results along with data and testimonials to showcase the ROI you’ve provided to clients.
• Offer Discounts: Create exclusivity by offering discounts for your newsletter subscribers, building a sense of community and incentivizing purchases.
• Personalized Content: Customize your content to address different problems to tap into different segments of your audience.

Organic Ways to Maximize Your Newsletter Reach

Spreading awareness about your newsletter is key to growth. Some effective marketing tactics include:

• Promote: Feature your newsletter extensively on your socials, website, communities, etc., to maximize discoverability.
• Repurpose: Make sure to repurpose your newsletter content across your social media channels and communities to make the most out of it.
• Ask Connections: Be it friends, colleagues, or clients, encourage them to subscribe and share your newsletter within their networks and leverage referrals.

The Right Email Marketing Platform

Going through 100s of options in the market and choosing the right email marketing tool is easier said than done. Here are some features to consider.

• User-Friendly: Opt for a platform that is intuitive and allows extensive customization of your newsletters. It should enable easy designing, sending, and tracking of emails. Substack is far the best option here.

• Strong Analytics: Know how your emails are performing with open rates, click rates, and more. Beehiiv is a good option that removes the burden of manual data analysis and equips you with two different reports — Subscriber report and Posts report for in-depth analytics.

• Monetization capabilities: Who doesn’t like a new revenue stream? Find an email marketing platform that allows you to monetize your newsletter easily. Tools like Beehiiv have three revenue opportunities for creators — Ad networks, Boosts, and Premium Subscriptions.

• Integration: If you’re someone who likes to play with automation, look for the right integration capabilities with the tools you’re already using. Tools like Mailchimp or

  ConvertKit can be a great option here.

Spotlight: Freelancers Who Have Mastered Newsletters

For those seeking inspiration, let’s take a look at freelancers who have successfully built and scaled newsletters, demonstrating their viability and value.

• Ashley R. Cummings: Her newsletter, Content Connect, caters to freelance writers and content marketers. It offers practical business tips, the latest in writing and marketing trends, and insights from leading industry professionals.
• Lizzie Davey: She runs two distinct newsletters for her followers — Friday Freelance Tips and Content Chronicles. This is where she shares her wisdom on managing a thriving freelance business and discusses strategies to enhance your skills.
• Ben Goodey: Ben, the creator and voice behind How the F*ck, offers a newsletter focusing on content marketing and SEO intricacies.
• Kaitlyn Arford: An accomplished freelance writer, Kaitlyn provides a weekly dispatch of freelance opportunities straight to your inbox every Friday.
• Erica Schneider: Erica’s newsletter, titled Cut The Fluff, is dedicated to offering top-notch content editing guidance.
• Uddalak and Aanchal Parmar: Their newsletter ‘Candid Content Conversation’ is by far one of the best newsletters filled with amazing insights and techniques for new content marketers.

These individuals have effectively utilized newsletters as a tool to expand their personal brands and create strong connections with their audiences.

Make Your Move Today

If you want to boost your personal brand, land new clients, and unlock new revenue streams, it’s time to start your own freelancer newsletter.

Begin by choosing a niche, defining your unique value proposition, and creating engaging content. Leverage tools like Substack or Mailchimp to kick-start your journey and scale it to unlock new revenue streams for yourself.

Start small, but start somewhere. As you scale your list, watch your freelance business grow!