We’ve been talking a lot about brand voice lately, and one of my big hopes is that my brand voice comes across as honest, trustworthy, and real.
So lemme tell you about a pretty epic fail in my biz life.
If you’re on my email list you may have noticed it: I sent out the same email newsletter three times in a row.
Not twice, which could be considered an oops.
Three. Times.
Um. Sorry about that.
I could tell you about the massively sucky summer I’ve been having (if you get my emails, you already know that we lost my dad to leukemia in July, but what you don’t know is that my mother-in-law had a heart attack in August and my grandmother passed in late September). I could pretend that I wanted to send it out multiple times to encourage people to support my Light the Night walk (which, by the way, y’all did in a big way — THANK YOU.)
But what it comes down to is this: I forgot.
I forgot to change my email newsletter, and because it was on a pre-scheduled thing with MailChimp, the program dutifully sent it out anyway.
Has this ever happened to you?
Please tell me I’m not alone in this whole forgetting to do something important for my biz thing. I’m pretty much a one-woman show (apart from my amazing VA who, despite her other outstanding abilities, DOES NOT READ MINDS), and sometimes, when life gets crazy, things fall through the cracks.
But the other half of this story is this: I don’t like writing my newsletter.
Wait, what? Hold the phone! Aren’t you a professional content creator? Don’t you, like, do this for a LIVING???
I know, I know. You all thought I was this wacko who just loved everything about content creation and content marketing, right?
Well, the truth is, I find email newsletters kinda baffling. I know they’re valuable; I know they’re important. I can tell a good one from a bad one when I read one.
But I have been totally uninspired when it comes to my own!
And that has to change.
Help me out here, y’all.
As you may know, I’m in the process of rebranding my business and redesigning my website, and considering this whole newsletter-gate fiasco, it looks like I REALLY need to revamp my newsletter and process as well.
So, to help me do that, it would be AMAZING if you would take ten seconds to answer the following two questions about what you’d like to see in my newsletter.
And, as a thank-you of sorts, if you fill out the survey, you’ll get to see a sneak peek at one of my new photos for the rebrand. (Taken by the amazing Monica True and creative directed by the outstanding Sarah Ancalmo.) 😉
Ready? Set? GO!
Ten seconds, right? (And is that hairdo amazing, or what??) 😉
In the mean time, I’m going to be doing some serious research about newsletters, and I’ll share what I learn with you guys. Deal?
If you’ve got comments or questions for me, hit me up in the comments below! I’d love to know what your biggest beef with e-newsletters is!
Love your blog! Seriously, I do.
My biggest beef with newsletters is wtf to write about. I feel if people are interested they will read my blog so why bother sending them an email saying :hey if you missed my blog here it is”
I get that the money is in the list but my God it just feesl like hard work doing the newsletter thing.
I’m WITH YOU, Caitlin! For me, the answer to making blogging feel like not so much hard work is getting excited about the content, so I’m hoping that if I can get excited about my newsletter content, it won’t be such a chore!
Lacy! I am SO sorry to hear about all that’s been going on. You’re a pretty amazing person.
Aw, thanks Jen!
Holy crapballs! That photo of you is ahh…mazing. I’m so jealous. I could never pull that off. You’re pretty much the coolest blogger I know.
And, don’t feel bad about the newsletter fiasco. You’ve had a rough year. Plus, VA’s really should be able to read minds.
Ahahahaha! You’re right — your hair’s not long enough. 😉
This is my first time reading anything you've written and I have to say…I LOVE IT. Honest, straight-forward, funny…all the things I'm looking for — regardless of the content. So i signed up for your mailing list, also.
I sent out Week 4 of my "30-Day Lunchbox Challenge" last weekend and was coming down with some kind of bug while writing it. In it I forgot to put an entire recipe that I had placed a photo and title for. AND then mentioned it was Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday and to skip the meatless monday part. But NO…it is in fact NOT Thanksgiving. And I KNEW that. I felt like such a tool. (Not my only story — just my most recent. Argh.)
This is my first time reading anything you’ve written and I have to say…I LOVE IT. Honest, straight-forward, funny…all the things I’m looking for — regardless of the content. So i signed up for your mailing list, also.
I sent out Week 4 of my “30-Day Lunchbox Challenge” last weekend and was coming down with some kind of bug while writing it. In it I forgot to put an entire recipe that I had placed a photo and title for. AND then mentioned it was Canadian Thanksgiving on Monday and to skip the meatless monday part. But NO…it is in fact NOT Thanksgiving. And I KNEW that. I felt like such a tool. (Not my only story — just my most recent. Argh.)
LOL! Thanks for making me feel better about myself, Sara. And thanks for joining my wonky newsletter list! 😉
Love your honesty and down to earth writing style. Great idea for a survey too!
Thanks Kathy!