"Does my Product need a Newsletter?"
I’ve actually been asked this question before. In short: “Why does your Product have a newsletter? Do all products need something like this?”. While I can’t automatically say that every product needs a newsletter, early-stage products DO need some sort of Opt-in mechanism.
Your Product’s Opt-In Channel
If you’re working on your product in any public way or already testing out promotion before you fully launch, it’s key to consider the importance of having some way that people can keep track beyond social media accounts or blogs.
While all of these function as great mechanisms and mediums for content, attention spans are short, and chances are, people may be quick to forget about a recent blog post that they saw or a tweet outlining some sort of progress.
Having a way to collect emails for your users is a hack to making sure people know about new launches, updates, redesigns, and whatever else might be important to building that momentum around the product.
Keeping Users Hooked (with Email)
Now, you have a collection of emails that you’ve gained from a general audience that has become more interested in your product and might receive an update or two from your side in the near future about your product’s progress.
Why have it be a newsletter?
To put perspectives, newsletters are a resource for curation. More than just a cool template with some words, it’s really a way to bring together a collection of updates and make it more about curating content that you may be putting our complimenting a product, or an excuse to make a collection of announcements in a well-designed email rather than just linking to another blog post.
In short, it’s a key way to emphasize not just what your product is, but what makes it special. If your product has its own podcast (another article coming about that soon), it’s a way to share the latest episode, while also having the latest tutorial, product update, and more all in one place.
The Opportunity
Offering a centralized resource of curation about your product is something that won’t go unnoticed and really has an opportunity to impress your audience more than a singular blog post or tweet can.
Being able to properly curate all the resources and work on a product, which is moving the progress forward, is something that really can benefit the marketing and sales play in the future, especially as you continue to scale and have more to share.
— What are your thoughts on having a newsletter for your product early on? —