Newsletters: How To Write and Organize an Architecture Firm Newsletter

One year ago I sent my first newsletter to 56 amazing architects.

Today, my newsletter is read by 3,575 amazing architects.

Thank you for giving me your time and attention each week. I don’t take it for granted. And I hope that you find endless value in Growthitect.

Ironically, last week I asked you what you wanted to read about next and “How to build and organize a newsletter” received the most votes. What a fitting way to celebrate one year of Growthitect! 😂

Last week we covered why you should have a firm newsletter. But now let’s cover how to build a firm newsletter.

But not just any newsletter.

You want to build a magnetic newsletter that high-quality clients (past, present, and future) will actually want to read.

Otherwise, your return on investment (ROI) will not be worth it.

So how do you build a magnetic newsletter? 🧲

Answer these three questions:

01 // Where will I manage my newsletter?

Good news! Newsletters can usually be managed in a single platform. They’re called Email Service Providers (ESP). Think of an ESP as the engine that powers your newsletter - it’s where you will:

• Manage your subscribers

• Build and send emails

• Create automations (like a welcome sequence, for example)

• Design forms and landing pages (so people can sign up)

• Store/showcase past newsletters

And much more.

So what’s the bad news? There are A LOT of options. And, if you’re anything like me, it’s easy for analysis paralysis to block progress. Things to consider when selecting an ESP are pricing, integrations, automations, analytics, customization, and ease-of-use.

I did a lot of research prior to choosing my ESP last year before ultimately landing on ConvertKit. It’s built exclusively for “creators” and includes pretty endless flexibility and customization. That means I’ve been able to build sequences, run effective weekly polls, and manage products all inside of ConvertKit. It’s also easy to use and provides great analytics so I can track the performance of the newsletter.

The only downside is that I don’t love their native newsletter archive, which is essentially the “website” for my newsletter. I wish that there were more options in the design. It’s not a dealbreaker for me because I plan to build out a separate website for the newsletter anyways. In the end, I still highly recommend ConvertKit for it’s flexibility and ease-of-use.

Here’s some other ESPs to explore:

• Substack: A popular one-stop-shop for newsletters. Substack wasn’t for me because it lacks some customization features and newsletters can only be sent from a Substack domain (i.e. growthitect@substack.com vs hello@growthitect.com).

• Mailchimp: One of the OG ESPs - a well-known option used by lots of SMBs and online businesses. The reason I didn’t go with Mailchimp is because it’s more focused on businesses rather than individuals, but that might make it a good fit for some firms.

• ActiveCampaign: A robust option that includes things like marketing automations and a customer relationship manager (CRM). I didn’t choose ActiveCampaign because it’s more than I need.

• beehiiv: An up-and-coming ESP with lots of tools to help you grow your newsletter. The reason I didn’t go with beehiiv is because they’re a bit more expensive than the other options.

It’s important to choose the right ESP for you and your firm, but don’t let it slow halt momentum. Choose the option that will help you hit the ground running. For me, that was ConvertKit.

02 // What can I share?

In general, newsletter content falls into 3 brackets:

1. Promotional: Most popular with brands that sell physical products (tech, apparel, home goods, etc.). You know all those “Flash Sale” and “50% off until tomorrow!” newsletters you get? Those are promotional.

2. Educational: Hey, that’s us - Growthitect! This content is meant to educate the reader and share insights that are valuable to the audience.

3. Curated: This is what Morning Brew does very well. Curated newsletters pull together content from other sources and provide helpful summaries that keep their audience informed.

In reality, you’ll want your firm newsletter to be a combination of 2-3 types of content. Want to peek behind the curtains? Tyler Tactics is not just educational - it’s actually a combination of all 3:

• Sponsorships (like Morning Brew) are promotional along with my own products that I periodically share like Conversion Rocket or the waitlist for my upcoming LinkedIn course.

• This meaty section here is always educational, where I share actionable steps and tactics for attracting high-quality clients.

• At the bottom of every newsletter, I curate links to my favorite news and content from the week with a very brief summary.

What does this look like for a firm newsletter?

• Promotional content encourages your audience to work with you. For example, you may leverage loss aversion to mention that you only have availability for one more project.

• Educational content teaches your audience something new that ideally is relevant to your own work. For example, a residential architect may discuss the difference between different roof forms.

• Curated content shares news and resources relevant to your audience. For example, a commercial architecture firm might share regional business news.

I recommend using the 80/20 rule whenever promoting your own products or services. That is, at least 80% of your content should be either educational or curated and less than 20% should be promotional. Why? Well that’s related to the final question…

03 // Why should anyone care?

As we learned last week via the 95:5 rule, 95% of you amazing architects aren’t ready to buy anything right now. And that’s ok! But it’s still extremely important that I keep you engaged with valuable content. Otherwise, I’ll lose your attention, you’ll stop opening the newsletter, and you’ll jump off the conversion engine.

With that in mind, let’s go back to that 80/20 rule. If 80% of your content is educational or curated, then you will still keep that 95% of not-right-now-ers engaged. And they’ll keep reading and opening your newsletter.

If too much of your content is promotional, then 95% of readers won’t find value and they’ll stop opening the newsletter. Then your newsletter will be far less effective at attracting high-quality clients.

Here are two examples of how architecture-related newsletters make people care:

1. Architizer recently released a new daily newsletter called The Plug. It’s basically just a way for them to share their content each day. But they have a great pitch - an “image-heavy daily newsletter” focused on “giving readers a quick jolt of inspiration to supercharge their days”. Hell yea! That’s a great pitch. (The only thing I would change is to switch out “readers” for “architects”). And they branded it. How much more likely are you to subscribe to something called “The Plug” rather than “a daily newsletter”? What a great name. I’m in and I’ve been reading them - short, sweet, and to the point.

2. My friend, Jed Byrne, works for a regional company in North Carolina that does everything from asset management to site analysis to design for commercial clients. He created a popular local newsletter, Oak City CRE, that curates news about developments happening in Raleigh, NC. I’d be willing to bet a bunch of past, present, and future clients subscribe. How brilliant is that?

Give your audience a reason to care. Don’t just ask them to join your firm newsletter. Brand it. Pitch it. And share valuable information instead of strictly promotional content.

TL;DR

If you want to build a valuable newsletter for your firm (or yourself) that will keep high-quality clients engaged, then you need to answer these 3 questions:

1. Where will I manage my newsletter?

2. What can I share?

3. Why should anyone care?

Happy Anniversary to Growthitect and thank you so much for giving me your attention each week 🙂