We curate the Enterprise React Newsletter and distribute it to many software developers around the world. We made the Newsletter-o-matic spreadsheet tool to streamline the collection and formatting of content. You can download the Newsletter-o-matic for free and use it however you like. I’ll explain our process and how to use the tool.
My Newsletter Process
Every two weeks, I assemble articles for the newsletter and then format the content for each placement. Each placement is a certain riff on the content and I wanted to save time and be more consistent. The Newsletter-o-matic takes in article information and spits out the right format for each channel we support. The channels are:
- The Newsletter
- Scheduled Tweets
- Scheduled Facebook posts
- Our newsletter archive page
- A blog post (sometimes)
The Newsletter
We use Mailchimp for the actual newsletter send. We love the service and recommend it to anyone who needs to manage newsletters. The newsletter template itself needs:
- An ordered list of articles
- The article link (Mailchimp automatically adds UTM parameters for me. You can modify the spreadsheet if your newsletter system doesn’t add them for you.
- The article title
- The article description
Scheduled Tweets
I schedule tweets using Tweetdeck. To schedule a tweet, I need at a minimum:
- The Tweet text
- The Link to the article with appropriate UTM parameters for Twitter
- The author’s Twitter handle so we can tag them
Scheduled Facebook posts
I schedule Facebook posts using the Facebook interface. To schedule a Facebook post, I need at a minimum:
- The text for the Facebook post
- The link to the article with appropriate UTM parameters for Facebook
- The author’s name
Blog Article
We sometimes do a roundup version of the newsletter with much longer descriptions. This tab is the material needed to start that blog post.
- The article title
- The article link
- The article long description
Newsletter Archive Page
Once a newsletter issue is published, I post the topics with a link on our newsletter subscription page. This is so web users can get an idea of the type of content in each issue. To post a new issue, I need the following:
- A link to the web version of the newsletter (Comes from Mailchimp)
- Specially formatted HTML to insert into our CMS.
My Newsletter Creation Process
To make a newsletter, I add rows to the spreadsheet using the Add Entry button at the top of the Data tab in the Newsletter-o-matic. I extract these elements from the article as I’m reading.
I’ll add descriptions to those items that aren’t self-evident:
- Sort Order: Used to drive the order of the items in the newsletter. The best things go first.
- Date: Automatically added, so I know which issue this item belongs to
- Article Link
- Title
- Author Name
- Author Twitter Handle
- Author Twitter URL
- Article Short Description: Used as the description in the newsletter
- Article Long Description: Used as the description for Facebook
- Is Must-Read?: We have a section at the top of the newsletter called Must Read. It’s no more than 2 articles.
- Submitted By: Used to credit the article submitter
Once I’ve added all of the articles, I open Mailchimp, navigate to my new campaign, tweak all the initial settings, then open the Excel spreadsheet. I then:
- Ensure the article rows on the Data spreadsheet are ordered how I like, paying attention to the Must Read, and the Sort Order columns. I make any adjustments, then re-sort.
- I navigate to the Newsletter Details tab in the Newsletter-o-matic, and then copy/paste the data into Mailchimp.
- I go to Tweetdeck (use whatever Twitter app you like), open the Tweets tab in the Newsletter-o-matic, then copy/paste the info into a scheduled tweet.
- I go to Facebook, open the Facebook tab in the Newsletter-o-matic, then copy/paste the info into a scheduled Facebook post.
- Once the newsletter is sent out, I go to our Newsletter page on our website, open the HTML – Archives tab in the Newsletter-o-matic, then copy/paste the HTML in the right place on the page.
How to use
- Set Config Options
- Enter Newsletter Items
- On the Data tab, Press “Add Entry”, then begin to enter the data items from your article.
- Sort them however you like
Helpful Tips
- It is important to add your UTM parameters on the Config tab. The Newsletter-o-matic will add UTMs to links for you.
- I use a clipboard manager that saves a history of my clips. That means I can copy 3 different items from one document, then paste them into a different document without having to switch back and forth. I use CopyQ, and there are many others, even ones built into Windows, and macOS.
- I also have the Newsletter-o-matic up on the left half of my monitor and the content destination on the right half. This helps me to keep my place and avoid window switching.
- You could automate more of these tasks, but we don’t need a super mar-tech solution at Digital Primates, thus, this is automated enough for the job.
- You can add more tabs if you have more content areas.
- It does help to enable Macros in Excel so that you can use the Add Entry button on the Data tab. You can still use the Newsletter-o-matic without Macros, but it is nicer.
Summary
Using a newsletter as part of your content pipeline is a good way to build an engaged audience and assert credibility in a particular space. That said, the number of content items and formats can lead to a lot of manual, and error-prone, work. By using the Newsletter-o-matic you can take in newsletter content and output the formatted content for your channel specifications with minimal manual effort. Download the Newsletter-o-matic for free and let us know how it helps you in your newsletter crafting process.
