How to Blog More Consistently by Using Your Old Newsletters as First Drafts

Guest Expert
Written By Natalie Davis

Between client work, running your business, and your other marketing tasks, you might be wondering where you’re supposed to find the time to write blog posts from scratch every week?

But… you don’t always HAVE to.

If you're taking advantage of email marketing and writing newsletters, you're sitting on a pile of content that could already be first drafts for future blog posts.

In this post, I’ll show you exactly how you can create fresh blog posts out of old newsletters – so you can blog more consistently in your business without always having to come up with something new!

Before we dive in – I’m Charlee of Sunny Send Up, and I help online business owners give their best ideas a longer shelf life through the power of content repurposing. Big thanks to Natty for letting me share with you!

Why Consistency in Blogging Matters (And How Newsletters Can Help You Get There)

I always say one of the beauties of blogging is that if you’re not consistent every single week or even every month, no algorithm is going to punish you for it.

BUT.

The more consistently you blog, the more search engines recognize and trust your website as an authority in your niche. And the more posts you have, the more chances you have to rank on Google. So being consistent does help.

But while blogging consistently sounds great in theory, creating content from scratch can feel like… a lot. Coming up with blog topics, keyword research, writing, editing, and optimizing all takes time.

But if you’re sending regular newsletters to your email list, you’re ALREADY creating long-form content consistently. It’s just not discoverable like blogs are.

Instead of treating your email marketing and blogging as two completely separate content creation processes, leveraging your old newsletters as blog first drafts stretches your energy and creativity further.

How to Rework a Newsletter Into a Blog Post (Beyond Just Copy-Pasting)

The key to turning your old newsletters into blog posts is to go into it treating your newsletter as the first draft, NOT the final product.

Just copy-pasting, hitting publish, and calling it done isn’t gonna work. As good as your newsletters likely are, they still need some tweaking to become truly good, helpful blog content. 

Here’s the process I like to use for my clients (and myself!):

1. Pick which newsletters you want to repurpose into blogs

Whipping up a great blog from an old newsletter works best when you’re picky in your selection process. When deciding which newsletters to repurpose into blogs, think about things like SEO potential, relevance to your offers, evergreen value, and how much engagement the original email got.

Not all newsletters are well-suited to become blog content, and that’s okay! Some emails can just stay emails. 🤷‍♀️

Ideally, you want to pick newsletters on topics that 1) your audience wants to hear about, 2) could bring traffic to your website, and 3) drive people to your offers.

Note: If you’re feeling overwhelmed trying to pick the “right” newsletters, my free Newsletter Repurposing Scorecard can help you evaluate the best repurposing opportunities hidden in your email archive.

2. Start with the newsletter as the first draft

Once you’ve picked a newsletter to repurpose, copy and paste it from your email platform into a fresh doc. This just makes it easier to see the email as a working draft and get into “writing mode.” 

Read through your newsletter from top to bottom and ask yourself: What's the one main takeaway? What problem does this solve for my audience? How does it tie in with how I help people in my business? That's your blog concept.

At this stage, it’s also a good idea to do some keyword research and see if there are any keywords with decent search volume you can target.

3. Strip out irrelevant and email-specific elements

Now that you’ve identified your blog concept and any SEO keywords you plan to target, it’s time to, well, de-emailify your email. 😉

Go through and strip out any personalization tags from your email provider, update or remove time-sensitive references, and check to make sure every link leads where it’s supposed to (and fix any sneaky broken ones).

You’ll also want to do a comb through of any CTAs in the email. Is the offer and actual CTA copy still relevant? Does it make sense in this blog post?

Consider your ultimate goal for the blog – whether it’s to get people to download your freebie and get on your email list, click on a resource, or inquire to work with you – and make sure the calls to action in the content align with that goal.

4. Add more depth and context

This is where the real magic happens! Newsletters are typically shorter and written in a more casual, intimate style than blog posts.

But because blog posts are often someone’s first introduction to you, adding more context and expanding to make the content more useful is key.

Examples of things you can add:

  • More detailed explanations of concepts you mentioned briefly

  • Tactical “how to” steps if it makes sense

  • Examples that illustrate your points better

The goal here isn’t to add more words just for the sake of it. But think about a new reader landing on your website and coming across this blog post – what do they need to know to solve their problem or answer their question?

5. Add headers and final formatting touches

The final step is making it all look like an actual blog post! Blog posts need clear structure to be SEO-friendly and skimmable, so go through your draft and identify the main points or sections. Make use of H2 and H3 headings to define these sections.

If you have related blogs on your website already, add internal links where relevant. And of course, don’t forget the introduction and conclusion!

All of these things can increase readability and help search engines understand what your content is about.

Your Newsletter and Blog Can Work Together

If you’re struggling to maintain consistency with both email and blogging, using your emails as first drafts to create evergreen blogs can make content creation feel easy and even FUN again!

Your newsletters are great for nurturing your current subscribers and building relationships. And your blog posts help you reach new people through search, establish your authority, and grow your credibility as a service provider.

So instead of treating these two channels as separate, think of them as working together towards the same goal. You can repurpose the same content for each to strategically target different stages of the customer journey WITHOUT burning out.

Ready to try this method to make your content creation more sustainable? Download my free Newsletter Repurposing Scorecard here to get started.

Stay Connected with Charlee of Sunny Send Up

Natalie Davis
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