How to choose the topic for a newsletter: the general sector [Build in public #1]

A business works if it sells the solution to a problem.

No problem, no business… No money.

That’s true also for newsletters with a profit goal.
They are the best format to nurture your audience. But will you be able to transform yours in a business?

Back in February with my business partner Alberto we decided that it was time for us to start a newsletter in English.

We had one in Italian since 2014. But we wanted to expand in a more international market.

In this and the following posts I will describe how we chose the topic of our new newsletter We Who Think.

We used a 3 steps method:

1. first we chose a general sector,
2. then we made a list of our readers’ pains,
3. in the end we defined the topic around the most monetizable problems.

The choice of a general sector

We started from this fact: “customers (and readers) care only about their problems”.

And if you ever tried to sell you had the proof of this fact. [Anyway if you’re not convinced of this, I’m happy to talk about it in the comments.]

To make our newsletter relevant for new subscribers we needed painful problems.

Now, choosing them out of thin air is a never-ending process. So we started by restricting the field.
Not too much, for this first step we evaluated only possible general sectors. We defined each option with one or two common words.

A general sector has to be broad, common and enjoyable.

• Venetian Renaissance -> Big NO!
• Art -> Yes.

Alberto and I started from these options:

• personal development,
• personal finance,
• marketing (our Italian newsletter is on this, so we already had content),
• parenthood (Alberto is father of a 1 year old child).

Every general sector works as the starting step to define a profitable topic for a newsletter. On my podcast I interviewed over 200 entrepreneurs (sorry it’s awesome, but only in Italian). I’ve seen businesses work in every sector. And the Italian market is tiny compared with the whole English speaking web.

So we didn’t think about the “right” sector.

We choose based on our common passions.

I’m not a father, yet. So: parenthood.

Alberto wasn’t much interested in personal finance.

And we wanted to start something new. Copying our previous content looked boring. So: marketing.

We decide to focus on: personal development.

Like I said: something common, broad and enjoyable.

[In the next posts I will describe how we chose the specific topic of our newsletter]