How to build a community through newsletters with Sophie Hansen

The Content Byte

Newsletters are big bikkies right now - so how do you create one that people want to open week after week? In this episode, that’s a question we put to Sophie Hansen, creator of the Monday morning missive 5 Things To Be Cheerful About. Sophie shares the story of starting the newsletter, why she chose the format she did, and how she grew her audience. Plus, if you’re considering starting your own newsletter, you’ll get Sophie’s great tips and advice on how to do it and get that all-important momentum.

About Sophie

Sophie Hansen was born and raised in Sydney, and now lives with her family (husband Tim, daughter Alice 13, son Tom 11) on their deer farm just outside of Orange in country New South Wales. She trained in print journalism (at the University of Canberra) and has over 20 years experience as a features writer and content creator.

She is currently writing her fourth book, her third In Good Company is to be published by Murdoch Books in April 2021.

Her second cookbook, A Basket by the Door, is in its fourth reprint and widely distributed around the world.

She spent three years working with Slow Food Editore in Northern Italy in her twenties and for the past ten years has been sharing recipes and social media tips on her two blogs Local is Lovely and My Open Kitchen.

She also teaches social media and content marketing to producers and small businesses across Australia. In 2016 she was awarded Australian Rural Woman of the Year (via the Federal Government’s Agrifutures initiative) in recognition of her commitment to rural communities.

This week we chat to Sophie about:

• Why she decided to start 5 Things To Be Cheerful About
• How she went about bringing the newsletter together, designing a template and choosing the whole look’n’feel
• What her process is for collating the items and writing it
• How she’s built up her subscriber base and grown her newsletter community
• What a typical day looks like for her
• How the newsletter is an important piece of the marketing puzzle
• What it’s like being a freelancer in rural Australia
• Her advice for anyone thinking of starting a newsletter.

Where to find Sophie

Local is Lovely website local-lovely.com

5 Things To Be Cheerful About Subscribe here

LocalLovely Instagram www.instagram.com/locallovely

A Basket By the Door Buy here

5 Things to be Cheerful About Podcast