You’ve heard it countless times — newsletters are where it’s at, especially for a small business with an even smaller marketing budget. But where do you start?

The book club met again in July to review David Hieatt’s Do Open: How a simple email newsletter can transform your business.

Hieatt’s grown a global jeans business with a marketing strategy that’s based around a simple email newsletter. In this book, he promises to teach you how to build your own brand and drive long-term growth via email marketing.

Hieatt is the co-founder of Hiut Denim Co. and The Do Lectures. This book is one of many in the Do Books collection, which includes Do Purpose, also by Hieatt, and more books by other authors.

So what did we think of Do Open?

The Book Club reviews Do Open, by David Hieatt

Unlike most business books we’ve read, this was beautifully designed. Lots of graphics/photos and space. Plus, it was short. As Suz said, "I loved the layout. It was really easy to read. I sometimes find, with work-related books, there's no time in my working days, it's done after hours and I don't always have the capacity to digest it, but this was really easy to read, which I loved."

"It's interesting how a lot of the advice is just generally good business advice. Like knowing who your customer is so then you know what they're gonna be interested in, and how to speak to them and how to write it. Those fundamentals apply to every aspect of your business," said Molly.

Suz agreed, "The stuff that I loved from the book could be applied to any element of the digital marketing practice. It’s going to take time before it's good and before it works. Engagement and community are more important than the numbers, and that's what I would say to social media clients too. I've actually bought a few copies for clients because the principles David talks about throughout the book were really good."

Barney said, "As a copywriter, I spend a lot of my time writing email newsletters for my clients. It confirmed the hell out of a lot of stuff, a lot of what I tell my clients, and it was nice to read coming from him, who does this on such a large scale."

Sophie added, "I've been writing newsletters for quite a long time and I'm actually in a place now where I want to start a new one or consolidate. The book was short but it was packed full of practical advice."

Helen added, "It's great that it only takes an hour and a half to listen to the audiobook in one go, but that's not really how you're supposed to do it, I don’t think. It's not that kind of book. I think it's designed that you're supposed to read each short section and then think after them."

Steve said, "There was a section on ‘10 steps to finding your voice,’ it was 3 pages, and I thought that those 3 pages were better than some of the books we've read! It was only 3 pages, but that could have been a business book in itself. This book was short, but maybe some business books are longer than they need to be."

How the book inspired us

Heidi said, "I have a newsletter and last year I was so proud of myself because I did my newsletter every single month, no matter what, and this year I have not done it at all!”

"I would put a lot into it and I almost felt like I was playing to an invisible audience. I think that's why I got frustrated this year and I let it lapse. But I'm getting ready to start it up again and I wanted to wait until today to get some advice, be a little sponge and absorb everything that everyone says before I started it back up again," Heidi added.

Olivia said, "In terms of a newsletter taking a lot of time, I think one thing that you can do is try to let go of perfectionism, which is hard, admittedly. There's a checklist in the book to help you make sure that everything you're doing is right, and I'm not necessarily following all of those steps yet, but I probably should be."

Peter explained, "I'm going full-time freelance at the end of this month as an illustrator and this book has come at the perfect time. It's reinforced that you're always looking for new clients and a newsletter is a great way to keep in touch. I'm right at the beginning, I don't even have a newsletter yet, but to get people to jump in now and come on the journey with me is what I'm telling myself I need to do."

Leyla said, "I'm a designer and I've spent much of my time employed designing and building newsletters for other people. So I've got all of the design best practices, but it was interesting to come at it from content and curation. I said I wasn't going to do a newsletter, I'd had enough of them, but after reading this book, I'm going to do one. It's been powerful in that sense, the advice makes a lot of sense."

Would we recommend the book?

Yes! Everyone agreed that it was a useful, well-designed book that left us inspired to either start a newsletter or refresh our approach.

Also, if you tend to read in the bath (and this might be a niche point, but still…) Suz accidentally tested it out and you’ll be pleased to hear: “It is a very robust book and dried super quick with minimal damage!”

If you need help with your email marketing, get yourself a copy of Do Open and dig in!

But Do.. be careful where you read it.

Join us for the next book club via the Facebook community

Thanks so much to these BFFs for turning up and sharing their thoughts on the book!

Ece Kurtaraner, events and community manager, ecekurtaraner.com

Tom Garfield, healthcare marketer, tomgarfield.co.uk

Molly Scanlan, web designer, mollygetsitdone.com

Heidi Horchler, artist and illustrator, heidhorch.com

Sophie Cross, copywriter and magazine editor, freelancermagazine.co.uk

Alex McLean, web designer, mcleancreative.co.uk

Leyla Alexander, brand & graphic designer, leylaalexander.com

Peter Gray, illustrator, bigappetiteillustration.com

Barney Harsent, copywriter, LinkedIn

Olivia Vandyk, communications strategist, LinkedIn

Suz Bird, social media strategist, birdandemmy.co.uk

Charles Commins, podcast producer, Twitter

Helen Hill, digital learning and content designer, unlikelygenius.com

Silvia Martin, SEO consultant, LinkedIn

Other books and stuff we’d recommend

The Do Lectures

Being Freelance Q&A with Paul Jarvis and Kate Toon

Tribes, by Seth Godin

Copywriting Is..., by Andrew Boulton

Steal Like an Artist, by Austin Kleon

Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon

Previously in the book club

Anti-sell, by Steve Morgan (highlights here)

This is Marketing, by Seth Godin (highlights here)

The Freelance Introvert, by Tom Albrighton (highlights here)

The 20% Rule, by Catherine Gladwyn (highlights here)

Survival Skills for Freelancers, by Sarah Townsend (highlights here)

Hype Yourself, by Lucy Werner (highlights here)

Company of One, by Paul Jarvis (highlights here)

The 12-Week Year, by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington (highlights here).

(Some of the links to books on this page are affiliate. If you click one and purchase within 24 hours, some pennies come in to help keep Being Freelance in biscuits. Thanks for the support!)

Summary by Sophie Livingston.