Engaging Email Newsletters Strategy and Tactics Email is one of the - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Engaging Email Newsletters

Strategy and Tactics

Email is one of the biggest

• pportunities in the digital

space — and most people aren’t talking about it.

Let’s discuss...

• Why should I invest in email?
• How do I make emails that readers love?
• Which email products should I launch next?
• How do I measure success with email?

Why should I invest in email?

Email is a tool for building relationships.

There isn’t a single entity or algorithm that controls email. If you can get a reader’s email address, you can build a relationship with them for the long haul.

What’s this presentation about? Use this slide to introduce yourself and give a high level overview of the topic you’re about to explain.

Email is a living room.

Subscribers allow in a handful of lucky guests — family, friends, and maybe your brand. Take advantage of the 1-to-1 nature of the inbox.

What’s this presentation about? Use this slide to introduce yourself and give a high level overview of the topic you’re about to explain.

Email is a cross- functional tool.

Email plays a key role in every part of your growth strategy:

• Driving traffic
• Growing your audience
• Building habit
• Increasing loyalty
• Reducing churn
• Converting readers to

subscribers

Email is an engine that drives revenue for your org.

You can use email to:

• Get more readers to

your site.

• Build a relationship with

these readers and convert them to subscribers, donors, or members.

• Make sure these readers

keep supporting your work year after year.

How do I make emails that readers love?

How do I make emails that readers love?

Rule #1: Content is king, but distribution is queen (and she wears the pants)

Rule #2: Create habits and routines

How do I make emails that readers love?

Rule #3: Start with a building block

• Identity
• Service
• Utility
• Personality

How do I make emails that readers love?

Rule #4: Trust is hard to win and easy to lose

How do I make emails that readers love?

Rule #5: Direction is more important than speed

How do I make emails that readers love?

Which email products should I launch next?

Traffic-driving newsletters

These are newsletters primarily designed to drive readers to your site to read a story.

Destination Newsletters

These are newsletters designed to be read in the

• inbox. They sometimes link
• ut to your site, but the

primary goal is deliver value for a reader without requiring them to click.

Alerts

These are emails that alert a reader when a certain type of story (i.e. breaking news, or a new article from a featured writer) is published.

Courses

These are an automated series of emails that get triggered after a certain

• action. They’re designed to

teach you a new skill, habit,

• r lesson. If a reader signs

up today, tomorrow, or a year from now, they’ll receive the Course in full.

Pop-up products

These are newsletters that

• nly run for a limited time.

They’re products designed to inform or educate around a specific event.

1.) Launch a daily newsletter

A great daily newsletter:

• Builds habit
• Drives daily

engagement

• Can be incredibly

effective at converting casual readers to paying supporters

• Can help reduce churn

2.) Launch an

• nboarding

series

A great onboarding series:

• Establishes a

relationship with the reader

• Guides that reader

through the next steps

• n their journey
• Drives engagement

from Day 1

• Improves inbox

placement for your newsletters

3.) Launch a personality- driven product

The best personality- driven newsletters:

• Showcase unique

voices in your newsroom

• Reinforce the value of

your organization

• Are built around

serving specific audiences — not verticals

Let’s workshop!

Audiences / Identities

• Who your readers are
• What they care about
• What they do
• What they like / dislike

Jobs / Services

• What readers need from you
• What you do uniquely well

Next steps

• Take what you’ve

learned here and apply it to your newsletters

• Audience + Job +

Building Block = ?

Go to bit.ly/newsletterworkshop to download the worksheet

How do I measure success with email?

How do I measure success with email?

• Start with open rate — but focus on unique open

rate.

○ Unique open rate measures the unique number of subscribers on your email list who opened a specific email, and tends to be far more accurate than total open rate. ○ Check with your ESP to understand how they calculate open rate, since it varies by ESP.

How do I measure success with email?

• Other metrics to monitor:

○ Monthly list growth — How much an individual email list grew this month. ○ Click-to-open rate — The percentage of readers who opened an email and clicked on at least one link. ○ The percentage of readers who open 50%+ of newsletters per month — The percentage of readers who are habitual readers of your newsletter.

How do I measure success with email?

• Other metrics to monitor:

○ Engaged minutes per newsletter — The amount of time that readers spend on your site after clicking through from a newsletter. ■ Unfortunately, tracking engaged minutes inside your newsletter is nearly impossible to do at this time.

How do I measure success with email?

• Other metrics to monitor:

○ Mobile open rates — The percentage of readers who open an email on a mobile device. ○ Clicks/1000 —How much traffic a newsletter drives for every 1,000 emails sent. ○ Conversions to paid — What percentage of your newsletter audience converts and becomes a paying supporter of your news

• rganization.

2020newsletterchecklist.com

Five steps to improving your email program in 2020

2020newsletterchecklist.com

Register there, and I’ll send you the full checklist + slides!

notanewsletter.com dan@inboxcollective.com