Attempting to build and maintain your audience as a digital publisher is like trying to walk on unstable ground. You rely on social media and search to drive users to your website, but the status of these platforms is constantly evolving. From ownership changes to black-box algorithms and the changing tastes of users, every platform presents risk for organizations that depend on this traffic to deliver subscriptions, donations, and ad revenue.
While social media and search engines remain valuable communication channels for your organization, the truth is they will remain fickle drivers of audience growth and retention. One way to counter this instability and regain control is to lean into your newsletter strategy.
With the right foundation, your newsletter provides a means of establishing and maintaining a direct connection with your audience. Better still, it allows you to attract and retain readers without being subject to the whims and caprices of behemoth tech companies.
Unlike the boom-and-bust traffic fluctuations of social media where your content may be more visible at some times and less at others, a newsletter creates a direct connection between your audience and the content that interests them most. But before your organization can see the benefit of this reimagined form of home delivery, you have to know where you stand with your newsletter strategy. And, just as crucially, what your audience wants.
Auditing Your Organization’s Current Newsletter Approach
A strong newsletter strategy is a comprehensive effort that incorporates how you approach content, UX design, audience research, and data analytics. A thorough audit of your existing newsletter program provides a way for you and your teams to uncover strengths and identify areas of improvement.
Assess Your Current Offerings
Take stock of your portfolio:
- How many newsletters do you currently produce?
- What topics do they cover? Are there content gaps?
- How often does each newsletter go out?
Evaluate User Data and Analytics
Examine key metrics for each newsletter:
- Open rates: Are subscribers interested in what you send?
- Click-through rates: What content resonates most?
- Website traffic: How much do newsletters contribute to overall readership?
Analyze Editorial Workflows
Organizations like news outlets and nonprofits are already stretched thin by a need to satisfy multiple editorial priorities. Map out your current processes.
Consider the following:
- Who’s involved in creating each newsletter?
- Does your team have significant pain points that impact production?
- Is your current newsletter platform user-friendly?
- Does the platform integrate with your CMS?
- How much time do you spend on manual tasks that could be automated?
Revisit Design and Branding
The look and functionality of your newsletter is an extension of your brand:
- Is your newsletter design visually appealing?
- Is the design aligned with your overall identity?
- Is the layout easy to read and scannable?
- Does the newsletter render well across different devices and email clients?
Consider Voice and Perspective
The tone of your newsletter(s) will significantly impact engagement:
- Does your newsletter come from your institution or individual contributors?
- Would a more personal, bylined approach better connect with your audience?
- Is there consistency in voice and tone across different newsletters?
How to Optimize User Flow for Newsletter Signups
Developing a seamless user experience on your website is a crucial component of growing and retaining your newsletter subscriber base. High-traffic landing pages and article pages should include visible calls-to-action for newsletter sign-ups.
In our work with the National Council on Aging (NCOA), we redesigned and repositioned a global newsletter CTA across and created right rail “house ad” slots that could be used to encourage newsletter signups. The initiative worked and NCOA boosted signups by 210%.
But your audience outreach doesn’t stop there. Do you have a dedicated newsletter landing page that showcases all your offerings? Such a page presents opportunities to further connect with users and illustrate what they can expect upon signup.
Take Politico’s newsletter landing page as a good example. As you’d expect, it includes prominent calls to action to sign up along with a recent version of each newsletter within the list of their offerings. The Chicago Sun-Times uses eye-catching tiles with functionality that gives users the option to subscribe to more newsletters with a single click.
Even as you raise the profile of your organization’s newsletter, you have to consider each effort within the wider context of your entire website. For example, some organizations leverage pop-ups or slide-in “trays” to promote signups. While effective, these can inadvertently conflict with ad positions or donation CTAs. You need to ensure your promotion tactics don’t impact user experience or other engagement and revenue initiatives.
Your Audience Can Help You Create a Stronger Newsletter
Whether you’re launching a topic-specific newsletter or aiming to expand the reach of your flagship offering, it’s important to understand what your readers want. Audience research is a crucial tool for aligning your efforts with their interests and how they consume your content.
Audience Surveys and Interviews Reveal Vital Insights
If it’s been several years since you last talked with your readers about your newsletters (or if you’ve never talked to them), start by distributing a survey among current subscribers. A series of in-depth interviews with select readers also provides valuable insights into what your organization is doing right—and what you can do better.
You can compare the results of this research with what you learned from your own audit and in-house discussions. Does audience feedback align with what you found? Does it diverge from what you expected?
The Value of an Agile Newsletter Strategy
The digital landscape shifts rapidly — that’s something publishers understand better than anyone. Keep your newsletter approach flexible. Along with applying what you learn from your audience, adopt an agile mindset and continually refine your efforts based on real-world performance.
Keep a watchful eye on subject lines, content choices, and when you send the newsletter as these all play a role in how it performs. From analytics, you will learn what is or isn’t sticking and, in response, you can make changes and continue iterating toward a newsletter that’s tuned to your audience’s needs.
When your newsletter strategy is solidified with a streamlined publication process, you’ve gained a valuable connection with your most engaged readers. Though you still need to monitor and adapt to the whims of search and social media, a comprehensive newsletter strategy does more than distribute content. It also builds relationships with your audience.
From auditing where you stand to optimizing your website and newsletter content to ensuring you have the technology and people power in place to make a newsletter strategy happen, the next steps are an ongoing commitment. However, the results deliver deeper reader engagement and provide a foundation for sustained audience engagement and growth.
If this sounds like a strategy that will work for your audience, we should talk.