5
Newsletter Strategies that Work Now: Focus on
Content, Subs, Ads, Web 2.0
SUMMARY: B2B email newsletters
face a broad advertising slump and challenges
from social media and Web 2.0 technologies. But
they remain a strong business model for
connecting advertisers with a targeted audience.
Listen to some top enewsletter publishers to
discover the content, subscriber acquisition and
advertising strategies that work for them.
Includes tips on:
o Promoting performance-based advertising
options
o Developing co-registration offers to generate
revenue
o Providing must-read content
o Adapting to the rise of Web 2.0 and social
media channels
Online publishing continues to evolve, but email
newsletters remain a vital source of information
for business professionals who want to stay on
top of news and trends in their industries.
For example, 67% of technology decision makers
said they read email newsletters at least
monthly, according to MarketingSherpa’s 2008
Business Technology Benchmark Guide. That’s a
larger percentage than that of people who say
they read traditional newspapers, print trade
publications, or general business magazines
monthly.
To serve that audience, for-profit publishers
have found a healthy niche providing email
newsletters focused on industries or job
description (often in partnership with industry
associations) that are supported by advertisers
who want to reach those valuable readers. But,
with a slumping economy, a questionable
advertising market, and growing competition from
interactive content sources, we wanted to hear
how newsletter publishers are managing
subscriber and revenue growth.
We spoke with three top B2B email newsletter
publishers: Custom Briefings, FierceMarkets, and
SmartBrief. Each said that the advertising
slowdown hasn’t hurt them as much as it has
print publishers and other traditional media
sources. They cite several strategies they’ve
used to adapt to market conditions.
Here are their top five insights:
Insight #1. Build on direct-response
advertising
B2B email newsletter publishers say the downturn
that’s affecting print B2B publications hasn’t
hit their publications yet. They credit their
relative strength to three factors:
1. Targeted focus of their publications on
desirable prospects
2. Emphasis on direct-response advertising that
is highly measurable
3. Subscriber growth in existing and new
products
Here are three tips the publishers offered to
position their newsletters as attractive
advertising channels in a slowing economy:
Tip #1. Provide robust advertising
performance data
In a shaky economy, advertisers tend to focus on
highly-measureable, performance-based channels
rather than cost-per-impression models offered
by online display and print advertising. Email
newsletter advertising matches that need by
providing advertisers cost-per-lead or
cost-per-acquisition campaigns that use webinar
or white paper offers to capture leads from
newsletter audiences.
That format, combined with the opt-in details
they collect from their subscribers, allows
publishers to provide advertisers a wealth of
campaign data not available in print or online
display campaigns, such as:
o Cost per click
o Cost per lead
o Companies that have clicked on ads
o Analysis respondents by position or job
description
“We’re selling advertising that looks like
advertising, but acts like direct marketing,”
says Rick Stamberger, CEO, SmartBrief.
Tip #2. Coordinate email newsletters with
broader campaigns
For publishers who run a website, events or
other products in conjunction with their email
newsletters, the benefits of the direct-response
model multiply when email is included in an
advertising portfolio.
For example, FierceMarkets maintains websites
and hosts events for its 24 publications. As a
result, they can offer advertisers
lead-generation campaigns that incorporate a
presence in multiple properties, such as a
newsletter ad, a white paper hosted on the
website, and a webinar sponsorship.
“The advertiser may ask for 500 leads, and
they’ll get some from a webinar, some from the
email newsletter, and some from a white paper,”
says Sean Griffey, COO, FierceMarkets. “You need
to tie the whole campaign together.”
Tip #3. Offer horizontal reach to advertisers
The industry focus of B2B email newsletters is
what attracts many advertisers. But publishers
that maintain newsletters across several
industries also can look at their horizontal
reach.
For example, SmartBrief found that 57% of their
newsletter readers are at the VP level and
above. The team is finalizing new targeting
software that will let advertisers target their
campaigns by demographic metrics, such as title
or buying power, and then serve ads across
multiple industry titles.
Insight #2. Co-registration is better than
list rental
Renting lists to third-party advertisers and
list brokers has long been a revenue source for
B2B publishers. But the practice can threaten a
publisher’s relationship with subscribers, and
takes the control over third-party advertising
out of their hands.
Instead, consider co-registration deals with
suitable partners. The technique allows a
publisher to select offers that are relevant to
their subscriber base and promote them as a
value-added service during the newsletter
sign-up process.
For example, FierceMarkets uses a
co-registration model that ties in to their
search marketing campaigns to serve relevant
offers. Here’s an example of how it works:
- A third-party company offering online training
for life sciences professionals may be
interested in the same audience that reads
FierceBiotech.
- The FierceBiotech team would create a new
co-registration landing page that offers
subscribers the chance to sign up for online
training from the life sciences partners.
- During a PPC campaign to promote the
FierceBiotech newsletter, the team would examine
keywords used to find their newsletter sign-up
offer. Searchers whose queries reflect an
interest in education and training would be
taken to a landing page that captures their
newsletter sign-up, and offers them a training
course from the education partner.
- FierceMarkets shares in the revenue generated
from the sale of that training program.
“Instead of blindly selling names to a
third-party list broker, think of
co-registration as a way to offer highly
relevant material or content for your audience,”
says Griffey.
Insight #3. Make editorial quality the focus
of your content strategy
The rise of automated news aggregation services,
such as Google News, and technologies, such as
RSS feeds, have pressured newsletter publishers
to demonstrate the value they provide to
subscribers. To attract and retain subscribers,
and keep them opening email newsletters,
publishers have to create content that goes
beyond simple aggregation.
Here are three tactics for adding value to
newsletter content:
#1. Provide analysis and context
FierceMarkets uses their own team of editors to
summarize and analyze the news reports collected
in their industry newsletters. Those summaries
help subscribers understand what the news means
for their industry before clicking on a link
that goes to the source of the news article.
#2. Offer a broad scope
Custom Briefings uses a large team of editors to
monitor a range of media outlets that an
individual couldn’t manage on their own. Each
daily briefing contains a detailed summary of
the day’s top news for a given industry, but
pulls unique aspects from multiple reports to
create a comprehensive record of how the media
is covering that particular story.
“We write a story that allows the reader to
understand what’s being reported broadly, and
then highlight the unique pieces of information
that each source has,” says Erik McGunnigle,
Senior VP, Business Operations, Custom
Briefings.
#3. Be a trusted filter
With so much information now available from
traditional news outlets, blogs, industry
research firms, corporate newsletters, and other
sources, email newsletters can perform the
valuable task of sorting through the clutter.
SmartBrief builds on their reputation as a
filter of industry news by continually expanding
the types of articles it includes in their
newsletters. Recently, the team has begun
working with content sources that are not
typically aggregated on the Web, such as
peer-reviewed journals, to incorporate those
articles into their newsletters.
Insight #4. Work internally and externally to
grow subscriber lists
Compared to broad, consumer publishers, B2B
publishers face the challenge of having a
relatively limited pool of potential subscribers
for their niche newsletters. By working within
their existing subscriber base and partnering
with outside organizations, however, B2B
newsletter publishers have several avenues to
help attract new opt-ins.
Here are three successful tactics:
#1. Viral growth through subscriber pass-alongs
Creating a simple and prominent way to forward
newsletters to a friend or colleague is still a
top way to gain new subscribers. Both
FierceMarkets and SmartBrief include links at
the bottom of each item summary in their
newsletters that allow readers to forward those
articles to a friend.
- SmartBrief employs a large button with the
text “Email this story” at the bottom of each
article.
#2. Cross-promotion of additional, relevant
titles to new subscribers
Publishers with a large portfolio of
industry-focused newsletters can promote
additional titles that are relevant to each
subscriber, based on job description or
sub-niches within a broader topic.
- For example, FierceMarkets offers four titles
in the Enterprise IT space that present a broad
industry overview, as well as a deeper focus
into industry topics. A subscriber of FierceCIO,
for example, may also be interested in
FierceMobileIT, which focuses on wireless
technology in a business setting.
- SmartBrief has introduced horizontal briefs
that are focused on professional issues that
affect any industry, such as the SmartBrief on
Leadership.
The team created a two-step sign-up process for
those horizontal newsletters; it collects
contact and company information about the
subscriber, and then offers a second page
promoting a relevant industry-specific
newsletter for that subscriber.
#3. Partnerships with industry event
promoters
Publishers can reach out to promoters of
industry events, such as trade shows, that
appeal to the same audience as their
newsletters. For example, FierceMarkets partners
with major industry events in two ways:
- Co-registration deals that offer a one-month
trial of a FierceMarkets newsletter to attendees
as part of the event registration process.
- Sponsorship of networking events held during
industry trade shows.
Insight #5. View rise of social media and Web
2.0 as an opportunity
With the growth of blogs, social networking
sites, RSS and mobile technology, potential
subscribers of email newsletters have a wealth
of new information sources outside their inbox.
But savvy email newsletter publishers should
recognize the growth of these channels as an
opportunity, not as a threat.
- The increasing amount of information makes the
need for filtering and analysis even more
important for busy professionals, say
publishers.
“When we started this company nine-plus years
ago… we did not have blogs, RSS, widgets and
social networks,” says Stamberger. “The only
thing that hasn’t changed in that time period is
the space between your left and right ears.”
- Top industry blogs are a source of news,
analysis and commentary.
Publishers that are committed to providing the
best and most relevant industry content for
their subscribers must include links to blogs if
they contain some of the best coverage on a
particular topic.
“We know readers can go anywhere to find news,
so we’re not going to pretend that we are their
only source for commentary and analysis,” says
Griffey.
- Interactivity and customization are becoming
the standard for online content.
Although email remains a push format, newsletter
publishers must evolve to provide subscribers
with more interactivity. FierceMarkets already
allows subscribers to comment on newsletter
articles. Stamberger at SmartBrief anticipates
more efforts on behalf of publishers to help
manage their content, customize selection of
articles, and share them with other people.
“I suspect that you’ll see more of that in the
year to come,” says Stamberger.
(Source: MarketingSherpa.com)
SK Kor
Internet Marketing Consultant
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