You know how they say email marketing is dead? Well I’m here to tell you that’s just plain wrong.
In fact I’ve recently discovered a secret weapon in the marketing world and it’s not some fancy new social media platform it’s the good old-fashioned email newsletter.
How We Built a Powerhouse Email Newsletter (100000+ Weekly Readers)
Let me tell you it’s not just about sending out a bunch of promotional emails and hoping for the best.
This is about building a relationship with your audience providing them with valuable content and turning them into loyal brand advocates.
Think about it this way a newsletter is like a little community a safe space where you can share your expertise connect with your audience and build trust.
And trust me building trust is key in today’s online world.
The Power of a Well-Crafted Newsletter
We’ve been running a newsletter at Empire Flippers for a while now but it wasn’t always a powerhouse.
It used to be a pretty basic “here’s our latest content” kind of thing.
We were missing the mark big time.
We realized we needed to step up our game so we set out to revamp our newsletter and turn it into a true asset for our business.
We wanted to build a community provide valuable information and create a platform where we could connect with our audience on a deeper level.
Defining Your Newsletter Goals
The first step was to define our goals.
What did we want to achieve with our newsletter? We had to be clear about our intentions.
I’ve identified five main goals that a newsletter can help you achieve:
1. Boosting Content Performance
Your newsletter can be a powerful tool for promoting your content on other channels.
Think about it: You have a great YouTube video but it’s struggling to get views.
Sharing that video in your newsletter can give it a much-needed boost.
The same goes for your blog posts podcasts and webinars.
You can leverage your newsletter to drive traffic to your other content increase engagement and ultimately expand your reach.
Important Metrics to Track:
- Click-through rate: How many people are clicking on the links in your newsletter?
- Social shares: How many people are sharing your content on social media after reading it in your newsletter?
- Video views: How many people are watching your videos after clicking on the link in your newsletter?
2. Building a Strong Community
If you have a community a newsletter is a fantastic way to keep members connected and engaged.
Share updates on community events highlight popular conversations and showcase the vibrant energy of your community.
This is also a great way to attract new members by giving them a taste of what your community is all about.
Important Metrics to Track:
- Open rate: Are people opening your emails and reading your content?
- Website traffic: How many people are visiting your community site after reading your newsletter?
- Social media engagement: How many people are interacting with your community posts after reading your newsletter?
3. Improving Customer Retention
For SaaS companies a newsletter can be a vital tool for improving customer retention.
Keep your customers informed about the latest features in your software and show them how they can get the most out of your product.
This ongoing communication is a great way to ensure customers are satisfied and feel valued.
Important Metrics to Track:
- Customer satisfaction surveys: Are customers happy with your product and service?
- Feature adoption rate: Are customers using the new features you’ve launched?
- Churn rate: Are customers leaving your service?
4. Increasing Sales and Revenue
A newsletter can be a powerful tool for promoting new products offers and sales.
It’s a direct line to your audience allowing you to keep them informed and engaged with your latest offerings.
Important Metrics to Track:
- Conversion rate: How many people are making a purchase after clicking on a link in your newsletter?
- Sales revenue: How much revenue are you generating from your newsletter campaigns?
- Average order value: How much are customers spending per order after reading your newsletter?
5. Building a Brand Love Newsletter
This is where things get really interesting.
A brand love newsletter is all about nurturing your audience and building a long-term relationship with them.
Instead of focusing on immediate sales this type of newsletter aims to educate and entertain your readers sharing valuable content that builds trust and loyalty.
Important Metrics to Track:
- Open rate: Are people opening your emails and reading your content?
- Read rate: Are people reading your entire newsletter?
- Feedback: What do readers think of your content?
Crafting a Winning Newsletter Strategy
Once you have a clear understanding of your goals it’s time to start crafting your newsletter strategy.
We spent a good quarter doing research and preparation for our newsletter launch.
We analyzed countless newsletters in our industry and beyond looking at everything from their content and formatting to their tone and style.
The Anatomy of a Winning Newsletter
We broke down the successful newsletters we analyzed paying close attention to the following key elements:
Content Strategy
- Content mix: What types of content did they include (blog posts videos podcasts industry news etc.)?
- Content format: How did they present their content (short summaries full articles excerpts etc.)?
- Content origin: Was it their own content or content from other sources?
Formatting and Text
- Layout: What design elements did they use (images graphics bullet points etc.)?
- Sentence and paragraph structure: Was the writing concise and easy to read?
- Word count: How long were the emails and how much information did they include?
Consistency and Tonality
- Frequency: How often did they send out newsletters?
- Consistency: Did they maintain a consistent format and style?
- Tonality: What was the overall tone of the newsletter (informative casual humorous etc.)?
Promotion and Engagement
- Internal promotion: How did they use their website and social media to promote the newsletter?
- External promotion: Did they use paid advertising or organic marketing to reach new audiences?
- Engagement: Did they include calls to action encourage comments or run contests?
Building the Back-End of Your Newsletter
As we were conducting our research we were also setting up the back-end of our email system.
We use HubSpot as our CRM tool so we integrated our newsletter into the platform to connect the newsletter data with our customer data.
This integration allows us to:
- Track newsletter performance metrics (open rates click-through rates etc.)
- Segment our audience based on their interests and engagement
- Personalize our content to individual readers
Essential Email Metrics to Track
Beyond the standard email metrics (open rate click-through rate read rate) we also track:
- Unsubscribe rate: Are people unsubscribing from your newsletter?
- Bounce rate: Are your emails bouncing back because they’re going to invalid addresses?
- Spam complaints: Are people marking your emails as spam?
- Click map: Where are people clicking in your emails?
- Time on page: How long are people spending on the pages you link to in your newsletter?
These metrics provide valuable insights into how readers are interacting with our newsletter and help us make informed decisions about our content and formatting.
Creating Your First Newsletter
Once we had our research complete and our back-end systems set up we were ready to launch our first newsletter.
We created a template established clear writing guidelines and sent out our first email.
This Week in M&A: Our Brand Love Newsletter
Our newsletter This Week in M&A is a weekly email that provides the latest news trends and insights on the online business mergers and acquisitions (M&A) industry.
We scour the web for the best stories analyze industry trends and share valuable insights that help our readers stay ahead of the curve.
A Deep Dive into Our Newsletter
Here’s a breakdown of the sections we include in each newsletter:
Trend of the Week
We start each email with a trending topic in the online business world providing context and potential business ideas.
Here’s an example of a recent trend:
Trending Topic: The Rise of Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
- Context: DeFi is a new movement that’s changing the way we think about finance.
- Business Ideas: How can entrepreneurs leverage DeFi to build new business models?
Marketplace Data
We share data from our marketplace highlighting key trends in online business sales.
Here’s an example of the data we share:
- Average sale price: This week the average sale price for online businesses was $XXXXXX.
- Most popular industry: The most popular industry for online business sales this week was .
- Top-performing listing: This week the top-performing listing was which sold for $XXXXXX.
Big Story
We feature a big news story in the online business world.
Here’s an example of a recent big story:
Big Story: Google Announces New Search Algorithm Update
- Summary: Google’s latest algorithm update focuses on providing users with more relevant and high-quality search results.
- Analysis: How will this update affect online businesses? What can businesses do to optimize their websites for the new algorithm?
Opportunity Podcast Episode
We highlight a recent episode from our Opportunity podcast providing key takeaways from the interview.
Here’s an example of a podcast excerpt:
Podcast Episode: Interview with
- Key Takeaway: shared their insights on and the importance of .
- Quote: “”
Hidden Gem Listing
We feature a special listing from our marketplace highlighting its strengths and unique selling points.
Here’s an example of a recent hidden gem listing:
Hidden Gem:
- Strengths: is a profitable that’s perfect for an entrepreneur looking to enter the market.
- Unique Selling Points: The business has a loyal customer base strong brand recognition and a proven track record of success.
Secondary Stories
These sections feature content from other brands and sources industry news or our own content channels.
Here’s an example of a recent secondary story:
News Story:
- Summary:
- Impact: This news story will likely impact .
Company Updates
We share updates about our company including hiring announcements service updates and speaking engagements.
Here’s an example of a recent company update:
Company Update:
- Details:
Living La Vida Nomad
We showcase the nomadic culture of our team by sharing photos from our travels.
Here’s an example of a recent Living La Vida Nomad section:
Living La Vida Nomad:
- Photo:
Meme of the Week
We end each newsletter with a funny meme related to the online business world.
Here’s an example of a recent Meme of the Week:
Meme of the Week:
- Meme:
Feedback Section
We encourage readers to share their feedback on our newsletter.
Feedback Section:
- Questions: We’d love to hear what you think! What content are you most interested in? What would you like to see more of?
- Suggestions: We’re always looking for ways to improve our newsletter. Do you have any suggestions?
The Story Atom: A Framework for Crafting Compelling Content
To ensure our newsletter is packed with valuable content I developed a framework called the Story Atom.
This framework helps us identify and evaluate content based on four key elements:
- Important: Is this content essential for our readers to know?
- Actionable: Can readers apply this information to their own lives or businesses?
- Relevant: Does this content directly relate to our readers’ interests and needs?
- Interesting: Does this content engage the reader and make them want to learn more?
The Story Atom in Action
Here’s how we apply the Story Atom to crafting compelling content:
- Identifying Important Content: We consider how big the story is and how much it will impact our readers’ lives.
- Finding Actionable Content: We look for content that provides practical advice step-by-step guides or actionable insights.
- Focusing on Relevance: We tailor our content to specific reader personas and ensure we’re covering a variety of interests.
- Adding a Touch of Interest: We make our content engaging and memorable by incorporating storytelling elements anecdotes and humor.
The Art of Copywriting for Engagement
The Story Atom is just one part of the equation.
To truly capture the attention of our readers we need to write copy that is engaging informative and persuasive.
Here are some key principles I follow when writing for our newsletter:
- Know Your Audience: Understanding your audience’s interests challenges and goals is crucial for writing copy they’ll connect with.
- Use a Conversational Tone: Write in a friendly and approachable style that feels like you’re having a conversation with your reader.
- Be Concise and Clear: Get to the point quickly and use clear and concise language.
- Incorporate Storytelling: Use stories and anecdotes to make your content more engaging and memorable.
- Add a Touch of Personality: Let your personality shine through in your writing. Don’t be afraid to add a touch of humor or wit.
The Power of Nurture Marketing
As we’ve been building our newsletter we’ve learned a valuable lesson: The power of nurture marketing is undeniable.
In today’s competitive online landscape it’s not enough to just shout about your products and services.
You need to build a relationship with your audience provide them with valuable content and show them that you’re genuinely invested in their success.
This long-term approach to marketing is essential for building trust loyalty and ultimately a thriving business.
Building Brand Loyalty in a Competitive World
We’ve focused on creating a newsletter that gives without expecting anything in return.
We believe this is the key to building lasting brand loyalty in a competitive world.
Our audience knows they can count on us to provide them with valuable information insightful analysis and entertaining content week after week.
This consistency has built trust and fostered a strong community around our brand.
The Future of Content Marketing: Zero-Click Value
The way people consume content is changing rapidly.
The days of click-bait headlines and endless scroll-throughs are fading away.
Today’s audiences want immediate value concise information and engaging content.
That’s why we’ve adopted a “zero-click” approach to our newsletter.
We provide our readers with valuable insights and actionable advice without forcing them to click through to another page.
The Power of Building a Brand Love Newsletter
We believe that a brand love newsletter is the future of content marketing.
This type of newsletter goes beyond simply promoting products or services.
It’s about building a community providing value and fostering long-term relationships with your audience.
It’s about giving without expecting anything in return.
And in the end that’s what truly drives brand loyalty and sustainable business growth.