Personality, usefulness and building a community drive newsletter success
Some learnings from the Publisher Newsletters Summit and Awards
Good afternoon,
I am writing this week's newsletter from London - as I've swapped sunny Preston for the capital for two days. I'm at the Publisher Newsletters Summit and Awards, plus their podcast equivalent too, hearing all things newsletters and crossing my fingers for the Parched Pea Podcast in this evening's awards. We shall see if Nicola Adam and I have some silverware to head to Euston with later!
This week's digest is again a digest of what I've been hearing as I reflect on some key thoughts and takeaways from the Newsletters Summit which was jam-packed with insights and sessions about all things email newsletters.
Personality-driven newsletters are beginning to win out. There was a lot of reference across the sessions to 'the sanctity of the inbox' and how it is one of the last few personal spaces left online. No algorithms are curating what you receive, people have made a choice to receive your newsletter. From Georgie Chambers at The I who outlined why it was crucial to have those writing the newsletters to be those who had a deep understanding and passion for their subject (otherwise readers will know straight away if you don't care!) through to Neil MacDonald at National World who in his enlightening talk about creating a limited-run newsletter series (paid-for) about Scottish golf courses highlighted the importance of Martin Dempster their golfing correspondent who anchored the newsletter.
Conversion techniques, rely on the personal and being useful - this theme of personality carried over into the session on conversion tactics when it comes to a free newsletter audience converting to paid, as Joshi Hermann from Mill Media gave insights into how it was often 'the story behind the story' newsletters from the editorial team, which lifted the lid on processes and emotions which resonated in people choosing to then become a paying supporter. While Rosie Percy, of Hearst UK, spoke about how Ben Shepherd's front cover for Men's Health had led to a subscription boost for newsletters on people wanting to get the exclusive stay in shape tips (based on his complete lack of DadBod!). I guess that's taking the personal bit to a new level when it comes to reasons to subscribe!
Within the session with Jenna Thompson at Reach, who heads up newsletters across their extensive portfolio, she spoke about a number of paid-for newsletters - such as The Valiant, a labour of love for Port Vale reporter Mike Baggerley, who spent as much time corresponding with fans in comments on Substack and then crafting future editions based on what they wanted to see written about as he does following the match action. He has a community following, and that community is ready to back him in what Jenna described as a 'shared endeavour'. This passion-based approach is not uncommon in sport, but as Joshi alluded to, I think we'll see it becoming more commonplace in writing about both places (cities, towns, identities) and also topics too.
Building trust by showing who you are. Rob Parsons, who for the second year in a row scooped accolades for his Northern Agenda newsletter covering all aspects of politics and life in the North of England, also reflected on how he had tried to make himself much more a feature of the newsletter (his face in the masthead, weaving in some elements about himself within the newsletters while not over-sharing). He said this didn't come naturally, and I think that's true of many journalists - don't become the story is often a mantra. But increasingly audiences want to know who is behind the news, and this builds trust - especially if you're a part of their inbox.
And some quick-fire takeaways too..
- If sign-ups aren't coming, then go find them. Sophie Laughton gave an excellent detailed presentation into Metro's tactics for growing their newsletter readership, and shared how previously a lot had been reliant on on-site sign-up processes. She and the team had diversified how they used an array of social media platforms to drive subscriptions to their mailing lists, from native Facebook posts pulling out key points, to getting going with WhatsApp channels to cross-promote and utilising print too for the right content e.g. promoting the Horoscopes newsletter to their print audience.
- Limited series need high quality and a team approach. Both the Times and National World presented on their limited run newsletter series, the Times on their Couch to £5k money series which was supported via sponsorship and National World with their Golf Courses of Scotland series, priced £9.99. The shared learning from both, high quality, a huge collaborative team approach and picking topics which aligned with the strength of the brands and readerships with a propensity to subscribe and support.
And I'll finish with this quote, from Rosie Percy, "I know it sounds a bit cheesy, but being in someone's inbox really is a privilege and we need to respect that."
And it's a privilege to be in yours. It's coming up to two years since I started this newsletter, based on the open rate I can see people (hopefully) find it useful and while I appreciate this one and the last one have gone a bit off format I hope you've enjoyed the change up.
Fingers crossed again for the Parched Pea Podcast tonight, I'll be there representing the hard work of everyone involved across the two series so far in what's been a fantastic collaborative effort.
Hope you're having a great week. All the best for the rest of it.
Keep going.
Ed
Good stuff - sorry not to meet you there! I was on the hunt for more soloists and journalists.