Newsletters are a popular and profitable way of increasing your advertising revenues. Aside from your main website, newsletters offer advertisers a different opportunity of reaching your target audience.
To create a profitable newsletter, you need to think through three important elements:
- What is the editorial content of your newsletter?
- Who is your target audience and what is your target circulation?
- Who are your potential advertisers?
The first step is to think of your audience — who they are, what do they need, and how you can engage them. You need to think of what type of content they would most want to receive from you and the frequency they will receive it. It is also important to think how your newsletter will be different from your print or online publication: will the newsletter have an all-original content that will not be found in your website; or will it merely announce the latest on your website?
If you want to utilize your newsletters as an advertising source, you goal is to have an engaged readership as these are the people who are more likely to be more interested in the products featured in your newsletter and click on the ads.
The next step is to think of what advertisers would want and what type of information you can give to convince them that your newsletter is the right advertising vehicle for them. Typically, advertisers will want to see the following metrics initially:
- Reach – how many subscribers are receiving your newsletter?
- Demographics – who are these subscribers and whether you have any profile of them?
- Response – what is your deliverability, open and click through rates?
After buying an ad space with you, advertisers will now turn their focus on conversion rates and how the leads gathered from your newsletter are developing for them.
Turning your newsletter into a cash cow is not a simple task — it requires a lot of thought and planning. But a newsletter that delivers what the subscribers want and what the advertisers want is a winning combination that can lead to a healthier bottom line.
