import { Meta } from '@storybook/addon-docs/blocks';
# Newsletter Best Practices
Newsletters are important for building audience relationships and driving loyalty. We've highlighted a collection of small newsletter improvements you can make to help yours stand out.
## Resources
- [Newsletter Best Practices Deck](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1a5_pdPENpeExzlg285EkL6JubFim5nSIcHKzfLXnss4/edit?usp=sharing)
- [Newsletter Lifecycle Map](https://www.dropbox.com/s/lrmi1e0niglex9k/Newsletter%20Lifecycle%20Chart.pdf?dl=0)
## Summary: Top 10 Tips for Improving Your Newsletter
1. **Understand how your newsletter is performing:** set goals and track key metrics over time
2. **Always be growing:** announce on your show, promote on social channels, work with colleagues to cross-promote
4. **Ask for consent before adding people to your list:** no spam here
5. **Welcome newcomers:** send a series of welcome e-mails and help newbies understand more about your newsletter, NYPR, etc.
6. **Be predictable:** stick to a sending schedule and frequency
7. **Make it readable and useable:** use mobile-friendly design, clear headers/headlines for easy scanning, and buttons for clickable calls to action
8. **Be engaging and create paths for participation:** ask for feedback (and respond thoughtfully), pose a question, post something a reader sent in
9. **Always be testing:** experiment with subject lines, formats, designs, adding or removing sections, and measure the results to find out what works and what doesn’t
10. **More subscribers isn’t always better:** perform regular list maintenance and ask folks who rarely open to unsubscribe from your experience
11. **Offboard like a champ:** remind folks who unsubscribe of the other ways they can stay in touch (other less frequent NYPR newsletters, social channels, etc)
# Establishing Goals
### Goals give us purpose and direction. Key Metrics tell us if we are meeting our goals.
- Establish goals and key metrics for your newsletter by answering these questions:
- Why are we investing time and effort in creating these e-mails?
- What outcomes are we expecting from our e-mails?
- What determines a successful e-mail or newsletter?
- How can we measure this?
- How will we know if we are doing well or if we need to change course?
- What are reasonable growth figures to aim for?
**Recommended reading:**
[Keep your newsletter strategy simple, or you risk feeding the beast](https://www.impacttk.com/keep-your-newsletter-strategy-simple-or-you-risk-feeding-the-beast/) (Impact TK)
### Key Metrics must be monitored over time. “Set it and forget it” mentality won’t help your list improve.
Tips:
- Try creating Audience segments and scheduling snapshots in Comparative Reports in Mailchimp
- Monitor and record your stats on a weekly or monthly basis
- Keep a shared stats doc that you update and share with your team (be transparent about your stats collection methodology to help colleagues understand the sources of your numbers): [here’s a sample newsletter stats template](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1gbyIkSpyqcNmsmmyT5mxwGkmiT2bxelhj8Z6YAVYy08/edit?usp=sharing) you can copy and use
**Mailchimp Hot Tip:**
Check out our guide: [How to Pull Reports from Mailchimp](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GXTtqHHP065Td6ihQH1LJzS_uzsgVwzPcWhBYAtoU6k/edit?usp=sharing)
### Want to start a new e-mail list? Answer these questions first.
- **Who is the audience you want to target? Be specific.** Think about age, geography, content preferences, reading habits, etc. What evidence do you have that this group would be well-served by a newsletter?
- **What is your value proposition?** What makes your newsletter different from the 3 zillion other newsletters that already exist (or the many that NYPR is already sending)? What specific need would your newsletter serve for your audience? What problem would your newsletter solve for them? What gap would it fill?
- **What is your primary outcome or goal?** How will you know if your newsletter is successful? (see previous slides)
- **How will you resource this effort?** How many hours per week will this require? Who will respond to reader feedback or questions? Who will fill in if someone is on vacation? Who will be in charge of tracking metrics?
- **How will you promote this newsletter?**
#### **Perhaps a new list isn’t the answer…**
- Is there an existing list that you could use to promote your content instead of creating a new list?
- Did you check to see if any of NYPR’s existing but dormant lists may be appropriate for refreshing?
- Is promoting on a social channel more likely to get the attention you want?
**Recommended reading:**
[Newsletter Guide section 2: Getting Started](https://newsletterguide.org/#section-2-executing-on-content) (Harvard Shorenstein Center, Lenfest Institute, Yellow Brim)
## Acquisition & List Growth
### How do we get folks to sign up? How do we grow our list?
#### **Tips:**
- **Tell listeners** about your newsletter (announce regularly)
- **Post about it on social** with a sign-up link (regularly)
- Ask already-subscribed readers to **forward** your newsletter to a friend
- **Embed an e-mail collector** on the show’s landing page (configure a [Newsletter Signup embed](https://apps.nypr.org/toolkit/create) with NYPR’s toolkit - use firefox)
- Create a nice-looking **sign-up form** using Mailchimp
- **Work with Digita**l to build compelling sign-up modules
- **Think cross-platform.** Pass around a sign-up clipboard at events
- Work with colleagues on other newsletter teams to **cross-promote** to each others’ audiences
- **Contests or other promotions:** coordinate with Marketing and Legal
**Recommended reading:**
[Newsletters Guide](https://localnewslab.org/guide/newsletters/basics-of-building-and-using-your-email-list/) (Local News Lab)
### The importance of setting expectations
- The difference between spam and wanted e-mail is **consent** (always ask for it when building a new list or adding to an existing list, see [legal guidelines for contact collection](https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Yy5LKjSfuaZXxQOgGDY_7AZ9AClHh7bN/view?usp=sharing))
- **Never opt people in to a list without consent and/or communication:** trust takes tons of work to build up and can be lost quite easily
- Give people a **clear reason** why they should join your list
- Help people understand **what to expect** and **how often**
### Help new subscribers get up to speed with an onboarding e-mail or welcome series
- Try **automating a series of welcome e-mails** to help new subscribers build a deeper connection
- Don't assume the reader knows everything about you, your show, your team, or the organization: **be a welcoming guide to newcomers**
- News Revenue Hub has some good tips on which **questions to answer** in a welcome series in [this article](https://fundjournalism.org/2018/07/06/quick-tips-for-building-audience-and-loyalty/)
- Specifically **ask for feedback and suggestions** from new subscribers and thank them for any insights they provide
# Schedules & Routines
### Pick a sending schedule / frequency and stick to it
- User research tells us that **loyal readers** incorporate newsletter reading into their **regular, daily routines**
- **Morning reading** most popular (associated w/ smaller time-availability), followed by mid-day reading (associated w/ more leisurely activities)
- It’s important to **be up front about how often** you will be sending so that users can decide for themselves if they want to commit
- Users will notice and **lose trust if your sending schedule or frequency changes without an explanation**
- You may want to consider optimizing your sending schedule based on traffic patterns
# Templates & Design
### The design of your e-mail directly affects whether it is read or not.
#### Tips for making your e-mail more readable:
- Make sure it is **legible on a phone** without zooming in, and that links/buttons are **spaced well for fat fingers** (test on your own device to be certain) - nearly 70% of emails are read on a phone
- Preview your email in **various e-mail clients** before sending ([Mailchimp preview](https://mailchimp.com/help/test-with-inbox-preview/), Outlook, Gmail, etc)
- Add logos or transparent images on solid backgrounds to help with legibility in **dark mode**
- Try to **use headlines to break up content** on the page & help with **scannability**
**Mailchimp Hot Tip:**
Fonts behaving funky on a mobile device? Use Mailchimp’s “Mobile Styles” option to fix.
### Anchor template components provide consistency.
- Use a standard, **clearly branded header** with links to the original brand or property
- Use a **standardized footer**
-- Link back to the original property & our other brands
-- Link to **social** channels
-- Include links to Terms of Use, Copyright, Contact Us, Privacy Policy, Unsubscribe link, etc.
- Make it clear/easy for users to give **feedback**
- Make it clear/easy for users to **share** (forward to friend)
**Mailchimp Hot Tip:**
Preview your emails in various devices quickly using [Mailchimp Preview](https://www.litmus.com/) or a tool like [Litmus](https://www.litmus.com/).
# E-mail Content
TBD
# List Hygiene & Offboarding
TBD
# Need help? Get in touch!
Reach out to the Digital team for more information on how to optimize your newsletter experience.
## More reading
**Comprehensive strategic guide** (Shorenstein Center - Harvard, Lenfest Institute, and Yellow Brim)
[https://newsletterguide.org/](https://newsletterguide.org/)
**Local newsletter product guide with tactical tips** (Democracy Fund)
[https://localnewslab.org/guide/newsletters/](https://localnewslab.org/guide/newsletters/)
**Collection of different articles with tactical ideas to solve various newsletter problems** (American Press Institute and Knight-Lenfest Newsroom Initiative)
[https://betternews.org/topic/email-newsletters/](https://betternews.org/topic/email-newsletters/)
**Newsletter content strategy** (Impact TK)
[https://www.impacttk.com/keep-your-newsletter-strategy-simple-or-you-risk-feeding-the-beast/](https://www.impacttk.com/keep-your-newsletter-strategy-simple-or-you-risk-feeding-the-beast/)
**List growth tips** (News Revenue Hub)
[https://fundjournalism.org/2018/07/06/quick-tips-for-building-audience-and-loyalty/](https://fundjournalism.org/2018/07/06/quick-tips-for-building-audience-and-loyalty/)
**2018 ONA presentation on newsletters** (Vox, HuffPost, Eater, New Yorker)
[https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TTdG2JOQVI5RunjW0h1ZsLkVsCYNZZF-MLbxpirlowo/edit?usp=sharing](https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1TTdG2JOQVI5RunjW0h1ZsLkVsCYNZZF-MLbxpirlowo/edit?usp=sharing)
**Fostering engagement through participation** (Membership Puzzle Project)
[https://membershippuzzle.org/articles-overview/participation-pathways](https://membershippuzzle.org/articles-overview/participation-pathways)
[https://membershippuzzle.org/articles-overview/moving-the-needle](https://membershippuzzle.org/articles-overview/moving-the-needle)
**E-mail benchmarking by industry** (Constant Contact)
[https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/#one](https://www.campaignmonitor.com/resources/guides/email-marketing-benchmarks/#one)
**E-mail benchmarking for non-profits, including Public Media segment** (M+R Benchmarks)
[https://mrbenchmarks.com/#!/email](https://mrbenchmarks.com/#!/email)
**NYT e-mail strategy**
[https://medium.com/the-idea/q-a-elisabeth-goodridge-editorial-director-of-newsletters-at-the-new-york-times-a6dc7df440fc](https://medium.com/the-idea/q-a-elisabeth-goodridge-editorial-director-of-newsletters-at-the-new-york-times-a6dc7df440fc)
**Vox e-mail strategy**
[https://explore.reallygoodemails.com/lessons-learned-from-vox-medias-newsletter-growth-lead-6b0abcbb2589](https://explore.reallygoodemails.com/lessons-learned-from-vox-medias-newsletter-growth-lead-6b0abcbb2589)
**How Time’s E-mail Newsletter Achieves a 40% Open Rate** (Poynter)
[https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/how-times-email-newsletter-achieves-a-40-percent-open-rate/](https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2014/how-times-email-newsletter-achieves-a-40-percent-open-rate/)
**Learnings from a popup/short-term newsletter experiment** (Lenfest Institute)
[https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/solution-set/2018/10/11/why-cbc-news-created-a-pop-up-newsletter-for-the-royal-wedding/](https://www.lenfestinstitute.org/solution-set/2018/10/11/why-cbc-news-created-a-pop-up-newsletter-for-the-royal-wedding/)
**Research on newsletter metrics** (Shorenstein Center - Harvard, warning: super academic, but maybe useful)
[https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Data-Science-Tools-for-Email-Analysis-Research-Guide.pdf](https://shorensteincenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Data-Science-Tools-for-Email-Analysis-Research-Guide.pdf)