How a Newsletter Can Grow Your Brand Equity
NEWSLETTERS ARE TRENDING UP 📈
In the wake of social platforms like Facebook and Instagram, and aside from mainstream media outlets like The Wall Street Journal and HuffPo, there’s a corner in the news arena that’s quickly gaining popularity.
Newsletters.
Unlike the name, newsletters are nothing new. In fact, the concept dates back to the 17th century when handwritten letters of curated news would circulate in different communities.
However, over the past few years, email newsletters have grown in readership thanks to new publishing mediums and email strategies:
Substack, the self-publishing newsletter site, raised a total of $82.4 million in funding.
Morning Brew, with a readership of 3 million subscribers, sold to the parent company of Business Insider in a deal speculated to be worth $75 million (although the exact number is undisclosed).
The Hustle, another business newsletter with 1.5 million readers, was acquired by Hubspot (also for an undisclosed amount—although the valuation of the deal was rumoured to be $27 million). Founder Sam Parr breaks down the acquisition:
Instead of scanning a news outlet, people are now turning to newsletters to get their information.
These daily or weekly newsletters have become the source for fans (of a creator or brand) to check out first to get their take on a new message, for turning to “normal” news sources.
I don’t think this transition has evolved due to distrust for mass media or headlines from CNN or TechCrunch. More likely, it’s that these traditional platforms originated from an advertisement model.
Instead, newsletters have been born out of the growing creator economy.
With the rise of creators, and the relationship they build with their community, newsletters provide a medium for creators to write directly to the consumer, closing the gap between the creator and their fans.
A New York Times article explains this phenomenon: “The inbox is becoming a more attractive medium than the news feed.”
You no longer need to pay a big outlet or fight other advertisers for space on social media platforms.
Just grow your own subscribers list, and you can speak directly to them.
NEWSLETTERS ARE A MODEL THAT WORKS ☑️
For creators, newsletters build a direct line to their audience, a relationship that develops strong SEO real estate and can be highly lucrative.
Over 4 billion people around the world use email. No social media platform touches that.
But that’s not the only reason to believe in the newsletter industry:
1. Peer-reviewed trust 🤝
Readers get peer-reviewed research that’s shared by a creator they trust in an industry they want to learn about. It’s painless, informative, and reputable. Especially for Web 3.0 and crypto communities, a newsletter is a first form of content for people to pass along to their friends to introduce them to a brand. Instead of tagging them on social, they just forward the newsletter. This is a powerful conversation between brand and customer because it’s free of charge and scale.
2. Curated learning 💡
Readers get curated news about things they care about on a variety of events and topics.
Consider the taglines of these popular newsletters:
James Clear’ The 3-2-1: “The most wisdom per word of any newsletter on the web”
The Hustle: “Business and tech news in 5 minutes or less”
Tim Ferriss’ 5-Bullet Friday: “Get the 5 Things I've Been Loving, Using, and Reading: Books, Gadgets, Hacks, and More.”
3. A flood of opportunities, signals + ideas 🌊
Newsletters can share job openings, webinars, products, start-up ideas, case studies, and the list goes on. All these interesting ecosystems are taking place within the newsletter world. And newsletters also become an easy way to filter opinions in media: it’s quicker than googling because you get a whole round-up of different topics.
4. Data for your company 🔍
Instead of a limited dashboard showing views and impressions, newsletters open up direct-to-consumer data. Because newsletter creators aren’t “renting space” on a social hosting platform, whatever data would usually be collected by the platform is now available to them instead.
5. Storytelling decentralization in the newsletter ecosystem 📖
The big social companies, like Facebook or TikTok, give users access to a free network. Then they sell that user attention and time to advertisers. The user is the product for sale. And people are starting to get upset by that.
With newsletters, we’re seeing a shift away from that model.
No algorithm, just direct access to storytelling.
It gets me fired. up. that creators will now have direct access to their audience, instead of renting it from a social media corporation. It will allow them to have more equity in the creator economy which will ultimately change the life of their business.
Want in on the fun? Start a newsletter.
WHY START A NEWSLETTER?
If I haven’t convinced you yet, take a sip of coffee.
And here are three more reasons:
1. There’s a lot of untapped opportunity for niches you want to stand out in.
There’s no limit for how specific you can get with a newsletter. In some cases, the more niche a newsletter it is, the more elite the newsletter becomes. The Ferrari Market Newsletter has a readership of 5000 but does over $2 million in revenue. Yes, million.
2. Newsletters are a way to practice refining your ideas and communicating them on a one-to-many scale.
Longform content requires you to distill your ideas and see if your audience bites. Try some A/B testing and record what works. The Hustle tests four different subject lines every day.
3. Play the long game: if you’re building online real estate, a newsletter is a foundational way to build a relationship with the reader and not suffer from changes in an algorithm or a pay-to-play model.
A newsletter is what Steph Smith calls “bedrock content.” You “own” the platform, so you can determine the distribution without being at the whim of software updates and advertising budgets.
Convinced yet?
ONE MORE NEWSLETTER PERK
Besides all the other benefits I’ve already talked about, newsletters are foundational for habit formation.
I’ve been posting this newsletter once a week for 6 months straight... and I’ve learned much more than if I was just making social media posts. The newsletter’s been giving me longform dialogue with my audience (you!) and reaching people in ways that I didn’t know about before.
It’s been fun to test out and keep thinking about more content-models and emails to help people. When you’re forced to create on a weekly or daily basis, you’re forced to continually think about “how can I help my audience?” It keeps you close to your reader, and you can gain valuable feedback by asking people to help with a survey or repurpose some of your ideas.
If you’re feeling disconnected from your customers or clients, or if you want to gain more support by testing ideas in public, try a newsletter.
I’ll be your first sub!🙋♂️(for real, email hello@joelhansen.com and I’ll sign up).
📲 ACTION BYTES
What are the top newsletters you like?
How could you or your company start a monthly round-up of curated news and events for your industry?
What’s a simple way you can start taking advantage of this ecosystem? For example, placing your company in newsletters; aligning your company with newsletters you trust, like, and admire; or chatting with your marketing team to come up with a newsletter to keep people engaged.
💼 JOB BOARD
New roles in marketing, communications, and tech:
Nucleus Networks needs a Marketing Specialist. Contact Caitlin Dutchak for the deets.
Visual Capitalist is looking for a VP of Marketing. Give Jeff Desjardins a shout.
Breakthrough Academy is on the lookout for a Marketing Automation Expert. Message Danny Kerr.
MediaValet is searching for a Senior Product Marketing Manager. If you have questions, reach out to Carrie MacLaren.
Have a job you want to feature? Email hello@joelhansen.com for details.
💡RIFF OF THE DAY
Today I wanted to give a shout out to someone in my LinkedIn community who has a lights-out goal: to run a triathlon on every continent. And the best part? He’s looking for community partners! Connect with Connor if you’re interested.
As always, thanks for sticking with me until the end. If you have any ideas that sparked or if you’re launching your own newsletter, drop me a note here! I love hearing about new things that are going on!
If you’ve been enjoying the PBB, it’d mean a lot if you sent it to a friend or two. I try hard to make it an email you look forward to each week. Feel free to let me know how you think it could get better.
Stay outta’ trouble and catch you next week.
✌🏻 Joel
📱 Website | Twitter | LinkedIn | Courses
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