With more than 4.1 billion email users (no big deal, just half the planet’s population), email newsletter monetization is the perfect complement to any existing revenue strategy.
Yes, you read that correctly, email newsletters.
Of course, creating a successful email newsletter monetization strategy means doing a little more than just slapping together your latest content or news and hitting send. There’s a lot to consider; from growing your newsletter audience to branding and design, each piece is a part of the larger monetization puzzle. With a thoughtful strategy, the payoffs can be massive. Take the media company Morning Brew, for example; in 2019 it drove 95 percent of its revenue from newsletter monetization alone.
Now, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, but the proper foundation puts your newsletters on the path to success. Read on to learn everything you need to know about email newsletter monetization like how it works, how to source demand, if it’s right for your business, and much more.
What is email newsletter monetization?
Email newsletter monetization refers to the selling of email newsletter ad inventory that advertisers can purchase, directly or programmatically. And it’s premium inventory.
What makes it premium, you ask? Well, email newsletters provide access to highly engaged, logged-in audiences; meaning a subscriber or reader must log into an email client or app to access a newsletter, regardless of the device. The logged-in nature of email newsletters allows advertisers to deliver highly targeted, people-based ads.
Furthermore, email is an inherently cookieless environment. As brands and publishers adapt to a world without third-party cookies, email newsletters will become an even more valuable tool—but we’ll get into that later.
By selling email newsletter ads, you help advertisers reach your newsletter subscribers with relevant ads while securing incremental revenue. With 49% of consumers saying they’d like to receive weekly promotional emails, email monetization is a win-win-win opportunity for publishers, brands, and subscribers alike.
Why monetize your email newsletters?
Outside of the obvious reason that monetizing your email newsletters will earn you, well, revenue, there are other reasons why email newsletters are a strategic revenue strategy component.
Revenue diversification:
If the last few years have taught publishers and brands anything, it’s that you can’t put all your eggs in one basket. By monetizing your email newsletters, you can transform a content distribution channel into a net-new revenue stream. Through this revenue diversification tactic, you alleviate reliance on a single source of revenue and mitigate risk.
Expand your first-party data footprint:
Email newsletters are one of the best ways to help you expand your first-party data footprint, a critical component to business success in a world after third-party cookies. You need robust insights that enable you and your advertiser partners to take quick, strategic action.
Email newsletters require subscribers to opt-in to a subscription by providing their email addresses, creating a value exchange between you and the subscriber: content in exchange for first-party data. Email newsletters also enable publishers to collect other, equally crucial behavioral information like what ads they clicked on, articles they read, or what pages they visited on your site via your newsletter. With first-party data, you can monetize your audiences and deliver relevant, personalized advertising experiences for your subscribers.
Consumer privacy:
Email hashing (a way of encrypting and anonymizing email addresses), allows you to create a safe space for publishers and advertisers to use first-party data. With email newsletters and email hashing, you can provide your advertiser partners the trust and confidence they need to safely and securely reach their audiences while upholding consumer privacy.
Is email newsletter monetization right for your business?
Now, email newsletter monetization isn’t just for traditional publishers. Email monetization is a powerful strategy that can be used by small to medium-sized businesses, and isn’t limited to specific industries either. Brands across verticals (like e-commerce, grocery, health and wellness, and big-box retail, to name a few) can also leverage email monetization to secure revenue and drive business growth.
That’s not all you can do with email ad inventory, though! You can also use the ad slots in your email newsletters to promote your private labels, brand products, or services. You can even advertise your products in other email newsletters. However, if you’re only interested in advertising your brand in other email newsletters—and not selling ad inventory—you’ll want to check out our Advertiser Solutions page.
When is email newsletter monetization suitable for traditional publishers?
Email monetization is a good option if you’re a publisher that has:
An existing newsletter. The content already exists, so why not monetize it? Adding ad slots to your newsletter is not only a great way to generate net-new revenue but also an opportunity to put valuable, relevant offers in front of your subscribers.
An ad sales team. Many publishers overlook adding their newsletters to their media kits. Don’t make this mistake! There are undoubtedly advertising partners who will be excited about getting their messages in front of your engaged audience.
Limited resources. If you’re trying to create monetization opportunities but have limited staffing and resources, programmatic exchanges and networks are a great way to generate revenue opportunities without adding much time to your team’s task list.
Does any of the above apply to your company? If so, email monetization may be a fitting addition to your revenue strategy.
When is email newsletter monetization suitable for brands?
The considerations above are also true for brands considering email newsletter monetization. If you run a brand and are interested in monetizing email newsletters, there are other factors to consider as well, like if:
You have affiliate partners. Email is perfect for extending your reach beyond your website and for promoting your own or affiliate products.
You want to understand your customers better. Engagement with email advertisements can help you collect shopper data from email audiences and boost your internal analytics and CDP by resolving email and web shopper data.
You’re in growth mode. If you’re looking for growth opportunities to expand your email list, drive subscription revenue, or build loyalty programs, email newsletter monetization can be a powerful tool for your business.
Want to see how brands put email newsletter monetization to work? Check out how Groupon and General Mills do it. With the right partner, you can accelerate your brand’s growth without taxing your already-hard-working team.
Email newsletter monetization: A revenue or marketing team endeavor?
Email newsletters are valuable to both your revenue and marketing departments. And although these teams are two sides of the same coin—your business—and often have similar goals, they often struggle to see eye-to-eye. This usually comes down to disagreements on whether investments should be revenue- or marketing-focused. With the right email newsletter monetization strategy, however, email newsletters can help them achieve both revenue and marketing goals like:
- Earning newsletter revenue
- Increasing newsletter subscriptions
- Selling products or services
- Building strong customer relationships
By placing and selling ad inventory in your email newsletters, your revenue team can secure a steady stream of revenue by leveraging existing assets and customer relationships. Furthermore, with solutions like native ads, it’s easy to monetize email without a complete strategy or design overhaul. Learn more about our native ad solution, Native Ad Blueprints, on our dedicated solution page.
Similarly, marketing departments can continue to nurture customer relationships through email ads. Marketing teams can use their ad slots to promote their most relevant products or offers to their newsletter readers when newsletter advertising demand is low.
So while revenue teams boast incremental revenue, the marketing team can delight in new subscribers or customers, and both teams secure data that speaks to audience engagement and interest. Armed with these insights and a growing first-party data footprint, together these teams can unlock tremendous growth for their organization.
How do you monetize email newsletters?
Now that you know why email newsletter monetization is essential to most modern businesses, let’s look at how you can drive demand for your email ad inventory.
There are a few different options to consider depending on your business goals.
Direct-sold: A direct-sold campaign is when an advertiser and publisher have directly contracted an agreement. A direct deal is a good fit for publishers with a large team who can manage additional inventory and trafficking.
Open exchange: If you want to reach a wider network of advertisers, this option allows you to choose which demand side platform can access your inventory. Several advertisers can compete for your inventory via the open exchange.
Deals and packages: Finally, you can maximize niche audiences and inventory by offering seasonal, audience, or content-based deals and packages. Entice advertisers that are willing to pay a premium for highly convertible and unique audiences.
Determining the right demand source for your business is not a one-size-fits-all approach. You and your team of stakeholders must decide what’s most important to the company, its goals, and strategy. From there, don’t be afraid to shift and learn as you go.
Download the full guide to explore key strategies and tactics to apply to your business and unlock revenue.Email newsletter monetization best practices
Now, before you embark on your email newsletter monetization journey, check out these best practices to ensure a strong start.
Yield optimization
Yield optimization or yield management will help ensure you get the most out of your email newsletters and ad inventory. In brief, yield optimization is the balance between the price, supply, and demand of your email newsletter ad inventory that helps ensure you sell all of your ad inventory for the highest return every time. Newsletter elements or components that can influence your email newsletter’s yield include newsletter design, price floors, allow and block lists, and placement and number of ad slots.
Tactics for High CPMs
So, how does one ensure that one’s email newsletter is optimized to drive the highest newsletter CPMs possible? Below are a few tips and tricks that can help.
Create high-quality content. Don’t send an email just for the sake of it. Make sure each message has high-quality, valuable content. A good rule of thumb? Treat every newsletter you send like all open rates in the future depend on the content of that individual email – because, to a large extent, they do!
Plan for personalization. In the world of email, personalization is king. Your users don’t want to feel like just another number in an endless email list. For example, a personalized subject line generates a 50% higher open rate. Follow the Platinum Rule: Treat subscribers the way they want to be treated.
Sell above-the-fold. Anything “above-the-fold” is the content at the top of an email message that the user doesn’t have to scroll to see. Because this is one of the first things seen once a message is opened, these ad slots are worth the most.
Enable various ad sizes. To make the most of the space in each email, enable all ad sizes for each slot; this ensures more advertisers can bid for the inventory.
Boost email capture. Email capture isn’t a one-and-done process. Continuously evolve your email acquisition tactics and campaigns to grow and strengthen your email list.
Constantly improve analytics. Analytics help you determine the best time to send and which emails are the most successful. Now is the time to invest in any first-party data you can get.
Email newsletters are a powerful – and lucrative – tool. Follow these best practices, and you’ll be well on your way to future-proofing your brand with a strong newsletter monetization strategy.
Monetize your audience with email newsletters
Email is one of the most underrated revenue channels for brands and publishers. If you have a highly engaged email list and dedicate resources toward creating personalized, actionable content, you might be missing out on an opportunity for monetization.
Are you ready to take the next step to transform your newsletter into a powerful and profitable media channel? Check out our Publisher Solutions page.
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