10 Tips To Create Reader Community & Boost Engagement Through Newsletters
Written by: Rashmi
Email newsletters are creating new waves every day in digital media. They act as a bi-directional communication channel between the publication and its readers. The best part? You completely own your newsletter. Social media platforms can lock your account or decrease your reach, but newsletters are something you truly own.
Unlike most other communication channels, newsletters are bi-directional. This means that publishers can engage with their readers and form a strong community with them. Such engagement translates to monetary benefits in many ways.
If you are publishing a newsletter or planning to launch one, the following 10 tips will help you create a reader community around the newsletter and boost the engagement:
Create Unique Content:
As compared to other forms of content distribution, newsletters give a high ROI (as much as around $44 for every $1 spent). So, it makes complete sense to create original content for newsletters instead of just repurposing old content or giving quick summaries of your website and app content. Unique content acts as an incentive for readers to subscribe to the newsletters instead of just surfing the website.
Interview Thought Leaders:
Bite-sized interviews of thought leaders are proven to get high engagement. Since the interviews will go out in text form, you do not even have to invest many resources to take the interviews. Such short interviews can be done over email exchanges and can be published in the newsletter in an instant.
Start Conversations:
An open-ended question in the newsletter can act as a conversation starter. Ideally, the answer to your question should not be obvious. Questions with subjective answers that include the personal experience of readers get the most engagement.
Share Insider Views:
The traditional way of publishing is to put a wall between the publishing process and the finished pieces. But as publishers are moving towards the subscription model, giving readers an insider view can create a sense of community.
Share Your Wins:
Received a prize for publishing quality content or touched a readership milestone? You don’t have to celebrate it alone. People want to associate themselves with winners. So, sharing your wins is a great way to engage the readers and tell them that your content and business are marching forward.
Share What You Have Published:
While you should not share every piece in your newsletter, sharing the highest quality pieces is a good way to increase the number of eyeballs.
Run Small Series:
Newspaper columns can be adapted to the digital world in the form of newsletter series. You can start multiple small newsletters series on different themes or by different authors. End the series that are not engaging readers and extend only those that get higher engagement than other emails. Additionally, employ an SPF record checker to ensure your newsletters' security and deliverability by verifying and authenticating the sender's domain.
Collect Feedback:
Getting feedback is not limited to businesses that sell products. Publishers should also actively seek feedback on reader experience on website and app, the quality of content, and so on. If you have segmented paid subscribers or readers in the newsletter, prioritize their feedback over the others.
Giveaway Discounts:
Sending out quality content is one way to keep your readers hooked to the newsletter. Another way could be giving away discounts on your subscriptions or coupons from newsletter advertisers. Giveaways will incentivise the readers to keep coming back to the newsletter.
Conclusion
From running themed newsletter series to giving away discounts, there are many methods to boost engagement and create a reader community. You don’t need to apply all the methods at the same time. Start with one and then all the methods one by one until you build an engaged and loyal community around the newsletter.