Engaging Email Newsletters By Angus Robinson April 12, 2017

About Me Angus Robinson Current: Director of Analytics & Data Strategy at Metroland Media Next week: Director of Performance Media at 360i/DentsuBos Let’s connect! www.linkedin.com/in/angusrobinson1 angusrobinson1@gmail.com 647 218 6678

Email – what’s the big deal? Your magazine Stay top of mind Traffic growth Revenue Audience insights

Subscriber Acquisition Newsletter Planning Research Audience Insights Web analytics Social media Surveys comScore Competitors Test Start with multi-category digests Try topical newsletters Use themes Curate Measure What content is most engaging? Ask for feedback Are we moving the needle? Iterate Eliminate what doesn’t work Double down on what does Never be satisfied Subscriber Acquisition Advertise newsletter everywhere (print, web, fb) Clear value proposition Use house ad inventory across your network PPC advertising Contests/giveaways Partnerships Adhere to CASL

Driving email engagement Appeal to your audience using the tried and tested methods you’ve already perfected. Clickable content: Popular Relevant Timely Trusted Visual Simple Preventative “What’s in it for me” FOMO But… avoid click bait tactics!!

Newsletter Frequency Frequency depends on: Segmentation Q: How many newsletters should I send per month? A: As many as possible until the unsubscribe rate reaches an unacceptable limit Frequency depends on: Volume of new content published/week Volume of existing evergreen content Expectations of subscribers Time sensitivity of content Topic segmentation Segmentation Most engaged subscribers Least engaged subscribers Mon: Parenting Wed: Recipes Fri: Health Sat: Weekly Digest Sat: Weekly Digest

Not-so-obvious metrics Newsletter Analytics Obvious metrics Open rate Click-to-open rate Unsubscribe rate Net change in subscriber volume/week Not-so-obvious metrics Post-click page views per visit Post-click bounce rate Click distribution by content category Subscriber lifetime value (LTV) Subscriber LTV formula 1 post-click page views per visit monetized display ads per page display ad average CPM LTV = × open rate × click-to-open rate × × × unsubscribe rate 1000 Total email clicks over subscriber’s lifetime Display revenue generated per email click

Is email personalization right for you? What you need: Scale of subscribers (>100,000) Scale of content Email platform with dynamic content Ability to link post-click page views to a specific subscriber Best practices: Don’t over-personalize Incorporate popularity, seasonality, and variety Analyze costs vs financial opportunity A/B test every new iteration Start by: Targeting topical newsletters Personalizing section of existing newsletter Setting up an email preference centre

Questions? Thank you! Let’s connect! www.linkedin.com/in/angusrobinson1 angusrobinson1@gmail.com 647 218 6678