Prologue

Are you embracing the exquisite pain of newsletter unsubscribes?

Dennis Shiao thinks you should.

And I agree.

We co-presented last week at Content Marketing World, and his point is sticking with me:

Don’t let yourself get numb to unsubscribes.

Dennis takes it very seriously.

He wants an email notification for each unsubscribe.

So he can process them individually.

Mourn their loss.

Experience the hurt.

And consider the why.

Similarly, I keep up with mine in a dashboard and make a point to review the reasons given after each issue.

Depending on your list size, this could require a significant time commitment.

But the point is this:

There is value in taking unsubscribes a little personally.

In considering each goodbye and the reason behind it.

Your newsletter is often a significant chunk of your relationship with your audience.

When someone opts out, acknowledging that individually and considering why will shape your future content in a more meaningful way than thinking of unsubscribes as a business metric.

It stings less when you turn people into numbers.

But if you pay attention to the individual names and reasons, you commit more fully to serving those who’ve stuck around.

Dennis challenged both independent creators and large brands to adopt this approach:

Intentionally humanize the relationship between sender and recipient.

Let it fuel our desire to earn trust in every issue we deliver.

Yes, sometimes an unsubscribe indicates the reader is not a good fit for you (or your brand). But, as tough as it is to accept, sometimes it’s good to wallow in the frustration of a farewell so we can improve going forward.

Subscribe to Dennis’s newsletter, the always insightful Content Corner, here.

This week’s issue includes the inspirational stories of some successful newsletter creators, advice for re-engaging subscribers, and ideas for improving your newsletter process (whether that’s automating tweet curation or building a community with purpose).

Let me know what you think.

Screen Share

Craft Content That Results In Reader Success

Megan Bowen of Refine Labs walked us through some ways newsletters can improve the customer experience during her Newsletter Fest 2021 session, Leveraging Newsletters for Customer Success, Growth, and Advocacy.

In this short clip, she explains how brands can use newsletters to reinforce key teachings and educate customers by meeting them where they are, not where we wish they were. Our job is to “make it extremely easy for them to take the actions we want them to take.”

It’s our duty whether we’re trying to nudge them to upgrade to a paid media subscription or help them get more out of a SaaS tool.

I appreciate how Megan brings everything back to being extremely clear and empathetic.

Newsletter Tips

How Can You Re-Engage Inactive Subscribers?

Dan Oshinky’s offering suggestions via LinkedIn for re-engaging inactive subscribers. His advice? Get a little creative with what you send.

Related: Dan’s also the author of “Not a Newsletter.” Check out his most recent issue here.

One of the best things about newsletters is they reflect the people and entities sending them, which means success is in the eye of the sender, right? Check out these 2 very different newsletters that might inspire your unique definition of success.

GQ reports that musician Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, has hit the newsletter scene by storm with bizarre essays and sexual fan fiction. His reasoning?

“I really missed when I would make things just to make them and share them right away… I needed somewhere for that energy to go.”

Anne-Laure Le Cunff published 100 articles of her newsletter, Ness Labs, in 100 days. For her, the journey (and success) was about learning in public.

In her words,

“Consistency trumps strategy.”

Some Online Communities Are Disappearing... Here’s Why

Want to know why online communities fail? Steve Fortier tweets that it’s because they lack specific purpose.

I’d like to expand this argument to newsletters. Niche, people, niche.

Discovered via For the Interested.

Marketing

Are You Focused On Leads Or Potential Customer Relationships?

What kind of leads do you really want?

Barb Mosher Zinck pulls insights from Andrew Davis to offer tips to shift marketing’s focus from lead capture to revenue impact in this Diginomica article.

How is it done? By focusing on different metrics, especially revenue and relationships.

“‘Marketing is obsessed with getting emails and names, essentially generating leads,’ said Davis. At least they are until the CEO wants to know what marketing’s impact was on revenue. ‘Then you’ll get innovative reporting methods and better marketing.’”

His suggestion, which I agree with, is that marketers take time to understand sales goals and strategize strong, relationship-building content to support those goals. That means building trust with your messaging so that buyers are educated and have had positive brand interactions before they (willingly) enter into a sales conversation.

“Capturing a lead” sounds less exciting now, right?

Discovered via UpContent.

Writing

How To Write Better Title Tags

Are you paying close attention to your title tags, or the text that appears in search results? According to Peter Houston with Spiny Trends, you should.

Some solid, top-level tips from the article:

• Write a title that matches search intent
• Be relevant to the content on the page
• Be descriptive within the limits (55-60 characters)

Discovered via The Media Roundup.

Publishing

The publishing climate is changing. What does this mean for traditional publishing, technology, and the future?

• No secret here, trust is crucial for building relationships with readers. Faisal Kalim offers strategies for publishers here.
• Is our current model of journalism healthy and sustainable? The World Economic Forum thinks independent creators and engaged communities are the future.
• Axios is expanding. Sara Guaglione explains how Axios is creating local news-focused newsletters across the country (Digiday).
• Publishers vs. Big Tech? Sadie Hale is offering 4 strategies for navigating the relationship in this FIPP article.
• Google’s made changes (again). Here’s what Steve Wilson-Beales with Journalism.co.uk thinks you need to know.

Money Matters

Tips And Inspiration For Creating A Lucrative Newsletter

6 years ago, Glen Allsopp wrote an article about creating and monetizing a blog. Now he’s offering tips for building a lucrative newsletter (if that’s not an indication that newsletters are today’s blogs, I don’t know what is).

This new iteration of the story also includes many inspiring newsletter examples, including:

• Daily Pnut
• The Newsette
• Now I Know
• and more

Discovered via Inbox Reads.

Related: For more inspiration, check out what these creators are doing to earn six figures, discovered via For the Interested.

Why We Should Think Of Newsletters As Assets

From sponsorships to advertising, it’s clear to business owners and advertisers alike that newsletters are assets. Stefan Von Imhof breaks down the economics of newsletters, from ad pricing to arbitrage to metrics, in this article for Alternative Assets.

Note: I think the audience here is entrepreneurs who are less familiar with the genre and exploring investing in the industry, but creators will still get some good info out of it.

Curated News

How To Add Liked Tweets To Your Publication

Confession: I’ve spent years avoiding maintaining a personal Twitter account.

But now I’m attempting to embrace the platform based on some new connections who clearly prefer it as their top social hangout.

So... I asked Seth to make a quick video to demonstrate how we Curated users can connect Twitter and have the tweets we’ve liked instantly collected to our newsletter's collected items for upcoming issues.

I’m going to attempt to start using this really cool function more frequently.

This video (by the amazing Seth Morris) will show you how it works and get you started setting it up.

Crash Course Today At 4 Central

The next session of Curated Crash Course is today at 4 PM Central.

What’s Curated Crash Course?

The first 30 minutes is dedicated to Curated 101, which covers what you need to have set up to send your first issue in Curated. The next 30 minutes is your opportunity to ask any questions you have about Curated or newsletters.

Come and go as you please.

Register once here, and you'll be registered for each session we have in the future.

ICYMI: You can always check our Curated Public Product Roadmap to catch up on recent releases and find out what’s up next.

Don’t want to click through? Our recent bigger releases include Paid Subscriptions (0% commission!) and a Free Tier.**

Opt In Challenge

Zap Yourself A Custom Newsletter

There’s a little Zapier vibe going on in this issue (see Curated News) so it feels appropriate that this week’s challenge is to set up this Zap and start following content on sites that don’t offer newsletters. ​​Justin Pot explains how.

Alternatively, if you use Curated, just go ahead and pipe those RSS links into your collected items.

Signature

Let me know. Reply, email me at Ashley[at]optinweekly.com, or find me on LinkedIn to hit me with some feedback. I’d love to know what you think.