Email newsletters are quickly becoming one of the most attractive platforms for advertisers, and the market is growing faster than ever. In fact, Morning Brew, a newsletter focused on business news, was just recently valued at $75mn. Moreover, amid the COVID-19 pandemic, this growth was even further accelerated. Recent studies have shown that the global market for Email Marketing estimated at US$7.5bn in the year 2020, is projected to reach a revised size of US$17bn. This is mainly because the migration of office to remote work has led to a huge increase in internet use. Thus, online advertisement has since become much more attractive as opposed to the more traditional methods of advertisement such as physical billboards and radio advertisements.
There are many ways to monetize your email newsletter such as charging a monthly subscription service, but in this article, I will be focusing on how to sell adverts on your newsletter as this is not always an easy, straightforward process. What you earn from selling adverts can vary widely as it can depend on many factors but can be a great way to monetize your newsletter easily.
Although demand for newsletter ad space is growing day by day, it can be difficult to get your newsletter out there for advertisers to see, and start selling ads right away. In this article, I’ll be going through our top strategies for attracting advertisers so you can start selling adverts in your newsletter. Whether you’ve just started your newsletter, or are already familiar with newsletter marketing, I’m sure you will benefit from reading this list of tips we have created.
Building your email list
In order to attract advertisers to your newsletter, you have to start building up your number of subscribers. A large subscriber list can make your newsletter stand out from others as it shows you can communicate with a much larger audience. This is sure to attract lots of advertisers since they want their advert to be seen by the largest number of people. Although large email lists can be difficult to manage, we’ve also discussed our top tips for maintaining large email lists:
1. Regularly clean and update your email list: It’s important to make sure that your email list is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. Cleaning and updating your list regularly can help ensure that you’re reaching the right people with your email campaigns and avoiding sending emails to those who are no longer interested or have unsubscribed.
2. Segment your list: Segmenting your list can help you target your emails better and make sure that the right people are receiving the right messages. You can segment your list by different criteria such as location, age, interests, or buying habits.
3. Monitor your list performance: You should keep track of how your list is performing and use that information to optimize your campaigns and make sure that your messages are reaching the right people.
4. Use opt-in forms: Using opt-in forms can help you ensure that your list is full of people who are actually interested in receiving your emails. This can help reduce the number of people who unsubscribe or mark your emails as spam.
5. Send regular emails: Sending regular emails to your list is essential if you want to maintain a good relationship with your subscribers. Regular emails can help keep them engaged and remind them why they signed up in the first place.
Targeting your email newsletters to a certain demographic
While having a large number of subscribers is appealing to advertisers, it can be argued that the demographic of your audience is equally important. This is because advertisers like to target their adverts to certain demographics which are more likely to be interested in their product. For example, a video game company would much rather prefer to advertise their new video game on an email newsletter whose readers consist of young people, as opposed to an audience of elderly people. This can lead to advertisers being much more interested in advertising on your email newsletter as they can expect a higher click rate from readers interested in their product.
There are numerous tools you can use to view and track the demographic of your newsletter audience such as Google Analytics. These tools can be of great use when being approached by advertisers interested in advertising on your newsletter.
Another benefit of targeting your audience is that the content which you choose to advertise on your newsletter can really resonate with your readers. Although there are benefits associated with having a diverse audience in your email list, a more concise target audience can make it easier to sell adverts on your newsletter.
Using PostApex’s platform
As we have discussed so far, building a newsletter with a large number of subscribers and a targeted demographic can make your newsletter very attractive to advertisers. However, waiting for advertisers to contact you can prove to be a very tedious task with no guarantee of a successful outcome. This is why I recommend using PostApex’s platform as we allow you to contact advertisers directly.
PostApex’s platform offers a designated marketplace for newsletter owners and advertisers to contact each other. Therefore, you will be able to contact a huge list of potential advertisers for your newsletter. This also means that by listing your newsletter on our platform, you have significantly greater exposure to advertisers who are interested in advertising on newsletters. This gives you a much greater chance of being found by a newsletter as opposed to being found off the internet or social media.
Native Ads
Native Advertisements are ads placed in a way that match the format of the email so that they aren’t as intrusive to the readers. The use of native advertisements can make adverts more pleasing for your readers to look at and can even lead to an increased click rate on adverts in your newsletter. A popular example is Instagram’s use of native adverts which are designed to look exactly like other posts on your timeline.
Implementing these will not only make your newsletter look more aesthetically pleasing for your readers, but will also make advertisers much more inclined to place their ads in your newsletter.
Final thoughts
Offering ad space on your newsletter is one of the best ways to monetize your newsletter, but is not always a straightforward process. Following these tips should make the process much easier to attract advertisers so that you can sell more ads in your newsletter, and create a new stream of income for your company.
