Product Managing�Your Newsletter
How many people in your digital audience can you actually contact?
2-6% of followers see the average Facebook post
22% of subscribers open the average media newsletter
Digital New York Times users are twice as likely to become paid subscribers if they sign up for a newsletter first.
Our Panelists
Ki Sung
Senior Editor and Podcast Co-Host, MindShift
Model: Content Vertical
Brendan Williams
Digital Media Specialist
Model: Daily News
Tiffany Campbell
Executive Editor, Digital News
Model: Automated Series
KQED
Model: Content Vertical
The MindShift Ecosystem – September 2017
Social media
763k Fans
255k Followers
Blog (monthly)
500k users
1m page views
Podcast
~75k downloads per episode
Radio
~900k listeners
Newsletter
72,000 subscribers
St. Louis Public Radio
Model: Daily News
WBUR
Model: Automated Series
A 21-episode podcast delivered via newsletter.
An exercise “motivation” challenge
Each episode comes along with inspirational stories, tips and music
Designed as a content & audio experiment within the WBUR BizLab
Goals
Capitalize on content that Commonhealth editor Carey Goldberg had been working on for some time, “exercise as medicine”
Experiment with new podcast forms
Investigate this question: “Are listeners who take part in an on-going experience more likely to donate or become members?”
Audience
People who want to change their exercise behavior and get healthier
Existing WBUR audience open to new type of podcast experience (approximately 5 minutes delivered daily in a series, meant to affect behavior)
New audience that might discover WBUR's journalism and storytelling through wellness and exercise.
“Help me find new stories�that will inspire me.”
“Use my pockets of time throughout the day intelligently.”
“I want to feel in control of the content I consume.”
Subscribers
Launched with 4,383 early sign ups
Currently approximately 6,800 subscribers
Still percolating new subscribers, 80 -100 per month, without promotion or second season
Workflows for Different Newsletter Models
Current Process
Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday |
| | 12pm: Newsletter reminder | 12pm: Submit newsletter | 12pm: Finalize newsletter | | 4am: Distribute newsletter |
| | - select lead story - subject line and blurb - summarize MS stories - Social media analytics - @MindShiftKQED | - re-read newsletter - check for tone and flow | - check all links - final copy edit - include sponsorship - schedule newsletter | | |
Email gives us unlimited opportunities to learn about our audience through testing. What are some things that you have learned through testing, and how did you learn them?
Ask your audience! Through an exit survey, we learned:
92% of survey respondents said the podcast changed their outlook on exercise.
People will listen to audio delivered via email, even though email clients don’t support audio.
(But they overwhelmingly wanted the audio available via third party apps, too.)
Don’t require people to open. Just deliver the next edition.
The newsletter can do more heavy lifting!
Takeaway: Kill Sacrificial Ideas
When you don’t have a reliable system, you can’t experiment.
Who is responsible for evaluating tests? Who decides to do tests?
For a daily newsletter, tests have to be about systems, not content.
Clickbait doesn’t represent creativity. It represents spam.
Honesty stands out.
Special editions always work.
Relevance stands out.
Experiment in progress: Text vs. links
Questions?