How can publishers best build audience relationships? It starts with the inbox.

LiveIntent’s SVP of Global Marketing Kerel Cooper recently told Digiday:

“’Email has replaced newspapers and from a digital perspective, it is the new homepage. It’s a smart publishing strategy’ to continue building out new products, said Cooper. ‘Newsletter are key to continuing relationships with readers.’”

There’s no denying the importance of email for publishers, but it’s equally important to make sure that publishers have the right email technology to deliver results. Publishers often have different needs that typical email marketing software may not handle efficiently. Between delivering content and serving as a recruitment tool for potential premium subscribers, email marketing functions slightly differently for publishers than it does for other verticals that use email marketing.

While good email technology is no substitute for good content, the right email newsletter tool can help you provide a better experience for your newsletter subscribers with less manual effort.

Here are a few key areas for publishers to consider in search for an email service provider (ESP).

Newsletter Management & Automation

The largest publishers offer dozens of newsletters for their readers to choose from. While having multiple publisher newsletters provides more opportunities to engage your audience, it also requires significant resources.

That’s where newsletter automation comes in handy! Using newsletter automation, you can pull tagged content from your CMS to populate your newsletter template automatically without having to log into your ESP, deploy breaking news alerts as soon as stories are posted, and scale your newsletter program with additional automated newsletters.

Of course, automation doesn’t mean your newsletters have to be a cold collection of curated content. Many newsletters contain a mix of in-email editorial and links to external content. With PostUp’s flexible automation toolkit, you can create a newsletter workflow that best fits the needs of your business and even drag-and-drop articles into your newsletter directly from the PostUp platform.

Better Connect at Scale with Newsletter Personalization

Many marketing automation platforms allow personalization using names and other audience data points. However, email personalization for publishers often refers to providing personalized content recommendations in newsletters or sending tailored subscription marketing emails.

With tools for email newsletter personalization, you can strengthen reader relationships by delivering the content most likely to engage your audience. Apartment Therapy used PostUp’s Parse.ly integration to send personalized content to their subscribers. With the integration, they could also automatically place high-performing content in the article and exclude articles a subscriber has already read.

However, as attractive as 1:1 personalization is, the additional technology required may not be the right fit for your email program. That doesn’t mean you can’t “personalize” email content anyway. By using automation to scale your email program, you can also offer additional newsletters that focus on specific content verticals. This allows subscribers to self-personalize the content they receive in their inbox. No matter how you choose to offer customized email experiences, be sure your technology supports your strategy.

Content Monetization with Email Newsletters

As publishers seek to diversify revenue streams, newsletter monetization becomes increasingly important. When searching for an email service provider, it may help to think about your current (or future) email monetization strategy.

There are several ways to monetize your newsletters, including:

• In-email programmatic advertising. These email monetization tools allow you to place ads in your emails automatically, providing turnkey incremental revenue.
• Native advertising and sponsorships. These direct-sold advertisements will bring more revenue than programmatic ads, but they may also require a bit more legwork. Newsletter software that allows you to place ads in your template with ease will come in handy during the day-to-day newsletter process.
• Dedicated promotional sends. With a dedicated send, publishers partner with advertisers to send a full-email ad to their subscribers. These sends can command high CPMs, but it’s important not to fatigue your audience with too many ads. ESPs like PostUp provide tools to manage your ad inventory and target the right segments of your audience with these ads.

If you offer a premium subscription product, your email program will be crucial to converting casual visitors into paying customers. Ensure your email newsletter software allows you to send relevant content, targeted marketing communication, and nurture emails for every step of your publishing customer journey.

Don’t Forget the Email Marketing Basics!

Although publisher newsletters often require a special set of tools, standard email marketing tools will also prove important for ensuring your email program operates at peak performance.

• Campaign building. While newsletters will be your focus, you’ll likely need to send welcome emails, subscription marketing emails, and other marketing communication. A robust journey builder will help you drive more value from your email subscribers.
• A/B Testing. Experimenting with newsletter modules, marketing email copy, and subject lines will help you drive more engagement from your email program. Look for an ESP that enables you to A/B test your newsletters and marketing emails, no matter which aspect of your email you wish to test.
• Deliverability. If your email doesn’t make it to the inbox, it’s almost as if you never sent it at all. Platforms with built-in delivery tools will help you keep an eye on your inbox placement rates. If your newsletter program is large enough, you should also consider a dedicated IP address.
• Reporting. Engagement reporting and analytics will help you optimize your email newsletters, create a better content experience for your readers, and demonstrate the success of your email efforts to stakeholders.

While this is by no means a complete list, it will help you to think about the goals of your email program and the tools you will need to ensure you reach them.

Optimize Your Newsletter Program with Upland PostUp

When your email newsletter program is so important to your success, it’s important to choose an email newsletter tool that continually guides you towards this success. With flexible newsletter workflows, audience development tools, and integrations with leading publisher technology, PostUp is built specifically for the needs of publishers. To discover how PostUp engages the email audiences of leading publishers, request a demo.