You probably receive dozens of emails a day, don’t you? And of those emails, how many do you delete without opening? Seventy-five percent or so? Even from senders on whose lists you asked to join?

So we think it’s fair to say that you think emails are dead – deader than dead – as a marketing tool, right?

Wrong!

Especially for magazine newsletters/publishers, which are enjoying an increase in email open rates over the last few years, while just about everyone else is seeing a decline.

Yet (there’s always a yet when it comes to marketing today, isn’t there?) this happy state of affairs could change. Which is why it’s always a good idea to keep on top of what’s coming down the pike regarding drip campaigns, email lists, list management, audiences, contact management, and more.

Email works for publishers because – no surprise – of the terrific content they place in their emails, as well as careful list management. So much so that many publishers are working hard to convert their less-engaged social and search audiences to email newsletters because they tend to convert to magazine subscribers.

Why the focus on email newsletters?

Because sending newsletter subscribers a roundup of a handful of their best articles/content is a great way over time to continually whet their whistle for more. Hence, subscriptions!

So how does one get email newsletter subscribers? Many publishers look at quality over quantity and so focus on people who have happened on their online magazine to look at a particular article as they leave the site: the old newsletter subscription CTA offer.

Once a subscriber to the newsletter, it’s often just a matter of time until they become a subscriber to the full publication.

Segments and audiences matter.

One technique, as reported in the Foliomag.com link above: Rolling Stone’s email manager says he acquires newsletter subscribers via different verticals, noting when someone tends to visit political, country music, or other content regularly and then works to promote a newsletter focused on that particular content segment to that reader.

Go big with personalization or go home?

And what we mean by “big,” really means hyper-personalization. Publishers can use detailed behavioral data culled from site usage and content interaction statistics and then create editorial content tailored to individuals based on which content they tend to consume most.

In fact, some publishers look at the data that resonates most with audiences, and then write newsletter content in ways that’s specific to email. One example, as noted in the Foliomag.com article, is writing newsletter article-link headlines to more action-oriented headlines, as contrasted to the SEO-oriented headlines of the actual articles in the publication.

An important note: hyper-personalization drip campaigns may be best for smaller, niche magazines because it will be easier to create personalized content around smaller segments in smaller lists.

Publishers aren’t moving to social messaging and chatbots.

While many companies are moving to “dark social” (sending their content via messenger apps and even chatbots, finding that they receive more engagement on their social channels this way than with social updates/posts), publishers are finding they prefer to use email.

Why? It’s simple really: the social channels are away from the magazine’s actual website. Newsletters, however, encourage their readers to click on a link to an article…on the magazine’s website, therefore making it far easier for a reader to become a subscriber.

As a more-than-likely lover of emails and drip campaigns, take your contact management and email marketing to the next level with a magazine CRM such as MagHub. Easily integrated with a current email marketing platform such as MailChimp and Constant Contact, our platform can help you automate your email marketing, taking it to the next level of list management.