Two leading publishers share their tips for creating and executing successful limited run newsletters. They also outline their strategies for nurturing hard-won subscribers once the series have ended.
Publishers are seeing success with pop-up and limited run newsletters, from educational ‘courses’ to sporting event coverage, and elections.
Two of the sessions at the MediaVoices Publisher Newsletter Summit, in London in June, focused on pop-up newsletters. Katie Binns, Deputy Editor of The Times of London’s Money Mentor, shared how to nurture subscribers to limited run newsletters once the final send has been delivered. Neil Macdonald, Head of Newsletters at National World explored the lessons they’d learned six months into a paid limited email series on Scottish Golf Courses You Must Play. You can listen to both sessions below, or by searching The Publisher Podcast on your podcast app of choice.
Times Money Mentor was a free personal finance hub* from the Times and Sunday Times. It had two limited run newsletters as part of the brand; Couch to £5k, which won the Best Financial Newsletter at this year’s Publisher Newsletter Awards, and Pension Power-up. These were both multimedia newsletter campaigns designed to give readers a medium-term, tangible transformation to their personal finances.
UK regional publisher National World’s limited-run newsletter Scottish Golf Courses You Must Play – also shortlisted at our Publisher Newsletter Awards – is similarly multimedia-focused and editorially-led. But it is also a paid-for product, with subscribers handing over £9.99 for 12 editions of the newsletter sent out over two weeks.
Although both publishers had different starting points, audiences and goals, they had some valuable lessons to share for those crafting their own limited series newsletters, and importantly, what to do afterwards.
Strong alignment
The best way to set a limited series newsletter up for success is to choose a topic that aligns with the audience and publication. National World’s Neil Macdonald said that this was especially important for Scottish Golf Courses You Must Play; the publication’s first paid newsletter series.
“It had to fit one of our brands, there had to be an audience for it, and we had to have the resources and skills to produce it,” he explained. “We also wanted it to be evergreen, and not something we’d constantly have to go back to.”
The publication’s analytics showed that there was a year-round multi-national audience on The Scotsman of people reading about golf. There are also plenty of golfing events and tournaments throughout the year to use as touchpoints for promoting the newsletter.
Golfing correspondent Martin Dempster got involved with shaping the course as well as writing it. The first edition is an introduction from him in which he talks about his love of golf in Scotland, and explains what the subscriber will receive over the next few weeks. He also gives people a chance to get in touch with him. Then, there are ten further newsletter sends, each focusing on an individual golf course.
“We put emphasis on each of them being a really in-depth, comprehensive read about those courses, full of passion and enthusiasm,” Macdonald said, emphasising the need early on for value.
Times Money Mentor’s Couch to £5k was spread over a longer period of six weeks. The newsletter was designed to guide readers through all the ways they can get financially ‘fit’ and save money. It also offered a window into wider Times coverage, from relevant financial articles to YouTube content and deals.
Binns explained that their target audience was everyday people grappling with issues like impulse spending, post-divorce finance, changeable income, and a lack of know-how. The course was successful with many saving significant sums. “It wasn’t just six newsletters. It was a mini relationship with the Times Money Mentor Brand,” she pointed out.
Their other pop-up newsletter Pension Power-up, had a different mindset. Binns noted that because pensions are often seen as boring and complicated, and retirement is hard to make feel urgent, the team instead framed it through the lens of self-empowerment. Over four weeks, the newsletter guided readers through the key topics to help them supercharge their pension savings.
“There was a sense of encouragement. There was a sense of direction…we gave everyone two hours’ free financial advice,” Binns said. “Both newsletter campaigns were educational, they were instructive, they were actionable, and they were designed to be shop windows for Times Money Mentor and The Times.”
Quality check
In his talk, Macdonald emphasised the prioritisation of quality. “We were asking people to pay for something, so we knew it had to be good,” he said. There was also some pressure to get it right first time, unlike an ongoing newsletter with can be developed and tested week to week.
“We knew it had to hit the ground running. We wanted to get it right, and for people to feel like they were getting something that was worth the money,” said Macdonald. This also fed into the choice of Martin Dempster as lead writer. “You know right away that this is someone with an incredibly authoritative voice, who knows all about the courses. He knows what golfers want to know, because he has been there and done it for decades.”
For Macdonald, setting the price point for the Scottish Golf Courses You Must Play newsletter was the trickiest part of the process. He pointed out that if it was too much, no one would buy it, but if it wasn’t enough, it would imply that it wasn’t worth someone’s while. They researched golfing books, and subscription offers on The Scotsman to come up with the eventual £9.99 price point, targeting people who would not just have the money to play golf, but also the money to travel to play golf.
Six months in, and Macdonald is confident they’ve got it right, sharing in June that they had “well into the multiple hundreds of pounds of revenue from this.” They also have marketing efforts planned around the upcoming summer golfing season.
Marketing & promotion
Marketing a limited series newsletter is something which shouldn’t be underestimated. Binns pointed out that both Couch to £5k and Pension Power-up had a significant marketing effort from the business, with cross-promotion across the newsletter portfolio, month-long print and digital advertising campaigns, solus emails, paid social campaigns, and using unsold ad inventory across other Times properties. “We really went all guns blazing for the month-long promotional period, and we were rewarded with a massive subscriber growth,” she said.
The Scotsman daily news brand took a similar campaign-based approach to marketing the newsletter once it was ready. They had a launch article on The Scotsman itself, as well as consistent social media promotion, print and digital ads, and pop-up boxes if a reader was about to exit a web page. They also had promotion of the newsletter from the golf courses featured.
Macdonald noted that this was fine for launch, but they had to figure out a way to keep the momentum going. “We set up a newsroom champion to keep shouting about it, with support from myself, so we would have regular promotion going forward in relevant stories and on social to keep up those everyday reminders,” he shared. They are now exploring making the newsletter available for free to premium subscribers to The Scotsman to increase the value of the wider subscription.
Keeping the relationship going
Although there is an appeal for readers in a limited run newsletter, there are also a number of ways publishers can use the sign-up to build a longer lasting relationship.
At Times Money Mentor, the challenge was how to move those subscribers deeper into their editorial and commercial ecosystem. They decided to automatically subscribe readers to the weekly Times Money Mentor newsletter once the journey with Couch to £5k or Pension Power-up had ended.
“Guess what? Most stay,” Binns emphasised. “The very nature of Couch to £5k and Pension Power up is tied up so closely about what Times Money Mentor is about…a big part of the retention was people wanting to continue with that journey.”
Binns believes the low drop-off rate is because of the close topic alignment with the two pop-up newsletters. But as well as offering more affiliate links and deals on everything from credit cards to insurance, it moves them further into the Times subscription funnel. “Quite quickly, they start to enter the wider Times ecosystem,” she said, explaining that they have collaborations with Times Travel as well as promotion of other Times content.
“People signed up to Couch to £5k thinking they were getting a savings challenge. People signed up to Pension Power Up thinking maybe they’ll finally get round to consolidating their pensions. What they actually got was a doorway into a wider world.”
Binns explained that when they launched both pop-up newsletters, they weren’t just encouraging people to save, or take an interest in their pensions. “Right from day one we were building that trust,” she emphasised. “Trust is the currency that will transform readers into repeat engagers, and eventually, subscribers.”
For Macdonald, the opportunity comes in the final email from Martin Dempster. After 10 consistently-designed sends featuring signature holes, club professionals, and where to stay nearby, the last in the series is a personal farewell. This also includes a subscriber offer to The Scotsman. “We thought, if they’ve come this far, the chances are they’d be more inclined to subscribe to The Scotsman, and to subscribe to our free weekly golf newsletter,” said Macdonald.
They also include a reader survey in this final message. Macdonald said all feedback was taken on board, and they had already been able to make tweaks based on early feedback.
Some parting advice came from The Times’ Binns, who said limited series newsletters should always be designed as part of a wider strategy. “You’re not just delivering content with pop-up newsletters,” she reminded everyone. “You’re warming people up to move deeper into your brand. Design your pop-ups with the next steps in mind, and ensure that those next steps lead somewhere valuable.”
*Editor’s note: Sadly, The Times closed its Money Mentor section at the end of July, is planning to relaunch a personal finance offering instead.
Thanks to Passendo and Syno who sponsored the MediaVoices Publisher Newsletter Summit. Listen to Katie Binns and Neil Macdonald’s sessions at The Publisher Summits on The Publisher Podcast above, or on your podcast app of choice.
