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Newsletters are the easiest way to retain readers since it just pops in their inbox -- if the writing is good and/or specialized. Good design also really helps.

Newsletters are the easiest way to retain readers since it just pops in their inbox -- if the writing is good and/or specialized. Good design also really helps. When I managed the newsletters for a New York urban planning nonprofit, we averaged 23% open rates. Another good hook is when issues don't have a public web archive, or it's paywalled. I saw the bundling mentioned in the Digiday article with the "Everything" brand, and I unsubscribed since I just wanted the business analysis and not other topics (like productivity advice) mixed in. Maybe bundling is okay for other readers. I have to check out what Substack offers in terms of analytics and email design templates. Personally, I'm interested in series-based newsletters for storytelling that's pubdate agnostic (everyone gets the same first issue). I'm going to look closer at ConvertKit and BareMetrics.

strogonoff 6y ago
I'm curious, how do you measure open rates for a newsletter? Many email clients prevent external content from loading as a security measure, thus precluding any tracking. Do you adjust the final figure to account for resulting underreporting? Or do you reckon more clients load external content than I think?
- mvellandi 6y ago
  Open rates were measured (probably) from either track-pixels as well as any normal images hosted by the email provider. When an email is variably considered 'trusted'/not-spam by the client, it'll show images. But even if no images are shown, a link clickthrough in the email (to the email host and redirected to source) would then also be added to the open rate.
criddell 6y ago
Newsletter fatigue is definitely setting in with me. I was pretty excited about them through 2019 and subscribed to a bunch. They are filtered to a folder in my mail and these days I rarely open any of them. My mail client also blocks remote content (no images) so even if I do read one, I probably will not register on their analytics. I'm actually using an RSS newsreader more (NetNewsWire on my iPad). For me, it's a much better experience.

strogonoff 6y ago

I'm curious, how do you measure open rates for a newsletter? Many email clients prevent external content from loading as a security measure, thus precluding any tracking. Do you adjust the final figure to account for resulting underreporting? Or do you reckon more clients load external content than I think?

mvellandi 6y ago
Open rates were measured (probably) from either track-pixels as well as any normal images hosted by the email provider. When an email is variably considered 'trusted'/not-spam by the client, it'll show images. But even if no images are shown, a link clickthrough in the email (to the email host and redirected to source) would then also be added to the open rate.

criddell 6y ago

Newsletter fatigue is definitely setting in with me. I was pretty excited about them through 2019 and subscribed to a bunch. They are filtered to a folder in my mail and these days I rarely open any of them. My mail client also blocks remote content (no images) so even if I do read one, I probably will not register on their analytics. I'm actually using an RSS newsreader more (NetNewsWire on my iPad). For me, it's a much better experience.