How to Build a Sustainable Creator Newsletter

TL;DR

Every creator should maintain an email newsletter because it provides a direct, intimate connection with an audience that is less vulnerable to changing platform algorithms. A sustainable newsletter can deliver complete long-form content, achieve strong click-through and conversion rates, support related products, and expand into valuable professional niches through cross-promotion.

Transcript

all right so let's let's dive into it I wanted to bring you on because I'm fascinated by email which is hilarious and I'm saying this because it's we're entering 2023. I remember 20 times email quote-unquote dying right email is dead email is dead but I'm I'm still fascinated by it and you're the email guy you know CEO of morning Brew um one of my ... Read More

Key Insights

• Email is a durable communication channel because platform popularity and algorithms can change while inbox communication remains widely used. Austin Rief cites a statistic that 87.5 percent of people in the United States use email as their primary form of communication.
• A newsletter is an intimate audience channel because it appears alongside messages from friends, family, and coworkers. Reaching that environment can make a publication feel more like a trusted relationship than content encountered through a changing social media feed.
• Newsletters are effective conversion tools because they can produce strong click-through and conversion rates. Creators can use that relationship to sell or promote another offering over time, although monetizing through additional products is optional rather than a requirement.
• Morning Brew's original publishing model was designed for complete reading inside the email. Instead of using the newsletter primarily to send readers toward website links, the company placed the full editorial experience in the inbox and made email consumption the central goal.
• Newsletter verticalization works by serving narrower professional audiences with specialized information. Morning Brew identified job functions such as human resources, retail, marketing, IT, and finance, then created publications intended to help those readers perform better in their work.
• Cross-promotion is especially effective within the same medium because some people habitually consume multiple newsletters. Morning Brew found that subscribers acquired through other newsletters clicked and read more, which encouraged the company to promote its own specialized publications across its network.
• B2B newsletter advertising can command high rates because vendors value access to difficult-to-reach professional decision-makers. A company selling expensive enterprise software may struggle to acquire vice presidents and technology leaders through an Instagram advertisement, making a focused professional publication more attractive.
• Short-form video is difficult to monetize through advertising because integrating a sponsor into a 30-second video is challenging. Morning Brew's suggested approaches are to repurpose inexpensive clips from long-form content or produce original short videos at nearly zero cost using a personality and camera.

Questions & Answers

Q: Why should every creator have an email newsletter?

Every creator should have an email newsletter because it creates a direct and intimate connection with readers inside their inboxes. Social platforms can lose popularity or change their algorithms, but email gives creators a more stable way to reach an audience. Newsletters also support long-form communication, strong click-through and conversion rates, and the optional promotion of products or other content.

Q: Is email still useful for building a media business?

Email remains useful for building a media business because it is still a major form of communication and has repeatedly survived predictions of its decline. Austin Rief cites a statistic that 87.5 percent of people in the United States use email as their primary communication method. The opportunity depends on what kind of email business is created, but creators can still build meaningful businesses around newsletters.

Q: How did Morning Brew make its newsletter different?

Morning Brew designed its daily publication to be read entirely within the email rather than treating the newsletter as a list of links leading to a website. The complete editorial experience arrived in the subscriber's inbox. Although that approach later appeared simple, it distinguished the publication from competitors and helped make email itself the product rather than merely a distribution channel.

Q: How can a newsletter business expand into new niches?

A newsletter business can expand by asking its existing audience what additional information it wants, identifying why readers value the original publication, and creating focused newsletters for relevant groups. Morning Brew learned that readers liked its tone and writing, then applied that style to professional categories such as marketing, retail, human resources, IT, and finance while cross-promoting the new publications.

Q: Why are professional niche newsletters attractive to advertisers?

Professional niche newsletters are attractive because advertisers may have a high willingness to pay for access to specific job functions and decision-makers. A vendor selling enterprise software can find it difficult to reach vice presidents or technology leaders through a general Instagram advertisement. A newsletter serving those professionals offers a concentrated audience and can therefore support high advertising rates.

Q: Why does newsletter cross-promotion work well?

Newsletter cross-promotion works because many newsletter readers regularly consume several email publications. Morning Brew found that subscribers arriving through advertisements in other newsletters clicked more, read more, and spent longer with the content. Promoting related publications within its own network allowed the company to move suitable readers into specialized newsletters while increasing the value generated from each acquired subscriber.

Q: Can newsletters and podcasts cross-promote equally well?

Cross-promotion generally works most smoothly when audiences remain in the same medium. The conversation describes moving readers from one newsletter to another as relatively easy and moving listeners between podcasts as similarly natural. Converting a newsletter reader into a podcast listener is harder because the audience must change its consumption behavior, even when both properties belong to the same network.

Q: How should creators approach short-form video?

Creators should keep short-form video inexpensive because direct advertising monetization is difficult within a 30-second format. One approach is to record long-form material, such as a podcast, then distribute selected clips across short-form platforms. Another is to produce original videos at nearly zero cost using a compelling personality and a camera. Strong recurring concepts can also make specialized subjects entertaining.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Email remains a widely used communication channel despite recurring predictions of its decline. For creators, a newsletter establishes a direct audience relationship inside an inbox shared with messages from friends, family, and coworkers. It also supports long-form publishing, strong conversion, and the future promotion of products or other content.

• Morning Brew expanded after its daily newsletter approached one million subscribers in 2018. Audience research showed that readers valued its tone and writing style, while cross-promotions revealed that newsletter readers often consume multiple newsletters. The company used these findings to launch specialized publications for professional audiences such as marketing, retail, IT, and finance.

• Professional newsletters can attract valuable advertisers because reaching decision-makers through general social advertising is difficult. A network of related newsletters also increases each subscriber's value through internal cross-promotion. Short-form video can widen distribution, but its production costs and limited space for advertising make direct monetization more challenging than newsletter advertising.

• Key Insights

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