6-Step Newsletter Strategy to Build An Engaged Audience

*This article has been updated to maintain its accuracy and relevance.

Building an email list is the only way to own your audience, and that is why email lists are the most crucial part of online marketing.

Newsletters are gold.

Even with all the advancements in social media, mobile phones, AI, and VR, there’s still nothing that comes quite as close to an email newsletter. 

In fact, in 2021 and 2022, 402 million emails were sent using beehiiv. 

In 2023, the number grew to 4.5 billion emails!

The ROI of email marketing is an outrageous 3800% (Litmus). That means email is giving the average brand owner $38 back in their pocket for every dollar spent.

Email works so well because an email list offers a personalized inner circle for brands. Running an effective newsletter can be the single difference between a brand with a distracted, apathetic audience, and one with a tribe of superfans.

If you can learn how to grow an active audience, the opportunities to monetize your newsletter and grow your brand are endless.

In this article, we’ll break down the key components of an effective email newsletter strategy so you can engage your readers and boost your subscriber list.

Let’s begin.

What Is an Email Newsletter Strategy? (Getting Started)

Every successful mission, no matter the cause, needs a strategy. 

Your email newsletter needs a road map to get you where you want to go. Your email newsletter strategy is your road map–it’s where you take all of the scattered components of a successful newsletter and gather them into one unified place. 

Speaking of maps, the journey to success is not a straight shot down a paved highway. There isn’t one single action that, on its own, can create an effective newsletter. You can’t have a good send time without good content. You can’t have great monetization without proper list growth.

If you’re wondering how to create a successful email newsletter, the best place to start is with your marketing. Without a proper marketing strategy, your newsletter will fall on deaf ears. If you want to capture the hearts of your target audience, then you can’t just hit send–you have to have a plan. Building a strategy is the way you put all the puzzle pieces together to ensure it’s successful.

Here are 6 of the key components you need to craft an effective email newsletter marketing strategy.

1. Set Goals for Your Email Newsletter Marketing Strategy

Think of your email newsletter as a ship at sea. You need a map to know where you’re going.

The very first thing you have to do, if you want to establish an effective marketing strategy, is to define your goals. 

A good place to start is to go back to your overall business goals, core values, and vision for your brand.

Why do you want to start sending an email newsletter in the first place?

• Do you want to establish yourself as an authority in your field? 

• Do you want to create new revenue streams? 

• Maybe you want to quit your 9-5 so you can be your own boss? 

• Perhaps you want to engage prospective clients to grow your service business.

Whatever the reason for your newsletter, it’s important that you clearly define what your goal or goals are with a number attached to it.

For instance, your goal might be to grow your email newsletter to 1,000 paid supporters at $5 per month for a total recurring revenue of $5,000 so you can finally quit your day job.

And, if you want to further solidify your goal, remember to set a target goal date. That way you can track your progress and make proper adjustments along the way.

2. Leverage Social Media

Social media isn’t the best way to own your audience but it surely is the way to build your email list.

Your social media posts can be one of the biggest drivers to get people to subscribe to your newsletter.

Combine your email list and social media strategy for better results:

1. Share sneak peeks on social media and add a CTA to your newsletter.

2. Build free lead magnets for your niche and let your audience get them in exchange for their email.

3. Repurpose your best content from email and social media for maximum engagement. Don’t be hesitant to double down on what’s already working.

3. Pick Your KPIs

Once you’ve hopped aboard the newsletter ship and laid out your map, it’s time to set sail, right?

Well, not yet. 

Your map tells you where you have to go. But, your compass tells you whether you’re on the right track or not–that’s where KPIs come in. KPIs, or key performance indicators, are metrics you set in place to help you understand whether you’re on the right track.

While a KPI isn’t the end goal, it’s a simple measurable checkpoint to help you understand whether you need to adjust your sails or coast with the wind.

KPIs can help you measure the success of your email newsletter marketing strategy so you know how you’re performing, whether it’s about optimizing your email deliverability or growing your monthly revenue.

Some of the most commonly tracked email KPIs are:

• Open Rates

• Click Rates

• Unsubscribe Rate

• Revenue Per Recipient

• Subscriber Growth Rate

• Bounce Rate

• Email Opt-In Conversion

Another KPI you’ll want to track if your goal is to monetize with monthly supporters, is the total number of supporters you have. Plus, you’ll want to track your monthly supporter growth rate and total supporter revenue.

4. Create an Email Newsletter Content Strategy

If your email newsletter marketing strategy is the heart of your business, then your content strategy is the blood. 

Your content is the life force of your entire email strategy. 

It flows into everything. It’s what carries your newsletter and keeps your audience engaged. If you craft a great newsletter strategy but your content falls short, the whole system will collapse.

Here are a few tips you need to follow to establish an effective email newsletter content strategy:

• Market Research: Think about your audience. What kind of content do they like to consume the most? How do they like to take it in? Don’t be afraid to survey your audience to determine the initial trajectory of your content strategy.

• Create content guidelines: Once you understand what kind of content your audience likes, it’s time to create guidelines. Write out the types of content you’ll make, how you’ll craft your copy, the style, and your graphics usage. You should write out guidelines to ensure your content is consistent.

• Determine the best send times: Every audience is unique. Some people open all their emails first thing Monday morning. Others like to scan them after dinner in bed. Determine what day time of day to send your newsletter. 

• Create a content calendar: You need to determine how often you’ll send your newsletter. Once a day? Once a week? Pick a timeline and stick to it.

• Premium Content: Are you going to offer premium content to your subscribers? With beehiiv, you can easily monetize your newsletter by offering a premium subscription to your audience.

5. Choose Your Email Newsletter Software

Once you’ve set your goals, determined your KPIs, and established a content plan, it’s time to pick your email newsletter software.

There are a variety of ways you can create and send out your email newsletter. And there are dozens of platforms you can choose from. However, every newsletter software is different, offering varying levels of technical infrastructure, user capabilities, and monetization abilities.

You need to choose a software that aligns most with your goals. Start by determining what kind of features you need in order to successfully carry out your email newsletter strategy. 

Here are some features that every professional email software should offer:

• Drag-and-drop email editor 

• Custom domains

• Elaborate segmentation

• Automations

• Email content personalization 

• Subscriber list management

• Analytics

• A/B testing

Remember, every email software is different–that’s why it’s important to analyze what your needs are first, to ensure you use a platform that matches your goals.

6. Grow Your Subscriber List

Once you’re set up on the right email newsletter platform, all that’s left to do is focus on growth.

By now, you should have your content plan and the infrastructure to grow and monetize your list all ready to go. But, if you don’t have anyone to send it to, then your efforts will go to waste.

The next part of your strategy is to build your list. When using a platform like beehiiv, you can create simple email opt-in forms on your website to turn your site visitors into email subscribers.

However, it’s not enough to just have an email sign-up form. 

As mentioned above, tracking KPIs is the key to reaching your business goals. beehiiv also allows you to dive deep into subscriber analytics to see how your list is growing and what opt-in forms are working well so you can grow your list with ease.

Before you can reel thousands of subscribers into your tribe, you have to ensure you have a foolproof plan in place. 

If you’re ready to launch your email newsletter strategy, then get started with beehiiv for free today.