How-To Guide: Starting an email newsletter from scratch

Starting an email newsletter not only allows your student media organization to connect with your audience via their inboxes but also unlocks valuable revenue opportunities through brand awareness and advertising space. Email newsletters offer a direct channel to students and deliver stronger engagement than website or social ads, while also providing easy access to performance metrics. 

Follow these six steps to create your first newsletter.

1. Identify your audience and purpose

Identify your newsletter’s audience by looking at who is already engaging with your content on other channels. A newsletter is a chance to curate content your audience craves, so use your audience analytics to enhance their experience by delivering the content you know they want to read straight to their inbox.

Remember, if you try to target everyone, you will end up reaching no one.

After identifying your audience and their wants, determine how your newsletter’s purpose will deliver on these desires.  Your newsletter’s purpose should align with the unique value your student media organization provides to your campus community.

There are five main jobs of an email newsletter: education, connection, engagement, action, and entertainment. Most newsletters fit squarely into the education category, but infusing these other jobs as well can increase your newsletter’s engagement rates. 

Educate by sharing local news. If your student media organization manages a robust local events calendar, your newsletter should share this to foster connection. If your student media organization excels at sparking conversations on campus, the goal could be engagement and action through polling, donation links, and spotlighting organizations doing meaningful work in your community. 

2. Choose your email team

Newsletter teams are structured differently across organizations. Sometimes it’s the managing editor, the audience engagement desk, a dedicated staffer, or a mix of these. 

Decide how many team members you will assign and what their roles will be. When appointing your team, also think about communication methods, project management, and deadlines.

Here are the 4  main roles:

• Content: Responsibilities include determining and implementing what content will be included. 
• Editor: This person edits the content and the formatting. This person can also be responsible for design and layout. 
• Analytics: This person will track engagement analytics, such as subscribers and newsletter data like open and engagement rates. 
• Sales: Oversees newsletter monetization.‍

3. Pick a platform & frequency

The platform you choose will not make or break your email newsletter. Popular platforms include Mailchimp, Constant Contact, Beehiv, Overlooked, and iContact.

When shopping around for a platform, weigh the cost of what matters the most to your team. Is it the design features or the analytics features? Pay attention to how many subscribers you can support on each tier, and look for nonprofit or educational discounts. 

As for frequency, many organizations send daily or weekly newsletters. If your organization produces more than 20 stories per week, you have enough content to produce a daily newsletter. If your organization produces fewer than 20 stories per week, you can produce a weekly newsletter.

Consistency is the most important, providing both accountability for your team and a sense of routine for your audience. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday mornings typically see the highest open rates of the week. But every campus is different, so try out some different days and times before you settle on one.

4. Choose what content will be included

The structure of your newsletter can vary, but here are the must-haves for every newsletter. 

• Subject line and preview text
• Masthead and/or logo
• Introduction and byline 
• Two to three pieces of content 
  
  • Can be top stories, breaking news, audio pieces, photo galleries, etc.
• Three to four advertising placements (masthead, top, middle, and bottom)
• Sign off
• Links to your social media accounts and website

For more information on newsletter content, check out the Newsletter Content 101 Guide.

5. Build your subscriber list

Build your subscriber list by inviting your existing readers to subscribe. You can also try to access the student email addresses through your university, by submitting a public records request through FOIA, or by contacting someone at your university who has access to the list. 

Read our guide to growing your subscriber list and using FOIA to get email addresses from your university .

6. Make that money

The final step is to open your newsletter up for monetization. Implement three to four advertising units and pitch to clients looking for a way to show up in your audience’s inbox.

Pricing for advertising in your newsletter should scale by the number of subscribers. For pricing guidance, review flytedesk’s advertising pricing guide or reach out to your flytedesk account manager.

What’s Next?

Building a dedicated subscriber base takes time. You can keep revisiting these six steps as your newsletter grows. 

If you need any help along the way, contact your flytedesk account manager for more resources and support.