Nearly everyone has a favorite newsletter, but that hasn’t always been the case. Email newsletters fell out of favor several years ago because they were seen as an antiquated way to get news. Who needs a bunch of emails clogging their inboxes when they can just use an app?But as digital transformation initiatives sweep across markets, how readers receive information is swinging back towards newsletters. Today, they are perceived less as spam and more as valuable information sources.
As part of this newsletter renaissance, a few different styles have emerged:
- Those that feature unique news that isn’t posted on a website, or if it is, is strategically posted to time with the newsletter distribution
- Those that aggregate articles from their own website (with perhaps an internal editor who contributes unique newsletter content)
- Those that aggregate news from various third-party websites
Although all three types are valuable, the first is probably the most interesting – and the most frustrating – to marketers. Pitching newsletters presents a challenge – they require getting a little more creative determining the correct contacts and the correct pitch. Here are five tips for pitching your favorite newsletters:
- Do your homework – just like you’d build a list of publications you want to target, build a newsletter list of those that hit your company’s sweet spot. Start with some quick Google, Twitter and LinkedIn searches. Ask your teams what newsletters they subscribe to. Once you get started, your list can snowball, so don’t be afraid to whittle it down.
- Subscribe to the newsletters you are pitching and read them every day (or week, if that’s how they publish). Who writes about what? Who is closest to your company’s area of interest? It takes extra effort to do this every day, but the more you get in the habit of reading them religiously, the easier it is to spot the topics and trends the editor is most interested in. If they don’t match your needs, unsubscribe.
- Understand that bigger isn’t necessarily better – coverage in a smaller newsletter with a niche following can oftentimes be better for your business than a larger newsletter that skirts the fringes of your areas of expertise. Check out sites like Substack, which has made it easy for anyone to create a newsletter and build a significant readership base. Despite some hiccups Substack has had recently, you just might find your new favorite influencer there!
- Investigate whether the newsletter has its own editor or whether an editor at an associated publication assembles it. If the editor is already on your publication pitch list, it’s probably OK to leave them there for now as you’ll likely be pitching different angles. You can make a strategic decision to move them to your newsletter list if that’s a better fit.
- Stay targeted with your pitches. No one wants to open a pitch that isn’t a good fit – it wastes your time and the editor’s time. Instead, use the knowledge you’ve gained from being a subscriber to craft pitches that are right up their alley.
The golden rule in pitching newsletters: Do your research and know your stuff. If you put in the time, pitching newsletters can be as – or more – valuable than pitching publications and journalists.