For the first time ever, the Digital News Report authored by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has dedicated an entire chapter to news consumption via email. The report analyzed data from thousands of readers of online news across 46 different markets. While the insights around email are focused on news content specifically, the data is useful for any publisher looking to enhance a newsletter strategy or even launch a new campaign. The findings in this year’s report shows that email continues to rise in popularity as an effective way to reach hyper-targeted audiences.
Who Reads Email Newsletters?
While email is not the primary source of traffic for most news outlets, it is more popular in the U.S. than in other countries. This year’s Digital News Report found that 22% of users surveyed in the U.S. use newsletters or email alerts, with almost half of them saying it is their main way of accessing digital news.
The report also found that the majority of users who consume news via email are older, richer, educated, and have a heavy interest in news-related content. In fact, one in seven adults over the age of 55 in the U.S. said that email was their main way of accessing news. Additionally, 80% of users who use email to read news are over the age of 35.
While the insights around exactly who gets their news from email and how they do it may seem limiting to the average publisher, there is still plenty of room to leverage email for topics outside of news.
The Benefits of an Effective Email Strategy
The data from the Digital News Report confirms that email is a great way to distribute specialized content across a wide range of subjects. The minimalist nature of email lends itself nicely to personalized content that could otherwise get lost in the noise.
“Despite its relative lack of sophistication, it remains a key tool for publishers as they focus on building deeper relationships with loyal users — as well as attracting new subscribers.” —Digital News Report 2022
The easy-to-read nature of email also creates an opportunity to show off your content’s unique style. Of the thousands of users surveyed in the Digital News Report, 64% said they valued email for its convenience, and 28% said they favored newsletters because they liked the tone of the author.
As mentioned above, one of the primary characteristics of email news readers is that they are highly interested in news-related content. With the right email strategy, that same effective audience targeting can be applied to any topic.
Weave Newsletters Into Your Content Workflow
While newsletters are not likely to be your site’s primary driver of traffic, it’s still prime time for publishers to capitalize on the benefits of email sooner rather than later. Click here for some quick tips on launching a newsletter campaign.
The RebelMouse platform has an intuitive newsletter dashboard that makes it easy to use major platforms like Mailchimp and Sailthru without ever leaving your CMS. Our elegant integrations allow you to turn posts into newsletters, choose templates, and schedule campaigns right from your editing space. Click here to learn more.
Easily schedule newsletters from RebelMouse’s editing interface.
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