media update’s Talisa Jansen van Rensburg reveals everything you need to know about short-run newsletters.

These newsletters are available for a set period of time, meaning that it could be considered as ‘limited edition’ content. People tend to show a lot of interest in this type of newsletter because they know that it won’t be there forever. And as we all know, no one wants to feel that they are missing out.

With that in mind, are you ready to dive into the nitty gritty of short-run newsletters? Let’s go!

What is a short-run newsletter?

A short-run newsletter is a short-term project that allows for many growth opportunities in turning readers into paying monthly subscriptions. The New York Times loves to make use of short-run newsletters because it is something that will draw the attention of its readers.

According to Stephanie Miles in an article for Web Publisher Pro: “The Times launched a newsletter series called Summer in the City, which offered readers a stream of warm weather activities to do in New York City. As the name implies, “Summer in the City is sent out during the summertime months”. Since this newsletter focus specifically on things to do during the summer times, this newsletter will be very effective because it is relevant, now!

Additionally, The New York Times had a short-run newsletter that focussed on the ultimate guide to everything in relation to Game of Thrones. The newsletter was first released back in 2011 and ran for the duration of the series. This newsletter proved to be effective due to the large number of people watching Game of Thrones at the time.


How to create a short-run newsletter

Creating a short-run newsletter requires five crucial steps:
  1. Have a clear goal in mind. What do you want this newsletter to achieve?
  2. Include information that your readers will actually want to read.
  3. Ensure that, despite the fact that it’s a short-term project, the content is of high quality.
  4. Create awareness of the limited edition newsletter prior to its launch.
  5. Make it exciting. People need to sit at the edge of their seats!
A short-run newsletter is all about trial and error in terms of what works best for your brand, so don’t feel discouraged if the first one isn’t as grand as you thought it might be.

You need to remember that each short-run newsletter you create needs to correspond to the type of audience you want to attract.

A great way to figure out what type of newsletter to send is to do a bit of research. For instance, The New York Times allows its audience to choose the type of news they want to see.


Are short-run newsletters really worth it?

The short and sweet answer is definitely yes. Quartz, which is as a business news organisation form New York City has played around with short-run newsletters and saw great success.

Its short-run newsletters focussed on events that have an average open rate of 50%, which is 10% higher than its regular newsletter. Quartz also receives a 22% open rate for its media newsletter, showing that the short-run newsletter is opened by a lot more people.

Companies can grow their numbers by creating short-run newsletters focussing on specific events and topics. That will grab the attention of different readers with different interests.

Another great example of how effective a short-run newsletter can be seen with a newsletter from CNN. This newsletter was focussed around Hurricane Florence in 2018. Since this was very topical, CNN built their subscriber list to reach more than 40 000 people.

Are you going to try and incorporate short-run newsletters in your marketing strategy? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Now that you know what short-run newsletters are, why not check out these Four factors to consider when creating a winning newsletter to ensure that your standard newsletter will grab your target audience's attention.
*Image courtesy of Pixaby