Technology

Daily Buzz: Whittle Down Your Email Newsletters

What changes would make your email newsletters more engaging? The Wall Street Journal is starting by cutting back on the number of newsletters it produces. Also: Developing a volunteer management plan.

How many newsletters does your organization send out each week? If, like The Wall Street Journal, the answer is too many, it’s time to consider a new strategy.

WSJ is taking steps to innovate how audiences interact with newsletters, starting with whittling them down. The newspaper has reduced its number from a staggering 126 newsletters to about 40 audience-driven emails.

From there, the newsletter team is aiming to restructure their content and design to promote more engagement, with new features such as real-time capabilities and invitations to interact with staff at the newspaper.

“One of the things we’re aiming for is to establish a sense of whimsy around what we do, which might sound silly coming from The Wall Street Journal,” said Cory Schouten, WSJ’s senior newsletter editor, in an interview with Nieman Lab.

The result, WSJ hopes, is a more interactive newsletter experience that pushes people to subscribe to the newspaper, which is well-known for its paywall.

Maximizing Volunteers’ Time

Many organizations can’t function properly without the willingness and help of volunteers. To make the most of their time, adopt a volunteer management plan.

The first step, writes Claire Warnick for the NTEN blog, is understanding the value volunteers can bring to a project. From there, you can develop a staffing plan, position requirements, and strategies to recruit—and keep—volunteers.

Other Links of Note

The one thing every social strategy needs: preparation. The Wild Apricot blog breaks down how the right plan can leverage engagement and membership.

Make your leadership style about partnership. Diverse membership communities require leaders to becomes partners, writes Jeffrey Cufaude of Idea Architects.

Marketing stunts aren’t easy to pull off. But Hootsuite shares a few that worked and what you can learn from them.

(MissTuni/iStock/Getty Images Plus)

Jeff Hsin

By Jeff Hsin

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