This post was sponsored by Paved. The opinions expressed in this article are the sponsor’s own.
Online advertising is one of the most popular, effective ways to increase brand awareness, traffic to your site, and overall revenue.
However, despite the increase in popularity, the online pool of potential customers is beginning to shrink.
Paid social has become saturated with competitors, making it harder to gain profitable wins.
Consumers are beginning to use ad blockers to reduce timeline clutter, while others are turning away from social media entirely.
Fortunately, there’s a new way to get around ad blockers and in front of highly qualified leads – sponsored newsletter ads.
Sponsored newsletter ads can help you reach millions of people at the right time within the customer journey.
What Are Newsletter Sponsorships?
Newsletter sponsorships are paid advertisements that are placed into existing, high-performing, high-engagement, active email newsletters or mailing lists.
By connecting with verified email publications that have a large subscriber base, proven open rates, and high click-through rates, you can be sure that you reach millions of qualified candidates with just one newsletter ad or newsletter sponsorship.
What Is The Benefit Of A Newsletter Sponsorship?
When you sponsor a newsletter that is relevant to your product, you’re getting the chance to send your message directly to an existing, qualified community.
Think of newsletters as podcasts, and think of newsletter sponsorships as podcast sponsorships.
In podcast sponsorships, the host delivers their vetted sponsor’s message directly to their existing community. These established listeners of the podcast will likely be interested in the contents of the ad.
In newsletter sponsorships, the owner of the email publication delivers your message directly to their opted-in email list.
Because you’ve chosen a relevant company to partner with, these recipients will likely be interested in your ad.
Screenshot of Morning Brew daily newsletter, November 2021How Sponsored Newsletter Ads Outperform Social Media Ads
Social media is an essential component in many companies’ marketing strategies.
In fact, Facebook’s May 2020 State of Small Business Report revealed that 160 million businesses use the tech company’s social media apps every month.
Features like customer analysis and targeted ads have increasingly enabled small businesses to compete with established companies, making social media advertising a top choice for new brands.
However, the increase of users also brings an increase in challenges that make it more difficult to capture qualified leads.
Paid Social Media Challenges
Despite the popularity of social media ads, they’re not a perfect solution.
The main drawbacks of advertising on social media, from the rising popularity of ad blockers to ad blindness and social media distrust, are making it harder for businesses to see a high ROI.
Ad Blockers
As marketers, we love good advertising. However, most consumers don’t share our passion.
In fact, many dislike ads so much that they’ll literally pay to avoid them.
Roughly 42.7% of internet users reported using ad blockers, according to a 2021 Hootsuite report.
The problem:
- You can dedicate your time and budget to creating an engaging Facebook campaign, and it may get blocked by at least half of your target audience.
Ad Blindness
Have you ever run a social media campaign that reported a lot of impressions but virtually zero engagement?
There’s a reason for that – ad blindness.
Ad blindness refers to the phenomenon in which consumers tune out banner-like information.
This often happens subconsciously as users aim to avoid distractions.
The problem:
- On a subconscious level, many users pick up on patterns to identify which posts are ads. Then, while browsing, they’ll automatically scroll past marketing posts in their feed.
Distrust
59% of consumers expect social media news to be largely inaccurate, as discovered in a 2020 study from Pew Research Center.
Constant misinformation and privacy issues on social media platforms have made consumers revoke their trust in these digital spaces.
The problem:
- Many consumers may approach social media ads with a degree of skepticism.
How Do Newsletter Sponsorships Solve Those Problems?
Newsletter sponsorships are like social media ads, but better – they’re both digital, highly targeted, and effective at any stage of the customer journey.
However, newsletter sponsorships, like newsletter ads, make up for areas in which social media ads fall short.
They offer a more personalized, trustworthy alternative, excelling in direct reach, relevance, and credibility.
Direct Reach
Newsletter ads can’t be blocked by ad blockers.
On top of that, they are delivered straight into the inbox of their target audience.
Whether you’re running a dedicated email sponsorship or a small placement in an existing newsletter, your audience will be more likely to interact with your brand directly.
By launching a newsletter sponsorship campaign, you’ll have a higher chance of grabbing the attention of your potential customers.
Relevance
Newsletter subscribers are a passionate bunch. After all, who else would want to receive a newsletter about the same topic on a daily or weekly basis?
When you run a newsletter sponsorship, you can reach your target audience exactly where they hang out.
Is your target audience made of travel enthusiasts looking for deals on flights and hotels? If so, you could sponsor a Zoomcake newsletter.
Are you advertising a product that helps customers unwind before their nighttime routine? Partner with Sleep Realm to reach subscribers looking to get a better night’s sleep.
Whatever your niche, you’ll likely find a newsletter community to match it.
By identifying shared interests among your target audience, you can get your brand in front of more engaged readers.
You’ll reach more qualified leads, and they’ll get access to valuable deals or product recommendations – it’s a win-win scenario.
Credibility
It’s no secret that newsletters have quite an edge over other media channels when it comes to consumer trust.
A Mantis Research survey found that 60% of adults subscribe to at least one email newsletter, while online-only media has earned a trust rating of just 55% among consumers.
When you run a newsletter sponsorship, it’s almost like the publisher is personally recommending your brand to its readers.
Rather than appearing as a random, standalone ad, you’ll be able to borrow the trust that the newsletter has built with its audience.
How You Could Reach Millions Of People With One Newsletter Ad
Launching your newsletter sponsorship campaign is similar to developing any marketing plan.
To create a newsletter sponsorship campaign, you should:
- Identify your goals.
- Choose your partner(s).
- Design your creative.
- Analyze your ad’s performance.
1. Identify Your Goals
Having an objective in mind is crucial to building a successful campaign. Start out by thinking about what you want to get out of this.
Do you want to boost awareness? Drive traffic to your blog? Gain qualified leads?
Once you have an idea, decide on clear parameters and KPIs. How much traffic do you want to drive? How many leads would you like to gain?
Structure your goal using the acronym SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
2. Partner With High-Performing Companies
Choose the right partner to run a successful sponsorship campaign with. When vetting a company to work with, focus on three key areas:
- Value: Pay attention to the value of the ad through metrics such as the cost per click (CPC).
- Niche: Get the highest number of qualified leads by making sure your ad gets placed in front of people whose interests fit your target audience. Find a publication in the same industry or one that’s directly adjacent.
- Demographic: Lastly, you’ll want to make sure that the reader demographics match your target audience.
To gather the information you need, you can request a media kit from each of your prospective partners while you perform your research.
Alternatively, you can use a directory like the Paved marketplace to search for newsletters by category and to find performance statistics and pricing information.
3. Design Your Ad Creative
Your design guidelines may vary depending on the newsletter you’re sponsoring.
Some will offer a range of options depending on your price point, ranging from a single block of text to a dedicated email.
4. Analyze Your Ad’s Performance
Once you’ve launched your newsletter sponsorship, you’ll want to track your results.
Keep an eye on metrics like opens and clicks in order to gauge your engagement.
You can even calculate cost per acquisition (CPA) by combining your sponsorship engagement metrics with your landing page conversion rate.
The Paved platform simplifies this step by tracking your performance metrics as soon as your sponsorship launches. That way, advertisers can check in on their results in real-time without bugging the publisher.
Easily Launch Your Campaign – Join A Sponsored Newsletter Marketplace
You can sign up as an advertiser on Paved to launch your newsletter sponsorship campaign.
Image Credits
Featured Image: Image by Paved. Used with permission.
