A Growth Marketer’s Guide to Acquiring Customers Through Email Newsletter Sponsorships

Email newsletters, despite being around for over five decades, have experienced a resurgence as traditional publishers seek to capture first-party data and build direct relationships with readers. Meanwhile, thousands of experts are leaving their corporate jobs to create their own content businesses. With email continuing to be one of the top online channels for consumer engagement, newsletters have emerged as a powerful marketing channel for growth marketers.

To engage audiences where they are, newsletters include long-form text content. Banner ads and other graphical ad units often appear out of place. Instead, many newsletters now offer sponsorships, featuring long-form, native ad content that is collaboratively written and can feel like an endorsement to readers. For direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, email newsletter sponsorships are becoming a popular strategy for acquiring new customers. At Wellput, we make discovering and scaling high-performing newsletter sponsorships easy and low-risk. In this guide, we share our insights on the benefits, best practices, pricing models, and performance metrics for leveraging email newsletter sponsorships effectively. Let’s dig in!

1. What are Email Newsletter Sponsorships?

Email newsletter sponsorships involve placing your brand’s content within targeted newsletters. Unlike intrusive banner ads, these sponsorships blend seamlessly with the newsletter’s content, often featuring collaboratively written, native ad content that feels like a trusted endorsement. Options range from text-only messages to text-plus-image formats.

2. Why are Email Newsletter Sponsorships Effective for Customer Acquisition?

Newsletter sponsorships offer contextual targeting and direct access to engaged audiences. Subscribers opt-in to receive content, demonstrating interest in the topics covered. Contextual targeting and high engagement makes newsletter sponsorships a gold mine for growth Marketers at DTC brands looking for new customer acquisition channels.

3. How Can Brands Identify the Right Newsletters to Sponsor?

To identify the right newsletters to sponsor, consider the following:

• Content Relevance: Look for writers with newsletters about relevant topics. For example, if your product is collagen, seek out newsletters about fitness and health.

• Archives and Past Sponsors: Check if the newsletter publishes archives and examine past sponsors. Repeated sponsorships by the same brands indicate good performance.

• Readership Demographics: Look for newsletters whose subscriber demographics align with your target audience.

• Engagement Metrics: Focus on newsletters with high open and click-through rates, but remember these metrics can be inaccurate. Instead, ask for the number of unique clicks expected based on historical performance for similar brands.

• Niche Relevance: Smaller, niche newsletters often yield better results than larger, less focused ones because their readers are more engaged with the specific content​

4. Best Practices for Testing Newsletters to Find High-Performers:

The goal is to identify high-performing newsletters with minimal risk. Here are some best practices:

• Run Small Test Campaigns: Test with a small audience segment or a secondary placement to gauge performance.

• Monitor Key Metrics: Focus on unique clicks, post-click engagement, time on site, pages viewed, leads, shopping carts, and conversions.

5. What are the Best Practices for Creating Compelling Sponsorship Content?

Creating effective sponsorship content involves:

• Write a Clear and Concise Messaging Template: Include a headline, body content, and a call-to-action (CTA) that encourages readers to click through to your landing page or website. Ensure your message is straightforward and easy to understand.

• Collaborate: Allow newsletter writers to adapt your content to match their style and tone, making it more authentic for their audience.

6. Pricing Models To Consider:

At Wellput, we offer Cost-Per-Click (CPC) pricing exclusively, as it shares the risk between the brand the newsletter publisher. However, several other pricing models exist and should bne considered:

• Cost Per Mille (CPM): Cost per thousand subscribers (or opens). It's a simple model that is easy to calculate but doesn’t always reflect engagement.

• Cost Per Click (CPC): This model is based on the number of clicks your ad receives, providing a more direct measure of engagement and performance. Make sure you only pay for unique clicks.

• Flat Fee: A set fee for sponsorship, simplifying budgeting but placing 100% of the risk on the brand.

7. How Can Brands Measure the Success of Their Email Newsletter Sponsorship Tests?

Forget vanity metrics such a as open rate and click rate, and instead focus on the following:

• Unique Clicks: How many actual people made it to my landing page or website. This indicates how well received your ad was by the newsletter audience. Don’t rely on the publisher’s reported unique click count, instead look at your website analytics to measure visits. The discrepancy between a publisher’s reported click count and your visitor metrics is typically 30%, but can be as high as 70% depending on factors such as where in the newsletter your sponsorship appeared.

• Conversion Rates: Track how many of those clicks led to desired actions, such as purchases or sign-ups. If your Average Order Value (AOV) is greater than $100, try and track upper-funnel events such as pages visited, time on site, leads or emails captured, etc.

• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS or ROI): Calculate the revenue generated from the sponsorship against the cost of the campaign. Is the rate of return worth the investment?

8. Once High-Performing Newsletters are Identified, How Can Brands Scale Those Relationships Over Time?

While testing helps the growth marketer identify high-performing newsletters, scaling those newsletter relationships over time involves several strategic steps:

• Provide Free Product: Newsletter writers can speak to your product more sincerely after they’ve tried it for themselves. Product samples and free product are appreciated and create goodwill.

• Negotiate Near-Term Partnerships: Newsletter performance can be variable based on a variety of factors outside of your control, such as the subject line. While establishing long-term deals can be efficient, you don’t want to lock yourself in if performance starts to decline. Secure better rates and more consistent placements by negotiating a 1-3 month contract to start.

• Performance Bonus: Share the performance metrics above, and offer the publisher a performance bonus in addition to the cost of sponsorship.

• Refresh Content: Work with the newsletter publisher to update the sponsored content over time.

• Schedule Regular Performance Reviews: Continuously monitor and analyze the performance metrics. Use this data to adjust your strategy and maximize results.

• Expand to Similar Newsletters: Identify other newsletters with similar audiences and expand your sponsorship efforts to these publications​ (Reletter)​.

Email newsletter sponsorships offer a unique opportunity for growth marketers to reach engaged audiences and acquire new customers effectively. By identifying the right newsletters, crafting compelling content, and strategically scaling high-performing relationships, brands can leverage this powerful channel to drive growth and achieve their marketing goals.

If you enjoyed this and want to hear more from our CEO, Craig Swerdloff, please sign up for his LinkedIn newsletter here.

A Publisher’s Guide to Selling Email Newsletter Sponsorships

Email newsletter writers and publishers have discovered that native sponsorships for relevant brands are more effective than programmatic banner ads. These sponsorships integrate smoothly with the newsletter content, creating a more cohesive and engaging experience for readers. Native sponsorships are less intrusive and more likely to be seen as valuable content rather than an annoying interruption. Publishers have control over which advertisers to include, ensuring brand alignment and avoiding ads for companies or products that might offend their audience, which could lead to unsubscribes or complaints. Sponsorships enhance trust and credibility, resulting in higher engagement and conversion rates. Furthermore, native sponsorships can be tailored to match the tone and style of the newsletter, ensuring they resonate better with the audience and drive more meaningful interactions.

What is an email newsletter sponsorship?

It's a method to monetize your newsletter by featuring an advertiser's brand or product within your content. A typical sponsorship includes elements such as a logo, image, headline, body copy, call to action, and a link to the advertiser's website. However, not all these components are necessary. The primary objective is to integrate the sponsorship seamlessly into your newsletter.

How to find newsletter sponsors

Start by looking at your own email list. For instance, if you run a newsletter for entrepreneurs, there's a good chance that representatives from companies wanting to reach your audience are already among your readers. A simple call-to-action in your newsletter inviting sponsors to reach out can be effective.

Next, seek out brands that are already sponsoring other email newsletters with content and subscribers similar to yours. To identify these brands, subscribe to every relevant newsletter and observe which companies are advertising—whether it’s a title sponsorship, a secondary sponsorship, or even a sponsored link. Alternatively, you can use a service like WhoSponsorsStuff to automate this process for you.

Next, you'll need to find the relevant contact at these companies to engage with. The appropriate contact often depends on the size of the company. For early-stage companies, reaching out to the CMO or even the CEO is a good approach. For larger organizations, look for individuals with titles containing the word "growth" or those in the following roles:

• Growth Marketing

• Digital Marketing

• Influencer Marketing

• Paid Media

• Social Media

Finding relevant brands and connecting with the right person is only half the battle. You still need to convince them that sponsoring your newsletter is a worthwhile investment. To do this, you’ll need a media kit that includes information about your audience, your rates, and success stories from previous sponsors.

How to price a sponsorship in your newsletter

One of the most challenging questions for a newsletter publisher or writer to answer is: How much should I charge to sponsor my newsletter? When you are just getting started and lack demand or proof of past success, a performance-based pricing model might be the solution. Before determining the exact amount, it's essential to understand the common pricing models:

**CPM (cost per mille):** CPM is the cost per 1,000 impressions. For example, if your list size is 10,000 with a 40% open rate, your newsletter generates 4,000 impressions. Charging a CPM of $20 means you divide 10,000 (subscribers) by 1,000 and multiply by $20 (CPM) to get $200. CPM is risky for the sponsor because they can't predict how many people will click, visit their website, or become customers.

**CPC (cost per click):** CPC is the cost per unique click your newsletter generates for the sponsor. If a newsletter edition generates 100 unique clicks and you charge $3 per click, you earn $3 x 100 clicks, totaling $300. CPC pricing is less risky for the sponsor than CPM, but the sponsor still can't predict how many people will become customers.

**CPA (cost per acquisition):** CPA is the advertiser's cost per acquired customer. If a customer is worth $100 to the sponsor and you generate four customers, you earn $400 for the sponsorship. CPA is the least risky model for the advertiser since they only pay for acquired customers. However, it's the riskiest model for you as you only earn if you generate new customers.

So, how should you price your newsletter ads when just getting started? The answer depends on your content category, the size of your audience, and how much time you have to dedicate to selling sponsorships. It's quick and convenient to sign up for affiliate networks like Impact that run CPA offers, or Wellput for CPC campaigns. These platforms provide newsletter publishers and writers an easy way to connect to lots of relevant brands, and build success stories that can later be used to sell CPM sponsorships.

If you’re a newsletter publisher or writer looking to generate revenue from newsletter sponsorships, we’d love to speak with you. Wellput offers you the ability to choose from dozens of active campaigns, get rewarded for good performance, and the convenience of having everything in one place.

We look forward to the opportunity to work with you.

Sincerely,

Craig Swerdloff

P.S. If you enjoyed this and want to hear more from our CEO, Craig Swerdloff, please sign up for his LinkedIn newsletter here.