SmartBrief by Future B2B publishes B2B newsletters in partnership with leading trade associations and nonprofits. As SmartBrief’s head of partnerships, Sarah Mercado works closely with these organizations to understand and meet their needs – and the needs of their members.
Future B2B spoke with Mercado about the challenges trade associations are facing and how digital communication solutions like newsletters can help solve them.
You work with trade associations very closely. What challenges are they navigating, and what opportunities are they pursuing?
Associations provide a lot of value to members, and one of their big priorities is ensuring their members are aware of everything the organization has to offer. This can include elevating the visibility of their educational programs, reports, resources and events. It can also mean drawing attention to their advocacy on key issues. All of this is an opportunity to reinforce the value of membership, but it’s also a challenge because competition for attention is fierce.
Revenue is a persistent issue in the current environment. Non-dues revenue is an important means of providing resources to members and exerting influence. As sponsors cut back on spending, associations feel it. They may need to expand their reach to new strategic partners while also expanding their offerings through additional channels.
You work with associations to leverage the power of email newsletters. What are some benefits newsletters can yield for associations?
There are many. We often start with thought leadership, because it’s something that stands the test of time. And it’s so endemic to what trade associations are all about. Information is powerful, and newsletters are an ideal way to convey it.
We discussed drawing attention to association activities. Thought leadership content helps with this, too. When you pair promotional messaging with thought leadership, you benefit from higher engagement. You can also consolidate messaging into a single, higher-value, higher-yield communication channel.
Ultimately, members are more prone to engage because they get value from every outreach. And when associations consolidate content their content in this way, they demonstrate respect for members’ time and avoid becoming noise. Associations that make the most of this opportunity draw interest in all they do – events, educational programs, content and more.
Newsletters can also serve as a member benefit or a pipeline for new members by way of brand awareness. They can enable an organization to foster non-member relationships that may enhance revenue streams through event attendance and other means. And newsletters can be a source of meaningful nondues revenue by expanding sponsor reach and tapping into additional budgets.
Associations have lots of options for email newsletters. They can handle the work in-house, they can contract out a portion of the process, and they can work with a publishing partner like SmartBrief. What are the pros and cons of these approaches?
In-house newsletters may be attractive for an association that wants complete control over a newsletter’s content and full ownership of the audience. For large organizations that have a distribution platform and the bandwidth to manage content, audience and optimization, this is a fairly common approach.
However, the bandwidth and complexity involved with in-house newsletter production are often too much for associations’ internal teams; in this case, working with an external partner is a good option. Contracting out a portion of the work – content curation, for example – can be a great way to augment internal resources, while a broader partnership can enable even a small team to have a big impact with a newsletter.
At SmartBrief, we strive to offer the best of both worlds, enabling our association partners to have plenty of input on content if it gives them peace of mind, while taking the heavy lift of content creation, distribution and monetization off their plates.
For associations that are looking for an external partner, what capabilities should they be looking for?
Purpose-built technology matters. I suggest asking lots of questions about email and advertising platforms. Deliverability is a priority, so be sure to ask how it is managed and optimized. Any newsletter partner should offer 24/7 access to engagement data (editorial and advertising), and for partners that use newsletters as a revenue stream, a monetization dashboard is another important feature. These are great ways for an association to stay very plugged in while minimizing demands on bandwidth.
I suggest asking about API integrations to meet your needs. Things like direct connections with a CRM and options for API integrations to manage coregistration for events and resources. These simple things can grow audiences in meaningful ways, and they make working with a newsletter partner seamless. RSS feeds are a nice added feature for keeping your website fresh, and a suite of engagement tools in newsletters like polls, social and learn more links, event promotions and more can keep audiences connected and drive them back to your website.
One thing that our association partners at SmartBrief especially value is their access to our team. Look for a partner that assigns you a dedicated editor and account manager so you can build a meaningful relationship. This team should be available on an ongoing basis, so any change you need to make can be implemented quickly. Your newsletter team should be continually innovating, and you should expect them to be a proactive and supportive resource for continually making the most of your newsletter.
Even with an external partner, trade associations’ newsletters aren’t quite set-it-and-forget-it. What ongoing attention is needed?
We invest time in the launch phase to start strong, but it is definitely important to optimize. Engagement data is the first place we look. We watch the numbers very closely and evolve content strategy over time to keep audiences continually engaged as trends shift. We also lean heavily on testing for evolving both content strategy and newsletter formatting. These are all best practices that should underpin any newsletter.
Even with these efforts, organic churn is a fact of newsletter life. You need a way of monitoring and mitigating churn, as well as tactics for topline audience growth. And it’s important to keep growth as targeted as possible – so you bring in the readers you want most.
Finally, I recommend leaning into opportunities for added value. Any external newsletter partner should offer multiple means of amplifying your message through content creation. They should be willing to collaborate on content and invite your participation. They should welcome your collaboration on sales. Steps like facilitating introductions to sponsors and listing your newsletter partner as a media sponsor can help strengthen your nondues revenue stream and reinforce the partnership itself.
At SmartBrief, we try to strike a balance for our association partners – we take the day-to-day heavy lifting of newsletter creation off their plates, while inviting collaboration where it is most helpful for achieving the partnership’s goals. As we mark the end of our 25th year of publishing, it seems to have worked quite well, but we are always innovating and evolving to ensure we stay ahead of associations’ needs.
