How to Create Association Newsletters that Help Generate Revenue

Newsletters are a great way to keep your members updated on all the latest happenings with your association and the industry you’re in. But did you know they can actually be a great stream of non-dues revenue as well?

‍With newsletters being a vital part of almost every association’s member engagement strategy, it can be easy to overlook them as a prime source of non-dues revenue. But the reality is that there are a ton of ways to monetize your newsletter while still creating a hub for members to get the latest association updates and industry news. If creating new streams of non-dues revenue is your association’s biggest weakness, we’ve got a few ways to help you get your newsletter to start generating revenue without much extra work at all. Let’s give you a plan on how to create association newsletters that help generate the revenue you deserve.

Personalization options

Your newsletters are a prime source of information for members. But some members may be looking for a more refined source of data and text on specific topics. If you’d like to give members the option to make their newsletters personalized to their tastes and interests, you can offer a paid exclusive feature to curate their own newsletters.

Not only is this a great way to allow more customization and member benefits, but it also gives you a new way to increase non-dues revenue. Curating different newsletters based on member interests and specificities can allow you to send these newsletters out for an upcharge. You can assign someone on your customer relations team or your marketing team to work with members to communicate with members in order to customize their own newsletter.

‍Once you’ve had a conversation about member preferences, you can then curate content from your association’s website or from other partnering publications and combine that information into one newsletter. This way, members get the information they’re looking for and getting a premium offer that will bring in more revenue.

Sell ad space for categorized newsletters

If you’re looking to take the route of customized and/or categorized newsletters, it could also allow you to sell ad space a lot more efficiently. While your association may already sell ad space on its newsletters, having newsletters that are segmented by categories and industries can refine your audience, therefore making it more profitable for companies to advertise on your customized newsletters.

No matter how your newsletter is categorized, you’ll be sure to attract industry-related companies to partner with. Be sure to market your newly customizable and curated newsletters to organizations that may want in on advertising space. Be smart about how you market- you want to direct your technology-focused newsletter ad space to technology-focused businesses, and so on and so forth for the rest. Matching up newsletters with companies and advertisers that fit the category can also help keep your members happy with the content they’re receiving.

Use statistics to push ad revenue

Not getting the advertising revenue that you’re looking for? You may need to implement statistics and metrics from your newsletter campaigns to drive interest with companies. Advertisers are looking to know where there money is going and what they’re getting for it. If you can’t report on the demographics or engagement that your newsletters receive, you’ll be presenting quite the risky investment to buy ad space with your association. You need to show companies why advertising on your newsletters is the best move for them.

Reporting your engagement and audience statistics will help you sell ad space much more efficiently. You can put your metrics into a helpful chart or spreadsheet to send out when marketing your newsletter ad space. You can even put together a marketing package to send to interested advertisers. This takes a lot of the work of marketing your ad space out of the way, providing an organized solution.

Offer discounts to members who help grow your subscriber list

If you’re going to monetize your newsletter, you want the audience you’re marketing to to be a living, breathing, and growing thing. Growing your subscriber list can help you generate more revenue off of your newsletter in the long run. You’ll have more eager eyes reading your content, more interested potential customers looking for premium newsletter options, and a larger audience for advertisers to market to.

There’s no reason you shouldn’t focus on growing your subscriber list. And if you can get members to spread the word, you could give yourself the best chance at gaining the subscribers you want. Offer up a discount or incentive to members who refer others to sign up to receive newsletters. This way, members have a reason to get others on board, and you’ll grow your subscriber list with less time.

Newsletters don’t just have to be for increasing your association’s engagement. Using our tips, you can create a newsletter that generates more non-dues revenue for your association.