Daily Buzz: Whittle Down Your Email Newsletters

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  (opens in a new tab).

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

If you run a #nonprofit  (opens in a new tab) – or even are just budget-conscious – you probably depend on #volunteers  (opens in a new tab). Some thoughts on how to develop a volunteer management plan: https://t.co/OxYs8QlJPa  (opens in a new tab)

— Future Value (@FVCTweets) August 10, 2018  (opens in a new tab)

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  (opens in a new tab), 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.  (opens in a new tab)

Make your leadership style about partnership. Diverse membership communities require leaders to becomes partners, writes Jeffrey Cufaude of Idea Architects  (opens in a new tab).

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

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