Newsletters are the new source of News

With the a concerning amount of fake news spreading across our social media platforms, there is a growing trend searching for other avenues to find news which is relevant and fact checked. What does this have to do with emails you may ask. Well they are seeking out newsletters which are curated and  fact checked delivered right to their inbox.

[bctt tweet=”There is a growing trend of people reading their daily news directly from their inbox. #email” username=”ungapped”]

Emails are sent and received everyday, they reach us wherever we are. On our computers, tablets and smartphones. With over 2.1 billion people owning a smartphone emails will reach us wherever and whenever we are. (www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/)

Smartphones have increased the ability for us to read our emails and check the news anywhere. Most of the time once an email is downloaded on our phone we do not need an internet connection to read the email which means we can read them when travelling, on the plane, bus, car or in any place we pick up that phone of ours.

According to statistics from Quartz’s Global Executive Survey, 74% of top executives get their news first thing in the morning and 94% of them get it from email newsletters. It’s not just executives that rely heavily on email because it’s also estimated that 91% of non executive consumers check their email at least once a day. These figures support why newsletters such as the New York Times Daily, the Quartz Daily Brief, the Skimm and some newcomers like the 1440 Daily Digest, The Business Insider Nordic and other curated news digests have become popular with readers.

“A lot of people forget this when they think of mobile — they think of apps. But email is inherently mobile. Everyone has email on their smart phones, and email looks great on your phone because you’re so limited. You basically only have words, links and images, beyond that there’s not much else”
— Millie Tran, BuzzFeed

When it comes to emails we have the marketing emails, spam emails and then we have the emails that educate and inform us. Even myself when travelling each day to work I go through and read my emails, from ThinkwithGoogle, Marketing Journals, Brain Pickings, Nordic News and a few other curated news sources.

One of the great things about having news coming in through email is that you have various viewpoints on what is happening in the world Plus it saves a lot of time surfing the web pages. You can just go through each email read the content, and go to the next.

Just as emails can be used for email marketing, they are also a great way to share knowledge to your audience. Daily newsletters are an incredibly useful tool to keep your audience  informed. Curated, tailored content which is fact checked will go a long way to building up your trusted brand.

As Richard puts it from a readers perspective, if you aren’t assertive and purposeful in how you get your news, there are plenty of other individuals, corporations, and entities that will gladly imprint their version of it on you instead.

Besides using your email lists for marketing how are you using it to inform your customers about news, tips and tricks from your company. It is a great way to keep them engaged with your content and brand.

This blog post was heavily inspired by Richard’s post on Medium.