Learn how (and why) to distill your archives and content expertise into bite-sized email series that allow subscribers to learn at their own pace, and get tips, lessons learned, metrics and feedback from the email-course building teams at Pew Research Center, The Washington Post, Buzzfeed and The New Yorker.

1. Use Email Automation to
Deliver Mini-Courses and
Activate Your Archives
Join the conversation with #ONA19Archives

2. Dan
OSHINSKY
Founder
Inbox Collective
@danoshinsky
Ariana
RODRIGUEZ-GITLER
Digital Producer
Pew Research
Center
@arianarg
Andrea
CAUMONT
Digital Engagement
Manager
Pew Research Center
@tinythings
Tanya
SICHYNSKY
Newsletter Editor
The Washington
Post
@tanyasic

3. What is an
email course?
A course is an opportunity to teach a reader
something new — a lesson, a skill or a habit.

4. ● Sign up or other reader
action triggers experience
● Emails sent automatically
to subscribers at fixed
intervals
● Limited campaign — only
a fixed number of emails
are sent
What it is

5. What it’s not
● A regular, recurring
email newsletter
● A pop-up/limited-run
newsletter
● An onboarding email
series or CRM series

6. Examples

7. Pew Research Center Immigration Mini-course
The Challenge:
How can we help
readers understand
“the big picture”
on immigration?
The Solution:
Boiling down
our body of work
into 5 email
lessons delivered
every other day.

8. Pew Research Center Immigration Mini-course

9. The Washington Post’s Voraciously cooking courses

10. The Challenge:
How do we deliver
actionable content in a
way that can be
adapted to different
verticals (and even
languages)?
The Solution:
Courses, which
gave us a format to
do a different type
of storytelling.
The Format: 7 to 30 days of content,
with tips, encouragement, and
coaching in every email
Buzzfeed Courses

11. The Opportunity:
Use these courses to reach new
and underserved audiences
Buzzfeed Courses

12. The Challenge:
How do we use
evergreen content
to drive deeper
engagement
among our most
loyal fans?
The Solution: Build
automated products that
can help highly-engaged
readers go even deeper into
The New Yorker’s archives.
New Yorker Classics

13. Why they work
What’s in it for publishers & readers;
Measuring success

14. What’s in it for readers?
● Makes content more accessible & understandable
● Empowers readers to reach a specific goal related to
learning or self-improvement
● Less inbox clutter, less potential for fatigue
● Frictionless experience
● It ends!

15. What’s in it for publishers?
● Builds your brand
● Expands your audience
● Evergreen and low-maintenance
● Consistent & high engagement rates
● Ability to learn & iterate
● Provides a formal-ish avenue for experimentation

16. Higher open rates, lower click rates
(but clicks weren’t the goal)
Newsletter subscribers
open 1 in 4 emails
How do they perform?

17. ~4-in-10 readers
opened all 5 lessons
How do they perform?

18. Best practices

19. Best Practices: Content, Format & Personality
Use coaches to give
readers a champion
to support them on
this journey
Readers are busy,
so give them a
chance to achieve
or learn every day
Make each email
self-contained

20. Best Practices: Content, Format & Personality
Mobile-first
design;
conversational
graphics
Make content scannable

21. Best Practices: Progress & the Reader’s Journey
Build in progress
reminders
Celebrate victories
& offer
opportunities to
continue on the
journey with you

22. Best Practices: Community Building & Engagement
Encourage participation,
community signal
Reward the loyal and
hyper-engaged
Make yourself/your
organization available
for questions and
feedback: You’re the
leader of this
community!

23. Best Practices: Promotion, Sign-ups & Onboarding
Create standalone
posts to promote
your courses
Create related surveys or quizzes
that ask users for their email

24. Best Practices: Promotion, Sign-ups & Onboarding
Create a frictionless
sign-up process
Promote where
your audience is
Target email promotional
blasts to existing lists that
share similar interests

25. Q&A

26. Resources

27. ● Download these slides > bit.ly/ONAMiniCourses
● Best practices & tips > bit.ly/ONACoursesHandOut
● Strategy positioning doc > bit.ly/ONAemailpositioningdoc
● Sign up for our courses:
● Pew Research Center > http://bit.ly/ImmigrationMiniCourse
● The Washington Post > wapo.st/mealplanofaction | wapo.st/plantpowered
wapo.st/zerotodinnerparty | wapo.st/bakingbasics
● Inbox Collective > http://notanewsletter.com
Handouts

28. Highbrow Curbed - The Small FixWQXR’s Open Ears Project
WebMD
Harvard Business Review
Other courses
Project on Government Oversight

29. Thank you!
Be sure to visit the many ONA19 exhibitors in the third floor Exhibit Hall.
Dan
OSHINSKY
@danoshinsky
Ariana
RODRIGUEZ-GITLER
@arianarg
Andrea
CAUMONT
@tinythings
Tanya
SICHYNSKY
@tanyasic