Develop an Editorial Strategy for Your Email Newsletter

There is an old saying, "if you aim at nothing, you hit it every time." The idea is simple enough, know what target you want to hit.

This axiom holds true for email newsletters, too. If you want to grow an audience for your newsletter, you need a goal and a plan.

As I write this article on a misty day in January 2025, I am also developing an editorial strategy for an email newsletter. The newsletter will —I hope— drive revenue and growth for my content and commerce website, Science Fiction Classics.

Here is how I developed the newsletter's editorial strategy.

Purpose and Objective

It can sound cliché to write something like "start with goals" or even "develop clear objectives," but my point is that this is not, in fact, a platitude. It is an essential step.

So, you are starting an email newsletter. Good, why? What are you trying to accomplish?

For the Science Fiction Classics email newsletter, I have two goals.

1. Generate ecommerce revenue.
2. Grow the newsletter audience.

Revenue — Science Fiction Classics is a content and commerce business. Its model is to attract an audience of shoppers via content and then introduce those folks to the site's science-fiction-themed print-on-demand t-shirt shop.

Thus, the weekly email newsletter should serve as a vehicle to promote products.

Growth — Science Fiction Classics' business model focuses on organic traffic. It uses content (mostly from generative artificial intelligence) to garner search engine and social media traffic.

The newsletter's secondary goal is to provide another audience channel. The more subscribers, the more opportunity there is to achieve the primary goal of selling t-shirts.

So, I know what I want, and, frankly, I know how to measure it. My two primary performance indicators for the newsletter will be revenue generated and subscriber growth.

Ask yourself what your newsletter's goals are.

Audience

If you have established a purpose and objectives for your newsletters —the things you want to accomplish— you should turn your attention to your audience. What is in it for the folks who read your email newsletter?

I have a particular audience in mind for the Science Fiction Classics newsletter. Here is the basic profile.

• A man born before 1989 — Science Fiction Classics' website content focuses on novels, movies, and series that are about 25 years old. At the time of writing, that includes science fiction produced before 2000. A fellow born in 1988 would have been 12 years old when that content was released, which is the age when many young men are the most interested in the genre. Also, men are far and away more likely to enjoy old science fiction.
• A reader and a viewer — Science Fiction Classics' does not yet have many licensed products. The items sold represent science fiction generally, without naming a specific franchise. Thus, we need sci-fi fans who are interested in concepts, not just a particular title.
• A nostalgic or conservative thinker — in one sense, Science Fiction Classics competes with contemporary science fiction. If someone seeks the latest and greatest, he won't be interested in the newsletter. Better is someone discontent with modern science fiction.
• An entertainment seeker — the best Science Fiction Classics reader will want to be entertained and intellectually engaged.

Based on this profile, I am aiming for three editorial goals.

• Be entertaining,
• Be intellectually engaging,
• Be visual.

Think about your audience in this fashion. What, precisely, will your audience get from the newsletter?

Plan the Newsletter

Once you know what your email newsletter will offer its audience, structure the content.

Will your newsletter be an essay? Will it be a curated list? Will the newsletter have a theme?

For the Science Fiction Classics email newsletter, I am going with an overall theme, "This Week in Classic Science Fiction," and a structure with a few editorial sections.

• This week — The first section will focus on the theme, calling out any historical releases, events, birthdays, or anniversaries important to the science fiction community.
• The sponsor — This is a product or products from the Science Fiction Classics shop.
• The article — Next, there will be a short 400-word article related to the weekly theme.
• The trivia — Add in between one and three trivia questions related to the weekly theme.
• The roundup — This portion of the newsletter offers a list of five to ten links to articles or videos relevant to the weekly theme. Some could be articles on the Science Fiction Classics website.
• The products — Finally, we will include three affiliate links.

Let's consider how this structure might work with a given theme.

The first issue of the Science Fiction Classics newsletter is scheduled for January 9, 2025.

• This Week in Classic Science Fiction — Roy Batty's inception date. In the 1982 movie "Blade Runner" the primary antagonist is a combat android, Batty, whose birthday was January 8. Thus, the week's theme will be Batty and "Blade Runner."
• Sponsored by Alien Free Fall — We will feature a t-shirt from the shop with graphics that have a dystopian feel, not unlike "Blade Runner."
• A Testament to Humanity — This week's article will consider Batty's life —from the film— and touch on the recurring science fiction theme of what it means to be human.
• Roy Batty trivia — This section is precisely what it sounds like. For example, the actor who played Batty, Rutger Hauer, improved the character's most famous monologue, "All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die."
• The Roundup — Here, the newsletter will first link to Science Fiction Classics' own article, "Blade Runner Is Still a Profound Exploration of Humanity," before linking to a few other websites.
• The products — This section will include affiliate links to "Blade Runner" products on Amazon, like a classic Roy Batty movie poster.

Iterate

An email newsletter editorial strategy is a plan. All plans change. The key is to measure and iterate.

If I learn that the Science Fiction Classics newsletter is not achieving its stated goals —revenue and growth— I will make changes, testing what works.