Lena Dunham has been the face of millennials for the last five years. Who better to launch an email newsletter aimed at women aged 18-34 that covers “feminism and style, politics, health, friendship, etc.” With the launch, Lenny Letter Dunham, Jenni Kannor, and Girls creator Jenni Dunham demonstrated that email marketing is still an effective content strategy. It’s also the best way to reach out directly to your audience.
Email is a great way to send long-form, high-quality content. It’s easy to digest and present on its own. Email conversion rates are three times higher compared to social media. This is because there are fewer distractions and less competing content. Email marketing is an important part of 73% of content marketers’ businesses.
Content marketers have the opportunity to customize their message and how it’s consumed. Jessica Grose is the editor-in-chief of Lenny Letter. She said that when the content is read as an emailed newsletter, it looks so much better. The images and words are almost like reading magazines. Users are not forced to read their content between an ad for Fan Duel and the latest update of a distant cousin. Instead, they can enjoy and consume their content.
What can we learn about Dunham’s strategy for content? You may be wondering what makes a trendy email newsletter special. What is the next step in content creation? Hearst has signed a deal with a media site to syndicate The Lenny Letter and monetize it. Hearst distributes the content on sites such as Marie Claire and Cosmopolitan a day after it is sent to subscribers. BuzzFeed has also produced a podcast entitled Women of the Hour.
The co-founders of Lenny explained in this week’s issue that they want to “continue to pay our writers and artists fairly, and get our content out to as many people and places as possible.” We can’t really blame them. It’s hard to find any content marketer who wouldn’t jump at the chance to expand their audience and their publication channels. They keep the content personal by releasing it first to their subscribers and then to the rest. This allows them to open the brand up to many distributors and advertisers. It is this kind of loyalty towards your core audience that turns them into brand ambassadors who are eager to support content they find appealing.