| Inside the rise of the brand newsletter. |
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It’s Wednesday. Happy hump day. You’ve survived Monday and Tuesday, and now you deserve a treat: use code CAMELCASE for 25% off tickets to the Marketing Brew Summit, Sept. 30 in NYC. Grab your ticket and coast into Thursday. In today’s edition:
—Katie Hicks, Alyssa Meyers, Layla Ilchi |
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BRAND STRATEGY You’ve got mail  Illustration: Amelia Kinsinger, Photos: Adobe Stock |
You’re either in(box) or you’re out. In recent years, an increasing number of brands have been creating editorial newsletters on platforms like Substack and Beehiiv. Some, like American Eagle and Madewell, have grown quiet since launching, while others, like The RealReal and Shopify, continue to publish content regularly. The marketers behind some of these newsletters tell us that there are a range of benefits that a sustained newsletter strategy can provide, including building community and increasing sales. But not every brand is built to operate a newsletter, Carrie Marks, head of lifestyle at Substack, told us. “It’s really, really important that the brand has a strong editorial point of view and has something interesting that they want to say,” Marks said. “You really have to be doing something a bit different, a bit more intimate, a bit more conversational on Substack that you’re doing on other platforms.” Inbox zero-to-50: Women’s apparel brand M.M.LaFleur began producing its newsletter, The M Dash, a year after its launch in 2013 as a way to build community and brand awareness, Maria Costa, senior director of marketing at M.M.LaFleur, told us. The newsletter, which features articles ranging from style guides to in-depth profiles, now has more than 80,000 subscribers on Substack, and while the look of the product has “evolved, the core of it has not changed,” Costa said. “We can only hit [our customer] with so many mass marketing emails before she’s like, ‘I literally can’t stand hearing from you,’” Costa said. “But if we give her something new and interesting to read about, she stays engaged, and she might be more open to opening that marketing email.” Continue reading here.—KH
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Sponsored By Spotify Amping fandom up to 11  |
The jam isn’t the only thing pumping up. Fandom is a growing force in marketing, and now’s your chance to harness it. At Spotify Sessions: Fandom at Full Volume, you can discover how leading brands put fandom to work and reach leaned-in audiences with campaigns that deliver measurable results. During this virtual event, you’ll:
- Learn creative ways to surround fandom across audio, video, and display.
- Get an exclusive look at the latest Spotify Ads Manager innovations.
- Hear how advertisers use Spotify Ads Manager to simplify campaign execution while driving measurable business outcomes.
Spotify captures 2x more attention than social, according to an Adelaide Global Attention study. Hear real advertiser success stories and learn exclusive strategies to drive stronger campaign performance from Spotify’s Creative Lab. Come ready to take notes. RSVP here. |
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SOCIAL & INFLUENCERS Train for anything  Illustration: Morning Brew Inc., Photos: Strava |
Strava is about so much more than just showing off how fast you are—it’s for flaunting your strength to your friends, too. The app has been beloved by runners for years, and as that community has grown, so has Strava’s business. Major brands now turn to the platform to build out their sports and other marketing initiatives, and last year, the company grew internally with the acquisition of the personalized training app Runna. As of today, over 195 million people around the world use Strava, according to the company. The app, which is social in nature, has continued to spread across the running community, and Wee and her team are now pushing to embed it in other segments of the fitness ecosystem, too. “Strength training is growing as a part of people’s lives,” CMO Louisa Wee told Marketing Brew. “People are choosing to live active lives that are just very diversified—more sports, more different sports…With those types of trends, it was really clear to us that we needed to support people in strength in a way that would allow them to enjoy what they do on Strava the same way [as running].” Read more here.—AM
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Sponsored By Outreach  |
This one’s for you, GTM. Ready to see what account intelligence and agentic AI can do when they work together? Find out when you watch this webinar with Outreach and Demandbase. You’ll see how forward-thinking revenue teams connect account intelligence to execution in a way that’s repeatable and scalable. Check it out. |
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BRAND STRATEGY Best in class  Getty Images |
In an era of fast fashion and microtrends, sticking to what you know can be a risky strategy for some fashion brands. For luxury sleepwear label Petite Plume, focusing on a hero product has proven successful. Launched in 2015 by founder and CEO Emily Hikade, Petite Plume has been profitable since the start and hasn’t taken on any outside investment. Hikade said the rise of athleisure and loungewear has helped create steady growth for the brand, as has Petite Plume’s bridal collections and hospitality partnerships; it’s on track to hit $100 million in revenue this year. Hikade credits the brand’s growth to its hero product strategy, an approach where a company focuses its marketing and design efforts on a best-selling item. The founder recognized the value of the strategy after the success of the brand’s Olivia pajamas style. To promote customer retention, Petite Plume regularly releases Olivia pajamas in different fabrics and prints—especially ones anchored to various holidays or seasons. For many emerging brands, the hero product strategy can prove effective in establishing a loyal customer base and planting the seeds for growth. Instead of releasing a slew of items at once, the hero product strategy allows brands to see what resonates and invest resources accordingly. “Early on, a hero product is not a marketing decision. It is a survival decision,” said Mark Zides, fractional CRO and strategic advisor. “Most young brands do not fail because they lack effort. They fail because they spread themselves too thin, too fast. When you put everything behind one product, every dollar and every conversation compounds toward the same story.” Continue reading in Revenue Brew.—LI
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french press  Morning Brew |
There are a lot of bad marketing tips out there. These aren’t those. Pay day: The ins, outs, and other implications of Meta’s $18 billion settlement and the impending teen social media guardrails that will come from it. Made by customers: A strategic guide to developing a user-generated content strategy. Scheduled send: How to automate routine social media marketing tasks.
*A message from our sponsor. |
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BetterHelp’s comment strategy  Screenshots via BetterHelp |
BetterHelp’s chief growth officer explains how the brand jumps into cultural conversations in the comments section—and turned it into a real, repeatable social playbook. Check it out |
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METRICS AND MEDIA |
Stat: More than $20 billion. That’s how much the Federal Trade Commission, along with 22 US state attorneys general, has accused Amazon of overcharging advertisers through its ad auction, according to a new lawsuit. Amazon has denied the claims, saying that the allegations are based on a “flawed premise.” Quote: “I think if you’re focused on a topic and you actually have something to say, instead of having your income be dependent on giving birth on Snapchat, there is a healthy way to be an influencer...But I haven’t really figured it out yet.”—Gisle Agledahl, a Norwegian journalist and influencer, speaking to The Cut about how and when influencers can draw public boundaries with audiences. Read: “Jaylen Brown and the moment of truth” (Adweek) |
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