You’ve likely seen the meteoric rise of Daily Email Digests like The Morning Brew and perhaps The Skimm. They provide a quick snapshot of the latest news and trends, usually with an editorial take. And this conveniently gets delivered daily to your email inbox.
But why are they so popular?
Well, a perfect storm of several shifts in digital publishing and consumer behaviors has led to their popularity. I’ll touch on many of them here:
1. Email-first Mentality
According to the latest study by Statista, 81% of people check their email at least once a day. And 19% check it as soon as the email arrives through real-time notifications. Take a look at the breakdown below:
2. Snackable Content
According to a 2019 survey by Demand Gen:
93% of consumers prefer shorter content formats
Snackable content is perfect for people who want a cursory knowledge of what's going on ... the value of breadth and volume outweighs depth. This means quotes, data snippets, short videos, infographics, and just headlines! In fact, according to a Columbia Study,59 percent of the articles retweeted on Twitter are not actually read.
3. Newsletters as a Trustworthy Source
In the same Demand Gen Report, industry newsletters are viewed as one of the most trustworthy content sources. In fact, only Case Studies were ranked higher among content that is created by organizations.
4. A Shift Toward Mobile Email
According to The 2019 Email Client Market Share published by Litmus, webmail and mobile mail now make up over 80% of emails received. If you were around using email even five years ago when Outlook and Apple Mail on a desktop/laptop used to rule the email universe, you know how amazing this is. Because of this shift, email is now more ready to be opened than ever--conveniently at the fingertips of the recipients. And, in fact, we are seeing higher and quicker open rates than we've ever seen. Take a look at the latest:
5. Evolution of Email Apps
The shift toward email through the browser and mobile apps has also impacted the consistency of design and the potential of treating email more like a web page or even web site. You may have noticed that when you click a link in an email through a mobile device, it now opens directly in the app itself. This means viewing an external website is now an integrated experience within the app! No more slow-opening browsers and unpredictable experiences as the link opens on the myriad of desktop computers with who-knows-what-blocker installed to stop the process and frustrate the user. In fact, GMAIL is expanding its capabilities to include forms and other CTA's directly in the email. You can create full checkout and lead conversion experiences!
6. Cord-Cutting and the Decline of Network Television
According to Hollywood Reporter article, broadcast network viewing has dropped 20% since 2014 and 35 percent among the 18-49 demographic. Of course, this cord-cutting means more Netflix, Hulu and Prime than ever, but it also means more Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This shift in consumption behaviors has had a tremendous impact on the publishing industry. In part, the Daily Digest is a more convenient and topic-specific social feed in your inbox.
7. Emergence of Artificial Intelligence to Personalize Content
Perhaps one of the simplest and evolved forms of AI is Natural Language Processing (NLP). In a nutshell, it allows you to break down content such as news articles and understand what and who it's about, common themes, writing tone and sentiment. This means we can serve up similar articles to consumers after they begin to click on things they like. Now the Daily Email Digest becomes a smart Agent or Bot that's working on behalf of the user. It's their friend!
Now, the fun part: 7 Reason You Should Care!
With all of the tremendous value we put on our websites and social feeds, perhaps we need to view email differently. It certainly is valuable for sales drip campaigns after capturing leads through marketing efforts, but it is often overlooked as a PRIMARY content marketing channel! So, here are 7 ideas to noodle on and consider as you move forward with your own email marketing:
- View email as a digital property not just as a means to move leads down a funnel. Formalize and use it as a serious content marketing channel. Feed your audience news and other snackable content that doesn't necessarily have to do with a sale, then weave the sale within it.
- Extend your buyer journey to your email content. Continue to feed them the info they want and foster the trust/value relationship you need to gain customers and evangelists. Storytelling has just begun!
- Explore the technical possibilities of web and mobile mail, which now have a built-in browser and the ability to complete forms with some. More functionality to come I'm sure in the future--research GMAIL's efforts on this.
- View email increasingly for customer retention, loyalty and referral leads. By providing a Daily Digest, you have consistent touchpoints and the ability to foster a relationship beyond the sale. Consider rewards/points for viewing, engaging upon and referring your content.
- Merge Content Marketing and Drip Campaigns. As part of your sales drip, refer increasingly to educational content that informs the buyer and gains trust. Make it less about the close and more about the trust.
- Put faces to the Email. Consider email as an opportunity to foster your own content community. They are people after all! This means building in community features like comments, reactions and user profiles in your content hub.
- Lead gen and nurturing can actually be fun, not just a linear pipeline. Consider it to be Content Immersion if you will -- not just leading a horse to a trough.
There are a number of forces at work here that I think will continue to move people increasingly to email as a popular source of information. And, if this holds true, it has tremendous implications for your thought leadership and content marketing programs.
Hopefully, you agree that this trend toward Daily Digests is just gaining momentum.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this post! Perhaps share ways in which you are beginning to adapt to this shift in publishing and content consumption.
Thanks!
