Should a local newsletter send a standalone sponsored email?

A dedicated send is an email that isn't your newsletter at all. It's one sponsor's message, sent to your list, and labeled as sponsored.

Who already does this?

All the big dogs. The large regional local-media brands will sometimes send an email that's literally just an ad. Usually it's for a regional player, like the hospital system: an article about how the hospital has been making changes and how great they are. That's the whole email, and it says at the top and the bottom that it's a sponsored newsletter.

Does it cost you subscribers?

Some, but probably fewer than you'd fear. Here's my back-of-envelope version. It's an illustration I wanted to test, not a measured result.

"You're going to get a 0.2% unsubscribe. Your unsubscribes are going to double when you do it, go from eight to 16. But you just made 1500 bucks."

If a subscriber costs you about a dollar to replace, losing eight extra people to earn $1,500 is a trade I'd take. My question was whether we could, and should, run one that's just an ad and be comfortable saying we'll do it once a month, maybe twice at most. Measure the unsubscribes on the first one and decide from real numbers.

What should the sponsored email be?

Something readers would want anyway. A local real estate market update is genius because it doesn't even have to feel like an ad. The more useful it is, the less it costs you in trust.

Should I give the sponsor my subscribers' emails?

No. If someone clicked a sponsor's ad, I wouldn't do anything with that. In theory you could pass those emails to the company, but then they blast them, and your readers wonder why this business is suddenly emailing them. It's not worth it.

Survey answers are different, because the reader went out of their way to tell you, for example, that they want to buy a house. Even then, I'd send the message myself. Thank them for signing up, mention that you saw they're interested in buying, and say your partner realtor is great and you're happy to connect them.

That way you're in control. You're not giving anyone the information. You're sending it on their behalf. The take rate will be low, and that's fine. For the survey side, see the real estate lead question.

What about the ad network built into my email platform?

Don't bother for a local newsletter. They don't work. We'd make about $30 a newsletter, if that. Real ad money takes somebody on the ground putting in effort with local businesses.

How do you know when sponsor money isn't worth it?

When it hurts the long-term brand. Michael Kauffman of Catskill Crew told me on my podcast he turned down about $10,000 from local businesses that wanted spots on a board game he built. I told him that short term, he'd have made more money. Long term, it would have hurt his ability to make real money.

"Doing it with a long-term mentality pays off much better over the long term."

That's why I'd cap sponsored sends at once a month, twice at most, and keep them useful. For bigger sponsors who fit this format, see selling to banks, hospitals and regional brands.