Jabra Newsletters
In late 2019, as I marched towards my 1-year anniversary at Jabra, the idea of creating two monthly newsletters, an end customer version, and a nurture version, was being thrown around. We had fallen into the short-sited habit of emailing our database about every little thing going on at Jabra. When you add in the emails our customers were getting from their individual salespeople, too, it had become too much. That’s where the newsletters came in.
Who
End Customers and Nurture Leads
Right away we decided we would need two slightly different versions of the newsletter. One for end customers and one for nurture leads. Although the content would be ostensibly the same, the calls to action would differ. The end customer version would simply ask readers to reach out to their Jabra rep for more information, while the nurture version, of which you can see an example to the left (click to expand) would have links to campaign landing pages with forms to fill out.
What
Everything Jabra.
Each newsletter has a hero section at the top which highlights the most important piece of news from the last month. Whether it’s campaign-based (think hybrid learning) or product-based, the top section of the newsletter gets the most attention. From there we find two more stories that previously would have been sent to the database in stand-alone emails to feature in the main part of the newsletter.
Finally, in the right-hand column, I built a section called “Around the Web” where I list things like webinars (upcoming or recorded), new blogs on jabra.com, recent videos, or media appearances our SME’s have participated in. I also always include our social media links.
When
Monthly Cadence.
At first we played with a bi-monthly cadence, but the newsletters had too much content. Anything more frequent than monthly becomes cumbersome, so we settled on monthly on the last Tuesday or Thursday of every month. This timing also aligns with our webinar cadence, which are included in the newsletters.
How
It’s a team effort.
Most of the time, I have a good idea of what topics should be covered, but I always loop in our demand gen team to make sure I’m highlighting the things they think are important, too. I also send a test version of the newsletter to other stakeholders both inside and outside of the marketing group to make sure we’re getting the most out of this powerful communication vehicle.
Results
A great success.
Starting with the very first newsletter sends, they have been a hit. The nurture newsletter consistently hits a high-teens open rate and better-than-expected interaction rates while the end customer newsletter performs better than almost any other email that’s sent to the database.
Big Win
A $250,000 opportunity from the newsletter.
In October 2020, a $250,000 opportunity came in via the nurture newsletter. An opportunity of that size is always something to celebrate, but when it comes via an unpaid interaction, that’s even more reason to celebrate.
There have been other sizeable opportunities, as well as countless “reengagements” that have stemmed from the newsletters, but the $250,000 opportunity is the high water mark…so far.
Conclusion
Always tweaking the process
We’re always looking for ways to make the newsletters more successful. Starting in 2021, we introduced a year-long interaction game called “The Jabra Challenge.” The challenge asks readers to take quick quiz on what they read in the newsletter for a chance to win Jabra products. You can learn more about The Jabra Challenge here.