My theory is that marketing leaders don’t need more content. They need better filters.
Each day new marketing reports, frameworks, and case studies flood your feed and inbox. There’s always another podcast episode, a LinkedIn think piece, and a “must-read†report. But, you don’t have time to consume it all. And yet, working in marketing requires knowing what matters and why.
That’s why newsletters are having a moment and brands are rethinking their email marketing strategy.
People are craving well-curated smart summaries of what’s happening in the world, in their industry, or in their local community. Providing that curation has value.
We see that with the ON from Convince & Convert newsletter. C&C produces a lot of content through their blog, podcast, training, and original research — curating it for the newsletter has been one of the best ways to receive that updated content for years.
But great content marketing requires listening to and understanding your audience.
We survey the marketing leaders in the C&C audience once a year, and one thing stood out to me in this most recent survey: newsletters are our audience’s preferred way to stay informed when learning about marketing trends and insights. More than short-form video, webinars, blogs, or podcasts.
The specific question we asked was “What content formats do you prefer when learning about marketing trends and insights?†Of the seven answers, respondents had to rank each 1 to 7. Newsletters were almost twice as likely to be ranked first than any other medium.
Why?
Because the right newsletter can do a lot of thinking for you. Or initiate important thoughts. It’s not just about what happened — it’s about what it means. Why it matters. I’ve seen this quite a bit with reader reactions to my creativity newsletter, where people have actually told me they regularly get new marketing ideas from reading each edition.
That’s why we decided to evolve our C&C newsletter and rebrand it. Moving from ON to The Trendline, a more focused, more useful resource for marketing decision-makers.
And we did it by listening to our audience and based on what works in today’s content landscape.
Why Traditional Newsletters No Longer Work
There are some basic formats that most brand newsletters have followed for years. Chief among them is a list of links or news. Versions of that format can still work today for many businesses. But there is a growing risk. As content mediums mature, the quality bar goes up. What worked to engage audiences 5 or 10 years ago can easily be ignored today.
For newsletters, if you’re not providing helpful content that is also easy to consume without clicking on links, you risk losing authority and the sense of value you bring to your audience.
We followed this playbook too, but over time, it became clear that this model wasn’t delivering the value that our audience actually needed.
Marketing leaders don’t need more content in their inboxes. None of us do, really. We want to be entertained, inspired, and feel smarter. Our theory is that marketers need less content, and the content they do consume needs to help them make smarter decisions in an industry built on rapid change.
A good portion of the decisions we made in our newsletter refresh focused on providing more insights to help our audience think strategically. What will help them understand what’s worth their time before they invest it? And how do we provide that value upfront, without making them click through multiple links?
We saw three opportunities in reviewing our old approach:
This realization led us to rethink our entire newsletter approach. We aren’t just changing a name. We are shifting how we deliver insights. The Trendline is built to help marketing leaders cut through the noise, focus on what matters, and think more strategically — all within the email itself. Yes, you can click through to read more (or listen more) but you don’t have to.
What’s In “The Trendline†and Broader Lessons of What’s Working Today for Email Marketing Strategy
Marketing leaders don’t have time for constant deep dives. So, the Trendline is set up as a debrief. A resource that brings important topical resources to our readers through the team’s strategic lens. Why do these stories matter to marketers? What questions should they be asking?
We built The Trendline to reflect this need, focusing on four major improvements:
These adjustments are about being more useful in the way marketing leaders actually consume information today.
One of the key lessons here is understanding your audience’s pain points and how they prefer to consume information. I learned early, for instance, that when presenting to CMOs or other very senior marketing decision makers, they need information that will help their team solve problems, and they don’t have time for 20 charts to get there. When we’re presenting research reports or a new strategy from my digital marketing agency, Social Fresh, the first thing I consider is who the main audience target is and what they most need out of this presentation to be happy.
Go through that same thought process for your newsletter.
Formatting The Trendline: How and Why
When we looked at our previous newsletter, we saw clear opportunities to improve. The old format, Convince & Convert’s ON, was useful but made the reader work more to get to strategic thinking. The format was based on content medium (blog posts first, then podcasts, etc)
With The Trendline, we reworked the entire format. Hierarchy would be more curated, and each section would have a clear purpose to match the importance of the curated content. We also have clear guidelines for every section so our full team can contribute and we can keep even the biggest stories compact to help save our readers time.
This is not a lateral move.
There is more work involved in producing the new format. But, we believe owned media channels like newsletters are more important than ever to engage modern audiences. The newsletter format specifically allows our strategists to spend consistent time with our audience of marketers, building their authority and trust in a truly helpful way.
A couple other details…
Shareable Title
We gave the newsletter a new title, The Trendline, for a few reasons. We thought “ON†wasn’t unique or brandable enough and we wanted a title that could more easily be shared through word of mouth. Trendline reflects both a more topical nature of the email and our strategic lens of sharing our thoughts on where shifts in the marketing industry are headed.
Ownable Engagement Metrics
Sound Off, the poll at the end of each newsletter, is not only an interactive opportunity for us and the readers, it also gives us another engagement metric to follow that has more clarity than muddier open or click rates.
This format will likely evolve. Listening to our audience, and noticing what they click, share, or comment on is important as we work to understand their needs and help them make better decisions. But across the board, this structure lets us share more from the smart folks behind C&C and connect more directly with our audience. It’s an email marketing strategy informed by real people in our audience and their needs.
Newsletter Marketing Takeaways for Marketing Leaders
This evolution wasn’t just about our newsletter. It was about rethinking how any brand can deliver better content in an era where trust and attention are harder to earn. Our key lessons so far?
When rethinking your email marketing strategy or any content strategy, start with audience research and ask what it would look like to deliver more value upfront. Newsletters are no longer just about keeping your audience informed, they’re about helping them learn, think, and smile.
For regular insights and strategic marketing takes, subscribe to the Trendline and let us know what you think of the new format.
