A good newsletter is hard to beat when it comes to driving traffic to your website, building cult loyalty with your audience, and driving revenue. The most important part of building a successful newsletter that manages to accomplish all that? People want quality content they can count on.
With a well-written newsletter, marketers can engage subscribers and organically grow their lists.
In our quest to shed light on some of our favorite newsletters, we’ll be sharing a different recommendation every month.
Today in the series, we’ll be talking about Lifehacker.
(Be sure to check out our last post about Total Annarchy if you missed it!)
Introducing Lifehacker
Lifehacker is a website providing a daily roundup of articles to help you—well, hack life. Lifehacker gives you basic how-tos when it comes to everyday struggles, like getting to the gym in the morning, making sure your kids eat, and making a great marinade.
Lifehacker has both in-house writers and contributors. This system provides a constant flow of content that’s carefully managed and curated to fit with their brand voice and resonate with their audience.
And with all its content, Lifehacker has one primary focus: making life easier.
The Lifehacker newsletter is a smart encapsulation of the site’s overarching goal. Each email contains an assortment of interesting, clickable headlines and hooks.
For instance, the top piece of content in every email often contains the biggest hook and typically includes an image. The top story is also the most clickable, which means the headline has a dual purpose, working as both the headline and the email’s subject line.
In this case, the email subject line is “Get Paid $10,000 to Move Your Family to Italy.” When subscribers open the email, that’s exactly what they see, ensuring that readers get exactly what they want. And giving your subscribers what they want is the best way—and maybe the only way—to ensure they keep opening your email newsletters day after day.
This is also a clever way of making your content go twice as far.
After the initial hook, Lifehacker offers timely articles while also promoting specific subcategories on the site:
And if you’re eager for more, the newsletter provides additional article snippets, including sponsored spots and write-ups from sister brands, like Kotaku and Gizmodo.
How it started
If Lifehacker rings a bell, it could be because it began as a Gawker.com brand several years ago.
As a refresher, Gawker.com was an online publication hub specializing in niche news stories and gossip content. Gawker became a household name in less than two decades, thanks to its youthful voice and juicy articles.
The scandalous content Gawker was known for, however, arguably became its undoing. After a Hulk Hogan story went viral, Hogan sued (with the help of PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel) and eventually bankrupted the company.
But some Gawker brands live on (and Gawker itself may return to life, though the brand’s future is not looking bright). In 2016, Univision purchased Gawker media assets, some of which included Jezebel, Gizmodo, and of course, Lifehacker.
Despite changing hands, Lifehacker continues to be a popular source for information and entertainment for plenty of its devoted readers.
In fact, the site has earned over 46 million visits and ranks #17 for Technology News globally. In short, Lifehacker’s content answers real questions many real people have. Clearly, a lot of people are interested in making their lives easier.
Who it targets
Lifehacker has a wide variety of content available to readers, but primarily, audience interests are technological. Software, technology, and news & media are the largest categories for their readers. Thus, Lifehacker promotes these types of stories and similar ones in their newsletter.
But you can easily get a lot from this subscription, even if your interests lie outside the tech space. If you’re simply looking to read more, Lifehacker’s newsletter is a great place to start, because the content is brought directly to you.
Still, if you don’t like a lot of mail in your inbox, Lifehacker may not be ideal. With daily reading suggestions and limited preference controls, Lifehacker is less about a personalized experience and more about widespread appeal.
What you can learn from it
Lifehacker is an excellent read for both newsletter readers and email marketers. Here’s why:
As a reader
There’s no shortage of content to read on Lifehacker. This newsletter can give you access to articles on a variety of subjects, from a number of different authors.
As a subscriber, you’ll get a well-rounded selection of helpful, low-stakes “news,” directly to your inbox every day. Subscribing is also a great way to find new and interesting authors you enjoy.
As a marketer
With a helpful yet authoritative voice, Lifehacker is perfect for marketers looking to improve their clicky content. What are people reading about? Which headlines grab attention? What makes readers want to click?
These questions are huge for marketers, and Lifehacker is essentially a masterclass on this very phenomenon: clickable content that doesn’t feel like clickbait.
How can you give just enough information to leave readers wanting more? Consider making your marketing content more exciting by simply promising to answer widespread questions that resonate with a diverse audience.
We all know personalization is extremely important for marketers, but Lifehacker has another lesson in store. Appealing to a wide variety of readers can truly be a boon for business.
Wrap up
Lifehacker is a prominent, well-loved publication, and the Lifehacker newsletter effortlessly provides access to interesting reads. So, if you want everyday hacks in your inbox, it may be time to sign up.
Are you thinking about building a newsletter? Already have one? If so, consider how you can incorporate the tactics used by Lifehacker into your own work.
Want to see your favorite newsletter listed here? Tell us in the comments below. Or start your own newsletter by signing up with Campaign Monitor today.