I’ve spoken with today’s marketing master a couple times now, and her advice is always a refreshing change from the usual marketing tropes. And we've packed quite a lot of it into this email.
Today's refreshments:
Why your brand needs a B2B newsletter — and how to make a good one
The future of newsletters: Your guide to building a profitable media empire
5 ways AI analytics tools can make you a better marketer
Job: Haberman writes the weekly ICYMI newsletter about social news, platform updates, and industry trends and insights; she’s also a corporate marketing consultant for the likes of Google, Robert Half, and AT&T
Claim to fame: Currently the top search result when you Google “creator economy expert”
Fun fact: She was invited this year to the White House by its digital strategy team — twice. (Bonus pro tip: If you’re invited to the Italian Embassy in D.C., eat at the cafeteria. “Best pizza I’ve ever had,” she says.)
Lesson 1: Hire creative writers — and let them be creative.
When I think of the most successful brand stories of the past few years, The WashingtonPost’s unlikely pandemic-era ascent to TikTok fame is near the top of my list. So is Duolingo’s occasionally (often?) unhinged bright green owl.
In both cases, the creators behind those successes (Dave Jorgenson and Zaria Parvez, respectively) were given the creative freedom to experiment outside traditionally rigid corporate boundaries.
But even if your marketing goals don’t include TikTok superstardom, the same principle applies to that B2B newsletter you’ve been trying to convince your boss to let you start.
Haberman, who writes the successful ICYMI newsletter, speaks with conviction on this point: Hire writers with backgrounds in creative writing and/or journalism. And let them be creative.
It’s the key to “creating that kind of personable newsletter that people actually want to open and read versus thinking of it as a promotional vehicle.” And that’s the key to building trust and credibility with your audience.
Haberman isn’t dunking on your wordsmithing — she’s very clear that marketers are great at many kinds of writing. But — time for a hard truth — writing B2B newsletters might not be the best fit for a career marketer.
And if you’re thinking about a B2B newsletter solely as a marketing play, you’re missing out on a major opportunity to build that elusive customer trust. This isn’t the vehicle for your product marketing; your goal should be producing a useful newsletter that people enjoy subscribing to (like, dare we say, the very one you’re reading now).
Lesson 2: Follow the money.
“One of the most important things that people forget is to follow the money,” Haberman tells me. No, this isn’t a parable about corporate greed — far from it. Instead, it’s a reminder of how pragmatism can pave the way for passion projects.
We all know that one of the most fundamental rules of marketing is understanding your customer.
For newsletter creators and other content creators, Haberman says that means knowing who’s “going to pay your bills and where your money is coming from. Make sure that you're devoting the most time and care and attention to that so you can continue to support your passion project.”
Take Haberman herself: She loves writing ICYMI, but it’s her corporate consulting that pays the bills. That shapes her priorities: “It's time to close that tab and focus. What are the things that I'm actually supposed to be doing?”
For individual content creators, get strategic about your revenue streams. How are you making money? “If it's through sponsorships, for example, are you looking at the content you're putting out, the relationships you're building, the networking you're doing, and making sure you're growing that pool of potential sponsors?”
Lesson 3: Vulnerability is the new authenticity.
Haberman confesses that she’s not naturally comfortable being vulnerable in public — arguably itself a vulnerable admission — but she recognizes its power to build trust and connection.
“We’re in an era of vulnerability,” she says. “People like hearing about failures just as much as successes,” and they want to “learn and grow from your experience.”
“I think vulnerability is what sets apart the people who will probably be bigger influencers from the people who are only able to share certain parts of themselves,” she tells me.
“If you look at really big influencers, I think you'll find that vulnerability is a trait that a lot of them share on camera. And that's part of what propelled their success.”
This insight has shaped her own perspective. If she was starting ICYMI over again today, there’s one big thing she’d do differently: Build in public.
Had she been more open with her potential audience about the possibility of ICYMI failing, she says “I definitely think it would have been more powerful and resonated more."
“Be a little less precious or paranoid about people scrutinizing your output,” she advises. “If it resonates, it resonates. If it doesn’t, adapt and do something else.”
A HELPFUL RESOURCE
Advice from newsletter owners and operators
Sick of hearing our success story? Here are insights spliced from hundreds of others.
What do you think is the top thing that stands in the way of marketers being successful, and why?—Dawn Keller, CMO of California Pizza Kitchen
THIS WEEK'S ANSWER
Haberman: By nature, marketers are cheerleaders for the brands they represent. However, this sometimes leads to their identities becoming so closely tied to the products and services they promote that they struggle to talk about the company in a way that doesn’t sound like a sales pitch.
You can be passionate about a brand and still remain objective. Think about the product as a customer would, without letting loyalty cloud your judgment.
The more marketers adopt a consumer perspective, the better they’ll be able to communicate benefits in a way that truly resonates. This approach can even help them identify opportunities and areas for improvement that might go unnoticed if they’re too busy being the brand's biggest fan.
NEXT WEEK'S LINGERING QUESTION
Haberman asks: If budget was no issue, what’s the first thing you’d do as a marketer?
This week's email was brought to you by Laura M. Browning. Editing by Caroline Forsey.
