It’s Wednesday, October 2, and this week, I’m diving into how to use polls to improve your newsletter. But first…

If you missed the announcement last week: In partnership with GetResponse, I rolled out a 90-minute-long course with all of my favorite email best practices for non-profits. The entire series is completely free, and you can access all of the videos in the course here...

More news: I’ll be part of the lineup for Litmus Live, a free, virtual event all about email. (I’ll be talking about lessons for marketers from the world of newsletters.) Register here — it’s a great lineup of speakers…

—Dan (say 👋 via email or LinkedIn)

How to Use In-Newsletter Polls to Engage With and Learn From Your Audience

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: If you’re not making time to listen to your audience, how will you build a newsletter that serves them?

Listening often starts with a survey — but not everyone has the time to respond to a survey. So what can you do that allows you to learn what the audience wants without taking up too much of a reader’s time?

A poll might just be the answer.

I’ve got a few tips on:

What questions you should ask your audience in a poll.
What to do after readers respond to the poll.
Which tools you can use to deploy a poll.
How to use polls and surveys together to improve your strategy.

There’s a lot to dive into with polls — so let’s get into it. Read the story here

From my reading list...

Everyone wants to build a better newsletter. But for many newsrooms and non-profits, focusing instead on the structure around the newsletter — including growth, monetization, metrics, and automations — will allow you to build a better email strategy. (Inbox Collective)

I loved this story about how a local newsletter in Boise sells ads. One interesting nugget: They partner with a local ad agency to fill some ad slots. (LION Publishers)

This was eye-opening: The hidden environmental costs of using AI tools like ChatGPT to do something as simple as crafting a 100-word email. (The Washington Post)

Building your entire business around a Google Doc? Nah, that’ll never work! (Growth in Reverse)

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📬 No. 50 | Ask the right questions (the right way)

How to Use In-Newsletter Polls to Engage With and Learn From Your Audience

From my reading list...

Older messages

A little surprise: Announcing my non-profit newsletter course 🎉

📬 No. 49 | Your newsletter might not need an overhaul (yet)

📬 No. 48 | Best practices every newsletter should do

📬 No. 47 | How to throw a great event

📬 No. 46 | A huge newsletter you’ve never heard of

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