Inbox Anarchy: An Audience-First Email Marketing Strategy

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 our newsletter, ON from Convince & Convert. We produce a lot of content through our blog, podcast, training, and original research — curating it to our 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.

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:

1. Inbox Overload
   Marketers are drowning in content. Industry updates, reports, and hot takes pile up, unread. If an email doesn’t immediately stand out as essential, it gets ignored. We knew we had to move beyond just sending another list of reading assignments as our email marketing strategy, even if we knew that the content was valuable. We had to provide a layer of strategic thought.
2. Trust is Fragile
   Promotional-heavy newsletters are harder. If every issue requires them to click through to find the value, you risk readers tuning out. We needed to prove our value inside the email itself, not just on the other side of a new browser tab.
3. Curation Has Value, Not Just Creation
   The best newsletters today don’t just push content—they distill it. Marketing leaders don’t have time to sift through every new trend or study. They need a trusted filter. We weren’t providing that before, but we knew we could.

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:

1. Broader Curation
   To optimize for the new debrief format, we knew the best insights wouldn’t come from a single source, so we cast a wider net, broadening our scope to curate from a variety of media and industry voices.
2. More Strategic Takes
   The top stories each issue are intentionally titled “The Big Picture” because we are not just sharing a big topic, but explaining what it means for marketers. Every issue includes strategic takeaways from C&C strategists who average 20+ years in marketing. Our goal here is to distill the biggest shifts and frame them with a lens of actionability.
3. More Topical Relevance
   The Trendline is not a list of news stories but we do want it to focus on what’s driving real change in marketing right now, whether that’s an industry shake-up, a shift in consumer behavior, or a strategic move from a major brand. It’s not about being timely for the sake of it, but about surfacing the stories that actually affect marketing leaders’ decisions.
4. Hierarchy and Variety
   Structure matters. We designed The Trendline with a clear content flow: first a brief introduction, then a breakdown of the biggest stories with takeaways, and then wrapping each issue with interesting links, events, and a reader poll. The hierarchy gives context, while the variety of formats helps us deliver value in multiple ways.

These adjustments are about being more useful in the way marketing leaders actually consume information today.

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.

• Intro (25-50 words): What to look for in this issue
• The Number: One key number and a single sentence for context 
• Listen Up (5-10 words): Quick podcast promo 
• The Big Picture (75-150 words): Strategic takes on 3-4 important stories
• Bookmarks (5-15 words): A few interesting links 
• Calendar: Upcoming events with context
• Sound Off: LinkedIn audience poll

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?

• Audience research is key
  Every portion of this refresh relied on customer surveys, polls, and direct feedback from our ICPs.
• Zero-click content is essential
  We know social media content that engages without sending users offsite is important, but that same mindset holds value for newsletters too.
• Curation is more valuable than ever
  Audiences don’t need more content. They need someone they trust to tell them what’s worth paying attention to.
• “Trust” content sets the new standard
  To cut through the noise, look for opportunities to spend more time and more meaningful moments with your audience. Just sharing a list of links isn’t that.

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.

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