CoPeace Releases New Impact Report and Launches Updated Website
CoPeace Releases New Impact Report and Launches Updated Website
March 17, 2023
DENVER (March 17, 2023) – CoPeace PBC, a multinational holding company and impact investing firm, has announced the release of its 2022 impact report, called The Harvest. The company also unveiled an updated, more user-friendly, website at www.CoPeace.com.
CoPeace helps impactful companies grow in two ways: 1) via direct investments in companies with measurable social and environmental impact, and 2) through financial, marketing and sport consulting services provided to socially and environmentally-conscious organizations and individuals. The Harvest highlights company achievements from the past year in both these overarching areas, as well as progress toward reaching the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
CoPeace is breaking down barriers of traditional investing by providing affordable and direct impact investment options for people in all demographic categories. The company is also using its extensive experience in finance, marketing and sports to provide consulting services to mission-driven companies who need expertise in specific areas.
In addition, CoPeace recently launched a more functional and brighter website (www.CoPeace.com) designed to quickly communicate the way CoPeace, and the company’s investors and clients are positively addressing important social and environmental challenges. The website guides visitors through the process of becoming an investor, client, or part of CoPeace’s holding company portfolio.
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About CoPeace
CoPeace helps impactful companies grow. As an impact-driven holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected businesses with measurable social and environmental impact. Additionally, CoPeace provides a variety of consulting services to organizations demonstrating positive social or environmental impact.
As a fully certified B Corp and public-benefit corporation (PBC), CoPeace is committed to acting morally, ethically, and responsibly in regard to society and the environment. Equity, inclusion, and justice are not just valued at CoPeace – they are pillars supporting our mission.
To learn more, visit copeace.com.
CoPeace Announces Partnership with InReach Community Dx to Provide a Variety of Finance, Marketing and Operational Services
CoPeace Announces Partnership with InReach Community Dx
January 20, 2023
InReach Community Dx is Saving Rural Hospitals by Creating Innovative, Sustainable Profit from Their Existing Laboratory Infrastructure
DENVER (January 20, 2023) – CoPeace PBC, an impact investing and services company, announced today a strategic partnership with InReachCommunity Dx, a hospital laboratory services company.
The agreement calls for CoPeace to provide a variety of finance, marketing, data, operational and project management services to InReach Community Dx. The partnership will enhance InReach’s efforts to save stressed rural hospitals in the United States. U.S. hospitals have been shutting down at a 30-per-year pace, and rural hospitals are especially vulnerable.
InReach Community Dx develops hospital laboratory outreach programs for small, rural and community hospitals. InReach Community Dx leverages the excess capacity and capabilities of hospital laboratories to transform them from cost centers to economic engines by creating a responsible, sustainable, revenue stream that will support the hospital for years to come.
“We are excited to announce our agreement with the CoPeace team,” said Sean McShane, InReach Community Dx CEO. “We believe that they will provide assistance across all aspects of our business, especially marketing, operations and project management.”
The InReach Community Dx program is designed to link rural hospitals to community minded, independent practices who share their concerns and want to provide an increased level of personal service to their patients while supporting the financial stability of local, rural healthcare
“We are honored to partner with InReach Community Dx, a true impact company, as they grow their business and positively impact the hospitals and the communities they serve,” said Craig Jonas, CoPeace founder & CEO. “The InReach team is playing a critical role in helping save rural hospitals through new responsible and sustainable profit centers. We are thrilled to help them in that endeavor.”
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About CoPeace
CoPeace helps impactful companies grow. As an impact-driven holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected businesses with measurable social and environmental impact. Additionally, CoPeace provides a variety of consulting services to organizations demonstrating positive social or environmental impact.
As a fully certified B Corp and public-benefit corporation (PBC), CoPeace is committed to acting morally, ethically, and responsibly in regard to society and the environment. Equity, inclusion, and justice are not just valued at CoPeace – they are pillars supporting our mission.
To learn more, visit copeace.com.
About InReach Community Dx
InReach Community Dx solves one of the most important needs in healthcare today: The need for robust and financially viable healthcare in rural communities. InReach Community Dx develops hospital laboratory outreach programs for small, rural and community hospitals. InReach Community Dx leverages the excess capacity and capabilities of hospital laboratories to transform them from cost centers to economic engines.
The InReach partnership develops the services that have been difficult for hospitals to provide when competing with national labs, such as IT connectivity, marketing, field services, robust data analytics and quality management programs.
To learn more, visit inreachdx.com.
CoPeace Announces Partnership with Burst to Support, Create, and Distribute Socially-Impactful Media Content
CoPeace will invest in Burst and provide the impact-driven media company a variety of services.
December 02, 2022
DENVER (December 02, 2022) –
CoPeace, an impact investing and services company, announced today a strategic partnership with media technology company Burst. The new partnership will allow CoPeace to team with Burst and use Burst media technology to help generate and disseminate socially-impactful media content.
Burst uses its patented technology to create rights-controlled visual user-generated content (UGC) for media companies, live event venues, and corporate brands. The company’s platform enables consumers to submit video — without an app download — to media companies where it is digested by AI, fully processed, and on air, all within two minutes. The Burst platform effectively and efficiently navigates the final steps between the cloud and traditional television.
“We are excited about our new partnership with CoPeace, whose mission aligns perfectly with ours,” said Bryant McBride, Burst’s CEO. “Allies like CoPeace help us amplify our efforts to share important stories that fill the holes in the American narrative. We look forward to working closely with the CoPeace team to drive revenue while also driving positive social change.”
This new strategic partnership has a built-in synergy. Several CoPeace and Burst executives have worked together in the past on innovative sports-based projects that are still relevant today, including the underlying technology used in the virtual yellow first down line in football, as well as other broadcast enhancements.
“Working with Bryant and the Burst team fits our mission in every way as we build stakeholder value by helping impactful companies grow,” said Craig Jonas, CoPeace founder and CEO. “We love the fact Burst content is designed to teach, heal, humanize, and inspire. Our shared history in sports is an added bonus and elevates this partnership to a unique level moving forward.”
Burst and CoPeace are also teaming up on a major sports-based diversity and inclusion project in the near future. Formal announcement is forthcoming.
Burst is the 8th holding in the CoPeace impact portfolio. The agreement calls for CoPeace to provide a variety of business services to Burst and includes an investment component.
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About CoPeace
CoPeace helps impactful companies grow. As an impact-driven holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected businesses with measurable social and environmental impact. Additionally, CoPeace provides a variety of consulting services to organizations demonstrating positive social or environmental impact.
As a fully certified B Corp and public-benefit corporation (PBC), CoPeace is committed to acting morally, ethically, and responsibly in regard to society and the environment. Equity, inclusion, and justice are not just valued at CoPeace – they are pillars supporting our mission.
To learn more, visit copeace.com.
About Burst
Burst is a leading provider of user-generated content (UGC) solutions for media companies, broadcasters and for the enterprise. Burst’s technology is used by hundreds of customers every day, engaging audiences to create compelling UGC in a way that does not require an app download or dependence on social media.
Burst is using its technology to produce a full slate of mid-to-long form video productions – all with a purpose-filled, diversity, equity and inclusion theme. Burst’s mission is to leverage its platform to tell stories that teach, heal, humanize and inspire all people.
To learn more, visit https://www.burst.com
CoPeace Announces New Strategic Services Agreement With ExperienceYes
CoPeace Announces New Strategic Services Agreement With ExperienceYes
September 14, 2022
CoPeace Will Provide a Variety of Impact and Business Services to Help ExperienceYes Enter the Sports Market
DENVER (September 14, 2022) – CoPeace, an impact investing and services company, announced today a strategic services agreement to provide ExperienceYes, an improv mindset consulting company, a variety of impact and business services through its CoPeace Sports subsidiary.
ExperienceYes is an innovative company that uses the tools and techniques of the improv mindset to improve leadership skills, engage free flowing creativity, increase team productivity, and develop healthy business cultures.
“I was really excited when ExperienceYes approached CoPeace,” said Craig Jonas, CEO/Founder of CoPeace, and a former college conference basketball coach of the year. “I’ve had the opportunity to participate in sessions with ExperienceYes. Not only did I see my own creativity improve, I also quickly saw how this program could positively impact sports teams. I am confident the ExperienceYes program can give a sports program a significant edge.”
CoPeace and ExperienceYes have formed a strategic alliance to build and implement an “integrated improv and creativity” coaching program for the sports industry. ExperienceYes has had great success in the business world with its programming and sees a tremendous opportunity to positively impact the world of sports.
“Improv has some huge advantages when it comes to teams, whether in business or sports” said Gail Montgomery, CEO and Co-Founder of ExperienceYes. “Not only does it significantly increase team collaboration, cohesion and trust, there’s also been new research that illustrates how an improviser’s brain can see the world in a very different, very creative way.”
The new program targeting sports teams is designed to be an integral part of a team’s wholistic coaching process, from pre-season planning and workouts through the regular season.
The ExperienceYes process focuses on four core rules of improv: 1) Yes, and …; 2) Listen with the intent to serve; 3) Support your teammates at all costs; and 4) Trust your instincts. The new sport program will include a variety of creativity-improvement activities.
“I think fundamentally we’ve always known that creativity matters a lot in sports,” said Bruce Montgomery, President and Co-Founder of ExperienceYes. “To our knowledge, however, this will be the first time where creativity is not just the by-product of something else. It is a real skill, a skill that can be effectively developed within all sports teams and one that has a tremendous impact on winning.”
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About CoPeace
CoPeace is a forward-thinking holding company that helps impact driven businesses grow by providing capital and services to foster positive societal impact with mission-aligned business endeavors. As a certified B Corp and a public-benefit corporation (PBC), CoPeace is committed to doing business ethically and responsibly toward society, the environment, and the world at large.
CoPeace Sport helps athletes, coaches, and sport organizations maximize their ability to positively impact society.
To learn more about CoPeace and CoPeace Sport visit copeace.com.
About ExperienceYes
ExperienceYes is a unique consulting firm which believes in smashing the box, loving the deep end, and increasing uncertainty tolerance.
ExperienceYes relies on proven neuroscience to develop high performing teams and leaders in experiential sessions focused on “The Improv Mindset.” In addition, engagement benefits include increased Emotional Intelligence, Creativity, Trust and Empathy.
To learn more about ExperienceYes, visit www.experienceyes.com
Dan Hattori | Strategic Financial Advisor
Dan Hattori
Dan Hattori serves as a strategic and financial advisor to CoPeace, its subsidiaries and its clients. His work for CoPeace focuses on supporting the finance team in their investment decisions as well as working with CoPeace clients to help implement their business, financial and growth objectives.
Dan is a senior executive with more than 30 years of strategic consulting, financial services and entrepreneurial experience. Early in his career as consultant for McKinsey and Company, Dan learned the value of strategic thinking and recognized his passion for helping to grow companies.
As one of the founding members of Deerfield Capital Management’s (“DCM”) bank loan team, Dan helped grow assets under management from $0 to over $9 billion. He led the expansion of DCM into Europe as President and CEO of DCM-Europe. He was then promoted to Chief Operating Officer of the parent company, where he led the growth of DCM by merging it with two other bank loan companies.
In addition to his extensive financial management experience, Dan combined his passion for food with his entrepreneurial spirit by creating one of the most critically acclaimed food trucks in Chicago - PIKO Street Kitchen. He was hands-on in all aspects of the business from menu creation to truck design to business operations. As an owner of a startup, Dan understands the challenges small businesses face and has first-hand experience in how to address them.
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Impact Investing is Much More Than ESG Metrics
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Impact Investing is Much More Than ESG Metrics
By Ken Reed
ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) has become a big part of the lexicon in the world of investing.
In fact, assets under the category ESG are poised to reach $41 trillion by the end of this year, according to Bloomberg Intelligence estimates. (https://bloom.bg/3ODgGtL)
However, there is some confusion when it comes to ESG. ESG is the term given to a variety of baseline metrics that attempt to measure the environmental, social and governance activities of companies.
Where the confusion comes in is that ESG is often used interchangeably with the term impact investing.
ESG and impact investing are certainly related but there is a different level of commitment and activity between a company who simply uses ESG as a measurement tool and a company that is actively doing socio-cultural and/or environmental impact work.
Impact investing is actually the evolution of ESG.
Impact investors want to know what a company’s total impact on society is. True impact companies add value to society in multiple ways, and work for the benefit of all stakeholders – customers, employees, shareholders and communities.
Impact investors are interested in a given company’s true cost of doing business, which considers the societal and environmental impact of a company’s operations. It includes negative impacts such as air and water pollution, excessive carbon dioxide output, unfair or illegal labor practices, safety issues, etc.
That said, it’s also important to stress that along with positive social/environmental impact, impact investing requires a strong financial return for investors. By definition, impact investing is an investing approach that intentionally seeks to produce both positive social and environmental impact and a competitive financial return. It’s a level beyond the use of basic ESG metrics.
Warren Buffett once said, “Good profits simply are not inconsistent with good behavior.”
He was right. It turns out doing good is also good business.
And that’s what impact investing is all about.
Ken Reed is a Senior Communications Advisor at CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
CoPeace Launches New Capital Campaign on SVX US Innovative Impact Investing Platform
CoPeace Launches New Capital Campaign on SVX US Innovative Impact Investing Platform
MAY 9, 2022
DENVER (MAY 09, 2022) – CoPeace, PBC, a diversified impact holding company, and SVX US, a nonprofit, diversified impact financial services firm announced today that the SVX impact investing platform will host CoPeace’s new $3 million capital campaign, a Rule 506(c) Preferred Series A offer for accredited investors.
CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. This is the company’s first capital campaign targeting accredited investors, following a series of equity crowdfunding campaigns designed to democratize the investing process.
“We are excited about launching our new capital campaign on the SVX platform, for multiple reasons, but foremost are the shared mission alignment and the ease of use for investors to participate,” said Craig Jonas, CoPeace founder and CEO. “I have personally invested through the SVX platform which gives me great confidence that this will be an excellent fit for CoPeace as we keep the fundraising momentum going following our successful crowdfunding campaign, and over $3.5 million raised to date.”
SVX is a nonprofit organization registered with securities regulators as an Exempt Market Dealer (EMD). SVX has partners and operations across Canada, as well as in the US and Mexico and provides a suite of services enabling impact across a variety of sectors for investors, organizations, funds, and enterprises. The SVX US platform is a partnership of Cutting Edge Capital and SVX Canada.
“SVX is thrilled to bring the CoPeace offering onto the SVX US platform,” said Kevin Taylor, Associate Director, SVX Canada. “CoPeace’s mission to democratize investing while positively impacting society and the environment aligns perfectly with our vision at SVX. SVX US makes it easier than ever to invest in private market offerings that deliver meaningful change alongside the potential for financial returns. We’re excited to make impact investing accessible to all investors who are increasingly interested in aligning their investments with their values.”
SVX US is user-friendly, featuring detailed issuer profiles, a transaction engine, and capacity to make debt and equity investments across a range of impact areas including climate, food, health, equity, housing, and community real estate.
“CoPeace has been a longtime client and partner with Cutting Edge, which is exactly why we’re pleased to continue our relationship by launching their offering on the SVX US platform,” said John Katovich, Co-Founder, SVX US and Principal at Cutting Edge Capital. “Impact-focused investors have already shown their willingness to invest on SVX US and have expressed a strong interest in returning to find more like-minded issuers such as CoPeace. Cutting Edge has long been entrenched in the impact and alternative investments space, and we are committed to supporting a thriving impact investor community. We look forward to supporting CoPeace’s capital raise on the SVX US platform.”
CoPeace and SVX share a common vision: a world where all investments have a positive impact. Both companies are working to help organizations and investors match money with meaning.
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About CoPeace
CoPeace is a forward-thinking holding company, building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. CoPeace is democratizing the investment world by allowing everyone, not just wealthy investors, to invest in private impact companies via its holding company structure. In addition, CoPeace provides a variety of consulting services to organizations demonstrating positive social or environmental impact.
As a designated Certified B Corp and a public-benefit corporation (PBC), CoPeace is committed to acting morally, ethically and responsibly in regard to society, the environment, the natural world and the world at large
To learn more about CoPeace and how you can grow your money for good, visit http://copeace.com.
About SVX US
SVX US makes it easy for enterprises, including private issuers, CDFIs, nonprofit organizations, and funds, to connect with impact investors in a simple and automated way. The organization operates an online impact investment platform with campaign preparation support, detailed profiles, automated transaction and subscription document processing, and capacity to deploy investments across security, investor, and offering types, from DPOs to Reg D to nonprofit and co-op offerings. SVX US also offers a range of referral partner support, including legal, marketing, and capital advisory services. SVX US is a partnership of Cutting Edge Capital and SVX Canada.
For more information on SVX US, please visit https://svx.us.com/.
5 Ways To Improve Your Digital Marketing Game in 2022
It’s 2022. We live in a digital age. And when every business uses digital channels for marketing — how do you stand out from your competition? How do you catch the eye of your ideal clients or customers in the crowded online space? How do you create authentic messaging that will resonate in all the right ways, translating into super fans and, ultimately, increased revenue?
Start with strategy. By creating purposeful content, you’re five steps ahead of most of your competitors. Here’s how to do it.
A two-pronged approach: build relationships & boost sales
There are so many people doing great work in the world, solving problems & offering creative solutions. There are a few things you can do to help your business stand out from the crowd & help to move your marketing from good to great: use a two-pronged approach to 1) build relationships and 2) boost sales.
Relationships, baby
Nobody loves buying from a business whose only goal is to sell, sell, sell. When you start by building authentic, long-term, loyal relationships with your current and potential customers or clients, you set the tone for future sales. Make them fall in love with your brand, your ethos, and the way you do business. Because we all know that making a single sale feels good — but establishing an ongoing relationship that results in multiple sales is great.
Sell the life transformation (not your product or service)
You can’t focus solely on relationships — you’ve got to sell your services or products, too. Think about problem-solving ahead of dollar signs when it comes to selling. People want to buy a solution. A life transformation. They care about themselves (a lot more than they care about making money for your company). It’s all about positioning. And when you crack the code of how to position your offer, that’s when the magic happens.
5 ways to “up” your digital marketing game
If your digital marketing game isn’t up to par, a complete overhaul can feel daunting. It’s okay to start with baby steps — upgrading one thing at a time — to move toward your goals. By trying one thing at a time, you can test what works best for you and your company — and you’ll have a concrete measurement of success.
Here are 5 things you can do to escalate your digital marketing success.
1. Develop a monthly/quarterly content strategy
Map out buckets of content topics by month or quarter that you’d like to focus on. Organize and build your content strategy into a spreadsheet — and stick to it! Make sure you shoot for a doable volume of work and that you can divide the content into various mediums (more on that later) that can be executed by a pro in that area. Decide who will do what, when, and stay on track. Because having a strategy that you never use is, well, worthless.
2. Create the ultimate buyer’s journey
Many business owners and executives have a blind spot when it comes to their own customers’ journey. When you’re really close to something (i.e. your services, products, or offers), it can be hard to put yourself in a brand new customer’s shoes and decide if the flow of their journey makes sense. Pretend you know nothing about your brand/business. What would a cold lead want to know? How do you explain your offer? Make sure to be clear over clever or cute. Counter their objections. Provide social proof. Make them fall in love with the life transformation you’re selling — from beginning to end of their experience getting to know you/your brand/business.
3. Vary your content medium (social media, blogs, videos, podcasts, etc.)
The human brain gets bored really quickly. They say that we have the attention span of a goldfish — 5 seconds. We like change, variety, and surprises. Make sure you publish content for your digital audience in multiple mediums to keep your audience on their toes and engaged in your content.
4. Focus on customer service
Don’t forget that there’s a human on the other side of every screen. If you rely on automations or AI to service your customers — news flash – they’re going to notice. And chances are…they aren’t going to love it. Be human. Admit mistakes. Be transparent. Offer to fix issues/problems. Just be nice. It’s highly underrated.
5. Assess, tweak, update, and refine your content monthly/quarterly
After you put your digital marketing to work — make sure you don’t “set it and forget about it.” Ads, websites, blogs, emails, videos, podcasts all need to be tweaked, updated, and refined from time to time. Make sure you’re staying relevant — and conscious of current events and how your marketing might land on certain groups during certain times. Make a plan to review and optimize existing content plans at least bi-annually, if not quarterly. It’s surprising how quickly things can become outdated or appear (even if unintentionally) offensive.
Digital marketing is here to stay. And if you’re looking for ways to improve your digital marketing — you’re already ahead of the game! Remember to start with strategy and build from there. Keep your audience at the forefront of your positioning & language. Whenever possible, put yourself in their shoes and see if your offers resonate with someone unfamiliar with what you do.
Lindsay Hope is a copywriter and marketing strategist with CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
The Anatomy of a Highly Connective, High-Converting Email
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The Anatomy of a Highly Connective, High-Converting Email
Part of a series on effective digital communication
By Lindsay Hope
As the year 2021 comes to a close, there’s a lot of marketing lessons to glean from the extended pandemic world we’re living in. For those of us in the small business digital space, one of the top takeaways is: Never underestimate the power of email. (Contrary to what you might have heard, email is not dead.)
With an ROI of 3,800-4,400% (according to Hubspot), it’s undeniable that email is the channel to utilize and optimize as we turn the corner into next year. Emails solve problems and build connections with your audience. Then, when it comes time to sell your products or services, you’ve already established trust, built authority, and primed your prospects to buy.
Think about that ROI stat in a different way: for every $1 spent, email generates an average of $38-44. When you think about the cost of developing an email marketing strategy vs. attempting to acquire customers via social media platforms (which can cost up to five times as much!), you’ll find that there’s no comparison in terms of value.
So, once you’re convinced that email marketing is the way to go, next, you’ve got to learn how to create highly connective, high-converting emails.
What separates a decent email from a super fantastic email that your prospects can’t wait to open, read, and engage with? A few things.
1. An Enticing Subject Line
The NUMBER ONE goal of your subject line is to get the reader to open your email. Create curiosity, urgency, and intrigue — but don’t be clickbaity! Make sure you’re authentic and deliver what you say you will. Subject line length can vary, but as a good rule of thumb, shorter is better (try under nine words and around 60 characters maximum). But remember — there’s no right or wrong way to write a subject line. Your audience might prefer a different format or style than other audiences.
Pro tip: Test, test, test! Use trial and error to find out what works best to get engagement with your audience and for your brand. Try using emojis, title and/or sentence case, and longer vs. shorter subject lines. Most email service programs provide an option to A/B test two different subject lines. This means you can send two options to a portion of your audience (usually around 20%) to determine which one works better/gets more opens. Then the winning subject line is sent to the remainder of your list. Take advantage of this! Test, optimize, and test again.
2. Optimized Preview Text
Never ignore this valuable email real estate! Consider what people will see when they read emails on their phones. This almost always includes at least one line of a preview text. Optimize your email copy for the small space you have after the subject line to sweeten the deal — aka incentive to open — your email.
Pro tip: The first few words of your preview text count the most! Make sure your reader will see the most important information first. Give them the critical information that the email is about — and still, find a way to lure them into clicking it open and reading the rest.
3. Focused Body Copy
Once you’ve earned the open, make sure you provide concise, valuable information in the body of your email! Start with a great hook to keep the reader interested. Get quickly to the point of your email; you don’t want to lose their attention (which isn’t going to last more than a few seconds, trust me). Don’t write a novel here… emails are meant to be concise. Make sure every sentence delivers value. If it doesn’t, delete it.
Pro tip: Focus each email on only one idea. Multiple ideas dilute your message and can confuse your reader, making it less likely that they’ll take the action you want them to take. This leads to the next point…
4. A Killer CTA
Don’t be shy — tell your readers what you want them to do while/after reading your email. Write a call to action (CTA) that they can’t help themselves from clicking. It can be as simple as “Buy Now” or “Book a Call,” or you can try getting creative with it. Within the email is not the time to beat around the bush. Make sure you give the reader a reason to have opened your email!
Pro tip: Use the same CTA throughout the email to give your reader multiple opportunities to take the action you want them to take. You can even add it again in the P.S.
5. BONUS: A Few Additional Important Tips
– Personalization in emails is uber-important. Go beyond adding a greeting with someone’s first name. Segment your audience according to the parameters you deem important — actions they’ve taken, demographic characteristics, or triggers that are relevant to your business. Personalization helps you deliver critical information to the right audience at the right time.
– Optimize your offer. If the copy you’re using in your emails isn’t working, go back to the drawing board and think of another way to build a relationship with them and give them what they want. Think beyond features and dig into benefits. How will your product or service transform their life? For example, the end goal of an alarm clock probably isn’t just to wake up earlier. It’s a trigger that helps them get up early to work out, meditate, or read a business book to help them achieve a result.
– Pay attention to timing and frequency. For many businesses, Tuesdays are the best day to send weekly emails. Is that true for your business? Maybe so, maybe not. Test this too so you can optimize the time and frequency when you connect with your audience.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make with email marketing is waiting to get started.
You don’t need to have an intricate strategy to start communicating with your prospects and customers via this channel. Sure, it’s helpful to build that over time, but don’t let the lack of a robust strategy hold you back from simply saying, “Hello, here’s what we’re all about, do you want to learn more?” to them. Your only regret will be not starting to communicate with email sooner.
Lindsay Hope is a copywriter and marketing strategist with CoPeace. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.
Writing Better Newsletters
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Writing Better Newsletters
By Jim Crawford
Five tips to start improving your newsletters
Whether you’re sending daily email blasts, weekly newsletters, or even quarterly reports, communicating with your stakeholders via email is an important skill. Just like any other medium, understanding how your audience engages and digests information via email is crucial to effective newsletters. This is already an audience that trusted you with their email address. They are often a captive and engaged group, so it’s important to provide them real value each time your newsletter lands in their inbox.
Let’s take a look at five tips for newsletters that are simple to pick up to increase reader engagement.
Establish a welcome funnel
A welcome funnel is the email(s) a new subscriber receives when they join your list. This could be as simple as a single, text email welcoming them to the list. When thinking of what to include in your welcome funnel, address common things like: (a) How often users should expect emails from you, (b) what topics are covered in the newsletter, and (c) subscription management options.
Be consistent with the schedule
Probably the worst thing you can do is push out your newsletter on an inconsistent basis. An inconsistent schedule leads to lower levels of engagement and a disconnect between your subscribers and your organization. When followers can expect a consistent flow of information, it helps establish trust and credibility.
Quality not quantity
With the rare exception of a newsletter that is explicitly a collated list of items on a topic, your newsletter should probably be a distillation of the topic, industry, news, etc. The chances a recipient clicks more than three links in your newsletter is basically zero. So, what’s important? Which three things would you actually like them to click? This should be your content. Now give it quality. (My friend Lindsay wrote a great blog on accomplishing this).
This also goes for copy. Quality over quantity. No one is reading paragraphs of an email, but you might entice them enough with a good headline or pull-quote to click, instead of their eyes glazing over. But don’t be click-bait-y (enticing your reader to click without following through on your promise). Be sure your content delivers on what the headline offers.
Mix thought leadership with internal and external news
This one might be a bit subjective, depending on your organization and nature of the newsletter. However, a good rule of thumb, the newsletter should include a nice mix of relevant news about the organization, as well as external information you might want to share with your stakeholders. Yes, the newsletter should celebrate your organization’s news, activities, and staff, but it’s not a sales tactic. It’s information dissemination and sometimes that information comes from another thought leader in the space.
Understand delivery times, mail platforms, data and user interface
Ever notice you might receive multiple list emails right at the same time? It’s probably been deemed an active email time for your part of the world, and many email management platforms offer this insight to users to better engage their audiences.
This is just one example of a type of tool that can be used to improve engagement. Understanding the services and data analytics offered to you, can help increase your effectiveness in communicating with subscribers. Take the time to read through provided documentation and become comfortable with the terminology and layout.
Many of these tips are easy to pick up, but difficult to execute consistently. No single piece will make your newsletter the most effective. It will be a culmination of doing a lot of little things correctly, which result in concise and clear communication that is engaging for your constituents.
Jim Crawford formerly worked with CoPeace in business communications. As a forward-thinking holding company, CoPeace is building a portfolio of carefully selected for-profit companies with measurable social and environmental impact. To learn more about impact investing, check out CoPeace’s Intro to Impact Investing.