There’s a $525,000,000 playbook for local email newsletters that many agents still don’t know about yet.

So, I wanted to share what we learned from Axios, which sold for $525 million, that we used to start running a similar playbook across many different markets.

We produce roughly 25 unique email newsletters every month using this playbook.

(Not counting the amount of different segments we send within each account to different audiences. Some weekly, some biweekly, and some monthly.)

While email newsletters aren’t “easy,” they can be “simple” with a system.

If you don’t have an email playbook, email is the highest ROI (return on investment) marketing channel compared to every single other one (36-70X, +$36 earned for every $1 spent), and it’s still growing.

So, here’s ours so you can swipe it for yourself.

— Andrew

Playbook

The local email newsletter playbook was written by Axios, a media company focused on writing smarter, more efficient content on topics shaping the world and always putting its audience first.

It planned to focus on:

• business

• technology

• politics

• media trends

They generated more than $10,000,000 in revenue in its first 7 months of short-form native advertising and sponsored newsletters.

With 200,000 subscribers, a 52% open rate, 11 newsletters, and 89 staff - it was time to scale.

They started national but then acquired a local company in 2020, Charlotte Agenda, in Charlotte NC, which started their next phase into many of the major metro markets in the US.

Their local newsletters focused on:

• local news

• things to do

• food & drink

• real estate

• business

• sports & more 

The rest is history.

But why does this even matter for agents?

Axios isn’t the only company to prove you can get attention and build an audience with newsletters.

• Axios sold 70% for $525 million, with reportedly around 500 employees

• Morning Brew sold a majority portion for $75 million, all cash, with reportedly about 60 employees

• The Hustle reportedly sold for around $27 million

• MilkRoad built & got acquired in only 10 months and had only 1-2 people writing it

Why? 

• Email is a form of “owned” audience (caveat: you still need to put out great content to be worthy of being opened & read, aka Axios is Greek for worthy)

• $1 million revenue per employee is a high-value return per employee (rough math example based on the above numbers). Granted, many of these companies grew, so that changed the numbers. Yet, for many of these companies early on, they only had 1 writer & maybe 1 editor per newsletter.

• Email return on investment (ROI) is 36-70X ($36 made for every $1 spent). Email acquires 40X more customers than Facebook & Twitter combined.

• Email revenue is only expected to still continue growing.

• The best part about email is if you’re already building an audience on YouTube or another platform, while YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, etc. are great at getting attention, email is the best way to keep their attention long term. You can take the relationship further, and convert more easily. Email is the next natural progression after social.

So, back in 2021, I asked myself why there aren’t more local newsletters? That’s when I started writing a few myself.

As an agent, your goal is to be the “resource” so that when someone decides to buy or sell, they think of you.

• Re - again

• Source - where information is obtained

My thesis is that if you become a local source for the important things going on in your market, you can become the go-to resource.

Gary Vee says to be the “Digital Mayor”

So, how do you get started with email newsletters? First, create a repeatable system by having a simple, repeatable structure.

1) Sources

If you don’t fuel the system with great information (content), then nothing else matters.

Here’s a few examples I follow in Tampa:

• Tampa Bay Business Journal 

• Axios Tampa Bay 

• Tampa Tomorrow 

• That's So Tampa 

There’s more, but I look for modern media brands that stay on top of what’s happening now.

Use a Notion database like this to stores source of ideas.

2) Structure

I analyzed Axios, Morning Brew, MilkRoad, and many other million-dollar newsletter structures, so you don’t have to.

Back in 2021, I found this simple format and have used something similar ever since.

3) Support

After you have a structure, you need support to make it happen more easily.

1. Software

2. People

Three of the more popular email newsletter platforms are:

1. Mailchimp

2. ConvertKit

3. Beehiiv (I use this)

Many use the first 2 because they’re great for multiple things beyond just email newsletters (landing pages, automation, etc.). ActiveCampaign isn’t bad either.

You can find 1 part-time person or get help from an admin/marketing person, so you don’t have to do this all on your own.

One example is a solo agent who hired a part-time admin VA and is also leveraging her to help with her newsletter.

Then scale this from:

1. Monthly newsletter

2. Biweekly newsletter

3. Weekly newsletter

A daily newsletter in real estate would be tough because most people don’t care about what’s happening in their area daily.

However, people do care about what’s going on in their neighborhood/town/city/etc. weekly.

After you scale the newsletter, you can add other layers of email marketing, a few examples:

• Listing blast - sending a single listing email or a list of homes like open houses weekly. Whenever you want to market a listing or send homes to your database.

• YouTube blast - single email announcing new YouTube videos you launch

• Conversation starter emails - these are single emails with the purpose of using information to spark conversations. Jimmy Mackin popularized this for using data to keep your database updated on what’s going on. Then, use the final sentence or P.S. as a call to action. Examples are on his Instagram and the Listing Leads subscription.

Of course, there’s other things like action plans, etc., but if there’s anywhere to start, I’d start with:

1. Email newsletters

2. Conversation starters

Then, decide what else you want to send from there.

Use this as your real estate email marketing playbook.