5 things you can learn from Robinhood’s approach to editorial email

Trading platform Robinhood has integrated content into its ecosystem since the early days of its development. Whilst the app features third party content around the stocks you might be interested in to drive engagement and education, it’s in email that it has set itself apart from the rest of the sector. The stock market traditionally is one of those things you either do or you don’t. There’s a substantial knowledge barrier to entry, and once in - an overwhelming amount of information to consider daily. Robinhood solved both issues in 2019 with its acquisition of financial newsletter MarketSnacks, which it immediately rebranded to Robinhood Snacks. Robinhood Snacks is an editorial email of curated information and links on the daily financial news. It’s a smart approach and there are five key things any business, in any category can take away from it.

1. Develop a soft lead strategy

Robinhood has a tough task, their target audience have not necessarily traded before and for many trading has a knowledge barrier. Most people don’t like to engage with products they know little about, and that is compounded when knowing little can cost you money. At the same time people may be ready to trade mentally, but not financially. Robinhood needed to capture both of these groups and bring them into a known relationship. Robinhood Snacks creates the ideal soft lead strategy, enabling anyone to sign up and learn about what’s happening in the markets before eventually downloading the app.

TAKEAWAY: Develop an editorial newsletter so that it can act as your soft lead strategy, make sure the value is clear in the CTA - ‘sign up to our nondescript newsletter’ isn’t going to cut it.

2. Know your audience needs

The brilliance of Robinhood Snacks is in that its been developed based on its audience needs. The target audience isn’t looking for in-depth financial content, they are looking to be kept up to speed on the key newsworthy financial stories that might have an impact on their portfolios. As a result the email is relatively short and easily digestible, informational but not overwhelming. It also drops first thing in the morning Mon-Fri, ideal for the audience’s commute.

TAKEAWAY: Develop an editorial email concept and cadence that is based on a genuine need of your audience. Consider not just the content, but the best time to send it to deliver value, it’ll pay off in increased open rates.

3. Make your content work hard

Robinhood Snacks is a great soft lead acquisition play, but it doesn’t stop there. The value in the email itself is also designed for current users of the app. This enables Robinhood to engage their users on multiple touchpoints daily, increasing engagement and ultimately more than likely reducing churn.

TAKEAWAY: Consider your overlap audience needs as you develop your editorial email. Soft lead readers will ultimately become customers or users and it needs to work for them throughout that journey.

4. Create expectations

Robinhood has clear messaging around what to expect in their email ‘fresh takes on the financial news you need to start your day’ and it’s a 3 min read, that’s it. Setting these expectations for your users is key to the success if you wish to use it for acquisition. Within the email itself each section is the same every day, so the audience knows what’s coming and can always skip to the section they are most interested in.

5. Establish a name

Robinhood Snacks is the perfect name for the content they are delivering, quick easy to read insights into the days financial news. The name establishes the email with a sub-brand, it enables them to refer to it across their ecosystem and develop different emails in future.

TAKEAWAY: Create a name for your email newsletter, it helps develop it as an entity in itself and enables you to have something specific of value for users to sign up to.