With email newsletter monetization set to play a pivotal role for publishers in 2021, we wanted to share insights from one of our experts to help everyone get a feel for what we all have to look forward to in the coming months.
In this interview, Iulian Danciu, Product Leader at inboxAds, explains how the pandemic has impacted the market and where email monetization is headed.
Read on to find out how inboxAds became the first email monetization platform to bring real native ads to newsletters around the globe and what every publisher should know for 2021 and beyond.
What can you tell our readers about your role at inboxAds?
It’s a challenging industry that moves fast, thanks to the high-speed pace of modern technology. We take great pride in spearheading innovation and bringing the next generation of email monetization products to the market.
As a Product Leader, there is no one else who knows inboxAds better than you do. What can you say about the motivation behind this product?
inboxAds was born to satisfy an underserved market: email & newsletter monetization. We’ve seen the struggle many publishers were having, we identified what brings value to them, and we moved fast to deliver our promise.
We wanted to expand the market offering with a complete solution, enabling a publisher to fully monetize their newsletters with no added complexity.
One of the digital marketing strategies that hold the most potential is email monetization. From your experience, what do you think about the publishers’ perception of it?
It’s true that email monetization is only beginning to show its full potential. In fact, it’s in such an early stage right now that many publishers have just started to consider their email channel as a profitable revenue generator.
Other publishers are a bit more advanced, having been in the digital newsletter market for some years. There’s also an added layer of complexity when we are talking about programmatic email monetization.
The average perception around the topic is outdated: many believe that programmatic email monetization is something that will impact their newsletter KPIs. To address their issues, we built a series of articles in which we talk about the new technology and its benefits, eliminating all the guesswork and misperceptions.
What makes inboxAds special and different from other competitors? In a few words: why choose inboxAds?
We were the first to build a true native programmatic email monetization unit. Our product is built around publishers’ needs, which is not always focused on top-line revenue. I speak with our publishers weekly, which helps us build relevant products for them. I believe that investing my time and talking to them regularly help us provide enduring value.
Innovation has always been a challenge. How do you apply it at inboxAds?
Innovation is one of the core values we keep in high regard at inboxAds. The market is moving very fast, trends are changing, and innovation has been the fuel that pushed inboxAds to its exponential growth over the past two years.
When you start using inboxAds, you can expect a world-class onboarding experience, superior product GUI, and instant access to all the tools you need to maximize your newsletter revenue.
Who is the “perfect” publisher for inboxAds?
The product is self-serve and available for everyone, as it was our vision to democratize and open the email monetization market. We are flexible with our publishers as much as possible, but yes — some are a better fit compared to others.
For us, a perfect publisher is one who is looking forward to building a lasting partnership that grows over time.
2020 was a tough year for most businesses, despite the industry. How did inboxAds feel about last year’s challenges?
We were quick to transition to a remote working setup internally and continued to focus on our publishers. Despite the challenges 2020 brought, it was a positive catalyst for adopting digital products.
We’ve seen big brands taking email newsletters seriously and others willing to try new things for monetizing them — such as email monetization products.
Digital marketing is evolving faster than ever. With this in mind, what can you say to our readers about the trends in email monetization that should not be missed in 2021?
They should keep an eye on programmatic email monetization. 2020 was just the beginning for higher adoption levels. The way we see it, as more big names in the industry start using it, the more others will follow.
As the product leader at inboxAds, what can you tell us about the most usual challenges your team faces on a daily basis?
We’re building products in a fast-paced industry, and we’re seeing an increasing demand for email monetization products. While we’re receiving great feedback from publishers and advertisers, it’s challenging to prioritize so many requests and keep everyone happy with the delivery schedule.
We’re very pleased to see our customers and partners actively engaged in the future of email monetization.
inboxAds encourages publishers to offer a personalized experience to their audience. How do you support your customers in achieving this?
The way we build and consume newsletters has changed — we expect to receive high-quality, tailored content for our specific needs. We encourage publishers to provide a unique experience to each reader, and we are happy to enable them to do it through our products and tools.
All that you have told us here makes email monetization look so easy. What about actually using inboxAds to monetize newsletters?
I think a great product should provide a frictionless onboarding experience to its users, regardless of the fact that it serves a B2B market.
inboxAds was built on this foundation, making it incredibly easy to get started. You can monetize your newsletters in minutes. This is not a marketing catchphrase, but the real onboarding experience we’ve built for our customers.
