Morning Brew was born at the University of Michigan, the two cofounders’ passion project to make business news more engaging. Originally called Market Corner, the newsletter racked up a few thousand subscribers within three months, foreshadowing the incredible success that would later follow. Today, Morning Brew has more than 2.4 million readers and several spinoff email products, driving a 333% increase in revenue from 2018 to 2019. An authentic voice is the secret to that success.

Readers love Morning Brew’s fun, irreverent tone. But as Jenny Rothenberg, the brand’s Director of Growth, explains in this eMarketer interview, a sense of humor alone wouldn’t suffice.

“If we just had a fun tone, but not really the value of giving people the news they need for the day, I don’t think we’d be where we are,” Jenny explains.

Where they are, is a place with unbelievably high engagement. Morning Brew’s daily unique open rate is more than 40%. Readers are so engaged, partially because they feel like they have a say, able to reply to the newsletter… and actually have that feedback read.

“In late March, we started giving readers more recommendations on how to live their best quarantine lives, pass the time and be productive. We saw great engagement and to double down on that, we launched a pop-up newsletter called The Essentials,” says Jenny, adding that 175,000 people subscribed within three days.

To hear more, watch Jenny’s full interview with eMarketer:

To learn more about Morning Brew’s success, download our case study How Morning Brew Maintains Exceptional Engagement with Automation and Testing.