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Ideas on how to grow and market a newsletter

https://unread.it/

Ideas on how to grow and market a newsletter

Hi indie hackers,
me and @linuz90 are getting ready to launch Unreadit (https://unread.it/) and are struggling to find good ways to market and grow it.

We feel that if we reached 10k subscribers on at least one of our newsletters we could start making serious $ with sponsorships, but we are not there yet (our biggest newsletter is approaching 100 subs).

Do you have any ideas on how to market something like this or any experience growing newsletters? We are trying to think out of the box, but as it is common for many markers, this is kind of our weak spot.

submitted this linkon February 14, 2019
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    You have to differentiate.

    I've seen the growth of our newsletter by dishing out new content ideas. We're experimenting with video now just to help break through the noise in the sea of content.

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      Cool, can you link you newsletter so I can see for myself?

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    Here are a few things to think about:

    • You should be giving value to your subscribers (more than you are receiving)
    • Make your emails visually appealing and easy to read.
    • Don't make an email newsletter that is just full of links. Even if you are linking to something else in Reddit, I would recommend including a few lines of text + an image for every link.
    • Find a way to make your subscribers feel special. People love being a part of something exclusive or feeling like they are part of a group.
    • Find a way to encourage your users to share without being pushy.
    • Find a way to offer your subscribers something special even before you get sponsorships (even if it's just access to a slack channel to recommend content)
      These are the sort of things I'll be thinking about when www.folyoz.net has its newsletter up and running. I'll be happy to hear any ideas you have and learn more from your experience too!
    1. 1

      Thanks for the great feedback! I will iterate on Unreadit and add some of what you suggested.

      We are going to add an intro to some issues to make it more personal.

      Also, quick feedback about folyoz: when on your landing page it's not clear at all what you are selling. I read "a new and easy way to manage submissions", then looked around for 4-5 seconds and could not figure out what you meant neither from images nor from text. I think you need to iterate on it.

    2. 1

      Also, subscribe to Huckberry's newsletter to see a great example of good email marketing and newsletters.

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    I gave it a chance, you have one subscriber more ;)

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      Thanks! I am curious, what newsletter did you subscribe to?

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        Indie Makers of course ;)

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    Start by asking yourself who is your target audience and where they hang out.

    In this case it's pretty obvious! Go on relevant subreddits and start asking feedback for your project.

    Be careful though, Reddit could be a nightmare if you just try to spam your link.

    Here is an example of Reddit marketing done right:
    https://www.reddit.com/r/marketing/comments/7j4unb/reddit_marketing_case_study_how_a_2000_email/

    1. 1

      Great input, thanks! Do you have some personal experience marketing on Reddit?

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        I ran some experiments with mixed results. Some subs allow self promotion as long as you provide value, while others have nazi moderators that will ban you no matter what 😂

  5. 1

    I currently run http://www.getthecrypt.com

    lol, Let me know when you figure out how to grow!

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      I just subscribed! How many subscribers to you have?

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