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12 Comments

A simple newsletter can transform your startup

Every startup's different. But for ~50% on here this would be the first thing I'd do if you hired me (I'm not looking for work)

  • Think How can I solve customer's problems
  • Build a free email course around it
  • Add CTA's at end of emails + consent to be remarketed to

Crucially every email would be personal. Written by a real person. Personal sign offs etc...

E.g. Patch Plants. They sell expensive plant. (See image)

Problem: People are worried about the plants they buy dying
Solution: Mini houseplant parenting course

I'd guess this popup converts at ~4%. If you have 30k users / mo. That's 1200 emails / mo. Enough to build a business around.

TLDR. Don't think about “capturing emails”. Think about creating something worth subscribing to

on September 5, 2020
  1. 6

    Gold as usual Harry.

    Sometimes people feel a bit intimidated by the idea of creating a course, so I really like the recommendation for "10 bitesize" lessons. That's doable in a weekend. You just need:

    • A course outline (use Excel/Google sheets)
    • A decent mic (Blue yeti or snowball)
    • Screencasting software (I like Camtasia)

    The golden rule is to imagine the "before" and "after" for someone who takes your course - what transformation occurs, and how does it benefit them?

    If you're looking for a detailed guide, here's one I made

    Although we're not offering the ability to run free courses (initially) through CourseMaker, we will be open-sourcing our GatsbyJS course theme so that IHers can create and run a course like the plant care example Harry describes above for free/pennies. Sign-up to get a ping when it's ready (end of Sept).

    1. 3

      Cheers Chris. Appreciate it. Agree with the bitesize approach.

      It could even be 5 lessons and a round up for every day of the week. And you could do an email course as well to make it even easier.

      Good luck with CourseMaker. Looks cool.

      1. 2

        Thanks Harry - always enjoy your content. I thought your initial foray into video editing was great, looking forward to seeing what you come up with next!

        1. 1

          haha! cheers 🥂 . feels like an age ago

  2. 1

    alright, but how can I actually get the plant care course? what's the link to follow?

    1. 1

      https://www.patchplants.com/

      then wait 20 secs for the popup.

      the course is pretty good.

      cool you tube channel as well

      1. 1

        that was a joke, but still - thank you!
        I'm a mad garden lady :)

  3. 1

    This is great stuff Harry. You do such a great job of giving indie software creators simple, easy to implement marketing advice!

  4. 1

    beautiful, thank you

  5. 0

    so, youd do some content marketing. good call.