Getting my first 50 newsletter subscribers in 8 weeks
8 weeks ago, I committed to writing a weekly newsletter. When I started, I found it a bit daunting to think about how I’d find my first subscribers. Unfortunately while “build it and they will come” worked for the hit 1989 blockbuster Field of Dreams, it doesn’t necessarily work for newsletters. But, I'm happy to report that today I've got 56 subscribers.
I’m sharing this for two reasons. The first: I hope that it encourages you, if you’re writing a newsletter. I've been encouraged by others, like Ikram here on Indie Hackers sharing their newsletter progress. The second: Reflecting on what works and what doesn’t is one of the best ways to learn. By writing about what’s working, I’ll become a better marketer, and hopefully, build a better newsletter.
OK. First things first.
The Two Step Formula to Writing a Newsletter
Writing a newsletter is not just about writing. It’s also about promotion. This has been one of the biggest learnings for me. I set time aside to do both, and they’re different skills.
Writing. I write a newsletter every week. This is definitely the hardest part. I break my writing sessions into 3 separate blocks: researching, writing, and editing. I try to use runs to listen to podcasts about the businesses I write about, and I use early mornings to draft my newsletters, since that’s my most creatively fruitful time! (Early risers, where you at?!)
Promotion. My promotion strategy is pretty simple at this point. I share it on social media. This has been tougher than I expected. It’s an easy thing for me to put off. But it’s been the biggest driver of growth, so I persist.
My Promotion Experiments and How They've Performed
- Source: When a reader finds and subscribes to a newsletter through LinkedIn
- What I do: I post on LinkedIn, my goal is to post 3x weekly but it’s been more like 1.5/week
- Subscribers: 20
Direct
- Source: When a reader types your publication URL directly into the browser and clicks on your post or when there's an unknown source such as when a reader is using a web browser anonymously.
- What I do: I share the link to my newsletter in proposals, in my online profile bios, LinkedIn messages, and communities that I’m a part of
- Subscribers: 18
Substack
- Source: People who find your publication through the Substack network
- What I do: Nothing
- Subscribers: 7
- Source: When a reader finds and subscribes to a newsletter through Twitter
- What I do: I post about my newsletter 2x / week
- Subscribers: 2
Twitter has been the least fruitful channel for me. I may revisit it in the future, but I’m going to put more energy into LinkedIn. As an aside: Substack has an excellent webinar series that they filmed on how to grow a newsletter. I watched a behind the scenes video from Abi Abouelatta, of First1000, which was really helpful. Substack recommends newsletter creators consider their reach, engagement, and price when considering whether to write a paid newsletter. At this point, I’m just focused on building a useful product and practicing my writing skills.
What’s working and what's not
I’m still learning where to find my audience. So far, here’s what I’ve learned:
LinkedIn is my best audience: a well-timed post brought in a lot of eyeballs and doubled my subscriber count overnight. It’s a pretty friendly platform, it’s where most of my network is, and it rewards useful content.
Twitter is hard work, and potentially not worth the work. I get very little engagement and only a small number of my subscribers have come from Twitter.
My objective: 500 subscribers by the end of 2023.
Tactics I’ve committed to
- Ship 1 newsletter a week
- Ship 1x building in public post for my first 50, 100, 250, and 500 subscribers
- Repurpose newsletter content to promote the newsletter
- DM the people behind the brands with each newsletter I publish
I'll keep you posted when I hit 100. Thanks for reading!
P.S. If you’d like to join my newsletter on brand building as well as interviews with the people behind the brands, you can join here 👇
Thank you for sharing your experience, Amanda! I am currently working on a daily newsletter, and it feels like that marketing a newsletter is the hardest part. Have you tried to post on Reddit or other places where your niche ist ?
Good for you! Daily is impressive. I agree - the marketing is a bigger lift than I expected. I'm experimenting with posting on HackerNews and Reddit, there's a lot of rules in the forums I'm in that ban self promotion so I have to be a bit careful, but I think it's worth trying and will continue to experiment. One thing I'm currently trying is sharing each new post in the #self promo channels in some of the marketing and growth communities I'm in since it's relevant to those audiences. Could be worth trying if you're a part of any communities relevant to your niche!
Awesome, Amanda! Your subscribers, are very fortunate to have access to your weekly insights and comments.
Well done on hitting the 50 subscriber milestone and best wishes for the next ones!
Thank you for sharing this inspiring story.
Thanks @FootprintCalculator - appreciate the kind words! Onward!
Nice exploration. What are your promotions through your newsletter?
I'm running a design subscription agency, is this something you can promote?
Hey @pentaclay, congrats on running the subscription agency, cool model. I'm not currently running promotions since I want to spend more time getting to know my audience before I try to sell anything, but I'm open to chatting! I think it's a great idea to target marketing and brand newsletters for your subscription agency.
Hi, sure thanks.
I would love to know about target marketing.
Can we try Affiliate Partnership with you on commission-based?
Thanks.
Why not consolidate your newsletters into 1. Focus on building 1 audience within 1 channel, and use the other channels to people into your funnel.
Hi Archie! Hmm - I don't think I'm following?
You're currently building audiences separate from each other, within the platforms you're promoting. You don't own the audiences, the platforms do. Anything happens to those platforms or your accounts, and your audiences are gone. Instead, consolidate them by trying to get them to opt-in to your email newsletter. You will then own your audience and are able to better measure your content and engagement. You should definitely still use those platforms, like X, LinkedIn, etc. But primarily as an entry point into your funnel.