Going from 50 to 100 newsletter subscribers in 5 weeks
It’s been just over a quarter since I committed to writing a weekly newsletter, and today I hit 102 subscribers! I knew it was going to be a big commitment just to write every week. I wrote my first #buildinpublic update, just 5 weeks ago. Since then, writing now comes easily. What comes less easily continues to be figuring out how to find my audience and how to increase my growth rate.
I’m sharing these build in public updates for a few reasons. First: I hope they’re helpful if you’re writing a newsletter or thinking about it. I hope you find mine useful and take what’s useful, and leave the rest. The second: Reflection and redirection is one of the best ways to learn. My hope is that I come away from writing this piece with a few ideas of what I want to try on my path to the next 100 users.
K, here goes.
Observations
The writing is getting easier. I didn’t believe that would be true, but it is. The more excited I am about a topic, the faster I write. I break my sessions into researching, writing and editing, and usually have a draft finished by Wednesday for a Friday morning send.
My initial thesis: ‘strong brands’ - is too broad. What I really love writing about are brands that are connected to culture, are challenger brands, and are on a mission to make the world a slightly better place. Niche is good! I think I needed to write for a quarter to figure this out.
The newsletter is evolutionary, and that's ok. As I’ve honed in on what I’m actually writing about, I’ve changed the name of my newsletter from ‘creative growth memo’ to ‘the case for brand’. It may change again. I’m not wedded to it, but rather see this as an iterative process.
More growth focus is needed. I’d like to be better about growth hacking and experimenting. I started a spreadsheet to track my experiments, but so far there’s no substitute for consistency. I post 3-5x a week on LinkedIn. Sometimes those posts take off, sometimes they tank. The important thing is to keep showing up and keep tracking results.
I’m not convinced that Substack is the right platform for me. Amongst concerns with the ethics of the platform and it’s moderation policy, I get a lot of view to my Substack, but that doesn’t necessarily convert to actual subscribers.
My Promotion Experiments and How They've Performed
What I’ve tried:
Linkedin
Source: When a reader finds and subscribes to a newsletter through LinkedIn
What I do: I post on LinkedIn 3-5x a week
Subscribers: 39
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, my email footer and communities that I’m a part of
Subscribers: 26
Substack
Source: People who find your publication through the Substack network
What I do: Nothing
Subscribers: 14
Google
Source: When a reader Googles me and finds my newsletter
What I do: Nothing
Subscribers: 2
What’s working:
LinkedIn. This continues to be my best audience: well-timed post bring in a lot of eyeballs they’re the right kind of eyeballs - I’m starting to get freelance consulting and inbound FT job leads from them, which is a strong signal I'm reaching the right people.
Readers beginning to share my posts. The first time this happened I was so surprised I nearly fell off my chair. I need to remember to continue to ask people to share!
What’s not working:
Twitter. It's hard work, and I may cut it completely.
Substack. It doesn't seem to have the tools I want to use for driving referrals, downloads, and more advanced email segmentation.
DMing the people behind the brands I publish. This has not been very successful, but I don't think I'm ready to give up yet.
My objective: 5000 subscribers by the end of 2024.
Tactics I’ve committed to:
Ship 1 newsletter a week
Ship 1x building in public post for 250, 500 and 1000 subscribers
Trialling lead magnets, new article formats and digital downloads
Collecting testimonials & adding them to a landing page
Investigate referral incentives and different email software (Beehiiv has my eye)
That’s all! If you have ideas, suggestions, or other newsletters who are doing a good job you think I could learn from, I'm all ears!
P.S. If you’d like to join my newsletter on brand building, it’s here: https://thecaseforbrand.substack.com/
