If you had a budget of $1000 to grow a newsletter, what would you do?

I would be more inclined to creating some kind of ebook or list of XYZ or build a side project or working with an influencer. I am planning to experiment something for my newsletter Micro SaaS Ideas

Here are my thoughts (around $1000 or spending 40-50 hours)

1. Build a side project that drives leads to the main newsletter - The side project doesn't have to be tech heavy. It should be able to be built using simple NoCode stack and shouldn't take more than 2-3 days. In most cases, this side project/product should be free to get more leads. [I am working on something around this. Should be ready sometime this week]

2. Create an ebook that is closely related to your audience. Could be paid or free. Keeping it for free drives more subscribers to your newsletter. Keeping it paid helps you experiment better (something around Newsletter). I created Zero To Founder ebook

3. Get an Influencer in your niche and help him with a small free product that he could use and in return he could mention about your newsletter.

4. Pick an Influencer, offer to write content (really high quality content) for him for free and ask the Influencer to mention about your newsletter somewhere in his post/tweet.

I'd find an Instagram influencer in my niche and give them a free subscription in exchange for running an Instagram giveaway with their followers.

The prize would be a free subscription to the newsletter for 1-5 winners.

The giveaway entry rules:

• Tag 2 friends in the comments
• Follow me (so the influencer also gets more followers -- it's a win-win)
• Subscriber to the newsletter (free tier) with a link to it in the bio

An app like Popsmash will teach/validate the entries and pick a winner. Their stats show that 40% of users who comment on the post will ALSO give their email address. So getting thousands of new subscribers is realistic depending on the size of the influencer's audience.

I'd do that a dozen times with different influencers. Then for the ones that worked well (higher conversions to free, then paid), or once I understand how to pick the right collab partners, I'd use the $1,000 to boost those posts for even more reach.

I would buy really nice gifts and send out lumpy mails to be invited and get interviewed by bigger names who already have the audience I want.

I'll throw this in here by fellow Indie Hacker @Louis_Grenier with him posing a very similar question to Seth Godin on his podcast: https://www.indiehackers.com/@Louis_Grenier/2cc8c6c79c - it's not growing a newsletter specifically, but still applicable.

I'd create a substack account, with a free and premium option. Focus on creating loads of great content to help my niche, then publish the content to social and use ads to promote it to that audience.

Some of the content will have a paywall (substack) which subscribers can pay to join either monthly (Say $15/month) or annually (Say $150/year).

This way, you will build a community around a topic. Upsell premium by offering an invite to a private discord server.

There's a tool called Vyper https://vyper.ai/

We used to run comps for clients using it with Facebook ads to boost them.

The software is about $140 ish then put the other $800 ish into boosting through Facebook Ads.

We see between $0.02 to $0.30 per email and from our experience it's been a good quality following as long as you get the prize right with it connected into your brand.

So a prize that has a big appeal but is tight to your audience.

Assuming I have a handle on the marketing aspect and have a good idea of who my target audience is, I'd hire a good copywriter.

It's incredible how much a well written piece of copy can convert.

That said, finding a good copywriter can be tough! Takes a while to find someone you mesh with.

First, create a great piece of content to drive subscribers to engage and build interest - leverage that with a "enter to win" type drawing to help it spread organically, with a bonus "entry" for shares via social media.

I would ask twitter.com/robertodigital_ for consultation.
But I am sure he will even be open for a chat on Twitter without $1k😉

I'd spend $200- $300 on creating an epicly great freebie: a guide, or a deep report. Then spend $500 ish on FB ads.

I did this to try to bring new type of subscribers to Influence Weekly. I created "Influencer's Guide to Bali" originally I did mean to sell this directly but ultimately it was an awesome freebie. Spent $500 on FB ads and got 620 new Subscribers.

I spent money on illustrator, editing, research.

I'd use $500 to pay for influencers shoutouts and $500 for giveaway prices.