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6 Comments

People upvote my content on Reddit...but then don't subscribe to my newsletter?

Hey everyone!

I've been struggling with improving my newsletter subscriber count.

I interview tech professionals about their jobs & their day to day (link to my website). I then transcribe the interview and post it up on reddit. Here's an example.

90% of the time, my interviews rise to the top of the subreddit (this is across both data science and product management subreddits). People like my content. But then when I add my newsletter CTA at the bottom of the post and people do end up navigating to my website, I don't see that many newsletter subscriptions (roughly only 1-2% of traffic converts).

Surely, if people like my content, more of them should be subscribing to my newsletter, correct?

I guess I'm making a few assumptions here that might be incorrect. First, are reddit upvotes not actually a sign of good content?

Second, do I need to improve my newsletter CTA? I know that it's not very specific (and tbh part of that is because my primary focus isn't the newsletter, it's to grow the brand). Or perhaps I need to get more aggressive about email capture? (already have a popup, but perhaps the email CTA should be higher up in the interview rather than at the bottom of the page as it is now).

Any advice would be much appreciated. Cheers.

  1. 2

    Hey @probabilitygod37

    Nice job on the content and site, looks great.

    Firstly, who is your target audience? Based on the site name and overall content it seems like it's suited to people who are trying to figure out what tech career to go into or switch to? Or which tech company to work at?

    With that in mind, what % of those Reddit communities do you think are a part of that target audience? I'd imagine most people in those communities are already working in the industry and aren't looking to change jobs.

    Finally, what is the ultimate value you're providing? To me, a professional in the tech space, it's not really clear. You should update your CTA's to communicate the value so people know what they're signing up for.

    1. 2

      Very valid points, thanks. I'll take a stab at your questions mainly to sharpen my own thinking:

      1. My target is a tech professional (either in product, data science, engineering, or design) early to mid stage in their career looking to grow their own career by reading about others' experiences (through the interviews) as well as reading my case studies.

      2. I'd say quite a big portion - though you're right, I don't make my value prop as explicit as I should.

      3. Agreed!

      I'm going to update my copy to reflect more what I have in mind - right now it's vague.

  2. 2

    Hey, maybe it's just me, but I feel like your website looks a bit off to me. The name "Career Fair" doesn't connect immediately to interviews with people, even though I see where you are coming from. And the top half of the webpage also looks a bit strange, I'm talking about the content above the post cards: https://ibb.co/gvmRCDc

    I feel like you could definitely make that look more like people actually buying into more of those interviews, and improve the general call to action

    For example, couldn't you just make a single call to action, really big, that says something like: "Want to see more interviews with people about their jobs? Enter your e-mail address here, and I'll keep you updated:"

    1. 1

      Yup, branding + positioning is something I've intentionally kept a big vague as I try to find what works & then double down on that. Now that I have seen some success in terms of people finding my content valuable, I'm going to make the copy tighter so as to communicate that. Thanks for the feedback!

  3. 1

    Hey @probabilitygod37 👋

    It's great to hear your content is regularly getting upvoted – it shows that people are finding value in it.

    It's difficult to say why people aren't signing up. Based on the stats from this article it looks like your signup rate is fairly standard. That said, here are a few thoughts that came to mind about why people may not be signing up.

    1. Why should they? If you're posting your interviews to Reddit, then why would they need to sign up? They're already getting the content delivered to them on a channel they already engage with. Perhaps you could explore how to deliver more value from the newsletter – maybe exclusive interviews, or access to interviews before they're posted to the site/reddit.

    2. I had a look at a case study on your website. The email sign up is really easy to miss and is tucked way down at the bottom of the page. Maybe try exploring different visual treatments or placements.

    3. I actually don't know what to expect with the newsletter. You have three different messages:
      "Get little knowledge packages sent to your inbox."
      "the content you wished your career center gave you."
      "I write about tech careers and how you can get ahead in yours. It’s my best content (like this case study) delivered to you once a week."

    Maybe you could be clearer and more consistent in your messaging, or focus more on the value it provides to a subscriber (a bit like you've done with the third one).

    1. 1

      Hey mate - this is very useful, thank you!

      1. Yes, planning on creating exclusive content for newsletter subscribers and hosting fireside chats with individuals I've interviewed. Will beef up my CTA to include this.

      2. Yep, will likely move it up a bit.

      3. Spot on - again, kept it a bit vague because I myself was trying to figure out positioning a bit better. Will standardize all CTAs going forward.

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