Why would you (not) sign up for my newsletter
Hey everyone!
My name is Malthe. I recently started a website that brings you a dedicated news feed, which is curated just for you. It's called Sailnear.com.
In order to shine some light on it, I started a newsletter.
Now I would love to hear why or why you wouldn't trust me with your email address and sign up. My newsletter landing page is here: https://sailnear.com/newsletter.
Do you understand what emails I will be sending by just looking at my landing page?
Currently I have dead 0 subscribers. Which is why I'm looking to grow it (-:
I clicked Random Article and got 4 very emotional headlines about politics. That's exactly what I'm trying to avoid - I don't want to get angry three times a week.
Thanks for the input. I have now made it possible to specifically choose wich news you want to see.
A few little adjustments could help you with this:
Really hope that helps & all the best with it!
That definitely helped me! I redesigned my sign up page. What do you think of it now?
It's too generic. How do I know that I'll get news that I'm interested in?
Yeah, some proof would be nice, as no one else has solved this :D
Google Discover does this nicely. I use it every day.
Thank you for all your comments so far. It has been a great help to me.
I now completely redesigned the landing page: sailnear.com/newsletter.
Other than explaining more about what emails you can expect, I also added an on board sign up process. This on board will collect information about the users preferences, and thus be able to give them their perfect newsletter.
Luckily I already have the news articles and the algorithms that will recommend them to users from the my main product at: Sailnear.com.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this new (hopefully improved) landing page.
I like the update! The landing page is more clear
I guess for me, I use google alerts based on news I want. I don't know if personalized news is a real problem. If that's the case I'd subscribe to niche news (finimize, trends.vc, etc.)
Either way great update! I think you need to determine whether this is a real problem by talking to users. The mom test is a great book on how to determine whether the problem you are solving is real. Best of luck!
Heard good things about The mom test. I will definitely read it soon!
And yes, you are probably right that I have not validated my idea enough. (That's so like me...)
My problem is however that is I find it hard to validate and talk to users, when I don't have any users.
What niche are you most interested in? Let's say you're interested in astronomy (idk making this up) you can then go to various astronomy subreddits or tweets that contain astronomy and conduct the mom test there. There's a free workshop I found on building a startup. He talks about mom test and is super helpful. You should check it out https://www.notion.so/YEN-EDUCATION-96f4d8a56bb545e19ae728bf4cbb058b
teehee! thanks for that!
Thanks for the link. I just signed up!
so excited! can't wait to hang out!
Looking forward to it (:
I love newsletters, but I really don't know what this one does, so I don't think I'd sign up for it. The site design is great, but you need some marketing copy along the lines of "Sailnear makes your life better because XYZ".
Good idea. I now completely redesigned the newsletter landing page.
As a new visitor do you think you would understand it better now?
I definitely understand what it provides better, but I still think you should alter your copy to talk about benefits than features. I know what the service does, but you haven't worked on trying to convince me why I want it.
For example, if you were trying to sell a customer service app, you wouldn't just say "Please buy our customer service tool", you'd rephrase it as "Reduce issue turnaround time and customer service costs with our customer service tool".
Sell benefits, not features!
Will try to focus more on benefits.
Thanks for the article as well!
I used to subscribe to smartbriefs. Now I just use google and apple news. I don’t see your differentiation. In general, I like to go to my news. I don’t want more in my in box.
Good point. Basically the newsletter is to spread the word for my main product, Sailnear.com.
I'm the most Anti Newsletter guy you will find. I don't know the moment I hear Newsletter it feels that the sender is trying to scam and spam me in one way or another.
Thanks for the input. I now tried to not use the word "newsletter" as much, but rather "news feed".
its working...
Other than the "too generic" feedback here, some additional comments:
Thanks very much for your comment. I completely redesigned the landingpage and added a sign up on board to make it more personalized.
As a new visitor would you be more willing to sign up to a service like this?
Nice improvement! Some copy feedback:
This is redundant. After reading this, I thought I'd be taken to answer the questions. I'd suggest removing it.
I think you have nice value props here, but the messaging can be stronger IMO.
For instance: "Helping you keep up with in a busy world" is good (grammatical issues aside), but do I really need to keep up? Consider flipping it by attacking the pain point directly. (e.g.: "Stop being overwhelmed with news") - or something like that.
As some have suggested here, consider focusing on a certain niche or industry news. Specificity is valuable.
Very good points.
Since I prompt subscribers to tell me their interests, do you still think its too broad? Would it be better to focus specifically on, say finance?
You should put the signup form directly on the front page. Adding one step mechanically increases people dropping off the signup process.
Added a link from my front page. Thanks for the tip!
I agree with others, the fact that it is too generic would put me off signing up.
I don't have a clear understanding of what this is going to bring to my life and how this will benefit me. Just going on that landing page, I don't have an understanding of what types of news story will be being delivered.
My advice would be to create more of a niche and shout about it on this page.
I redesigned the landing page to make it much more adequate
It's clear what you're offering, however, not compelling to me personally.
If you texted me three articles per week personalized to me or on some topic hard to track, I'd be interested, but that's just me,
I think this example I'm sharing is overused, however, it j u s t works - I recommend emulating Superhuman's approach
https://superhuman.com/
Never actually heard of superhuman.com.
I can see that they offer a new improved mailbox.
What do you mean by their approach?
Thanks for taking time to answer btw.
They're making an email app cool and exclusive e.g. Request Access
It's basic human psychology, people want they can't have.
Try that!
I see. Very good idea, and definitely something I will consider doing at some point. Thank you!
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Alright. I guess that's subjective and of course totally up to you.
How my product Sailnear stands out, is that it provides a way for users to comment and vote on different news articles. That way it has more focus on the social side.
Thanks for the input nonetheless!