Ariyh

3-min marketing tips based on research

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💡 3-min actionable tips based on the latest marketing science.

🎓 Research from the best business schools in the world.

❌ No biased opinions or sketchy data.

Weekly. For $0.

October 12, 2021 14 months, 100 emails, 7k subscribers

14 months ago I set out on a mission with Ariyh:

Turn the best scientific studies into 100 practical marketing recommendations.

Today, that dream has come true! (You can find them all here)

And I still feel like I'm just starting off.

Here's a timeline of how it happened:

0-6 months (previous milestone, below):

  • 50 newsletters published, 2x per week
  • 0 to 1,200 subscribers
  • Main growth channels: LinkedIn posts, individual reach outs, word of mouth, and some 3min tips that picked up on Hacker News

Ariyh subscribers in 14 months

6-7 months:

  • Launched my website and on Product Hunt
  • 1,200 to 3,200 subscribers
  • Main growth channels: successful PH launch (#1 product of the day and part of the weekly newsletter)

7-9 months:

9-10 months:

  • Spent a lot of time finding and arranging sponsors (and worry that growth slowed down a lot)
  • 5,200 to 5,400 subscribers
  • Main growth channels: LinkedIn posts, word of mouth
  • Revenue: sponsorships

10-11 months:

  • Built my personalized recommendations program to diversify revenue; Got two unexpected influencer shoutouts on TikTok
  • 5,400 to 6,500 subscribers (plus 400 inactive emails removed)
  • Main growth channels: Shoutouts from marketing influencers on TikTok
  • Revenue: sponsorships

11-13 months:

  • Mentally exhausted and approaching burnout, took a 2-week break and then reduced frequency from 2x week to 1x week to enjoy the summer and recharge; Started 1:1 consultancies
  • 6,500 to 6,900 subscribers
  • Main growth channels: LinkedIn posts, word of mouth, individual reach outs
  • Revenue: sponsorships, consulting

14 months:

  • Today! Feeling recovered and regaining focus; Need to reshift more attention to growth; My priority will be to rebuild my marketing strategy and ask for feedback from my audience
  • 6,900 to 7,000 subscribers
  • Main growth channels: LinkedIn posts, word of mouth
  • Revenue: sponsorships, consulting

That’s all for now - wish me luck going forward :)

Cheers,
Thomas

February 25, 2021 6 months in - Ariyh is on Product Hunt!

Today I published tip number 50.

That’s a total of 400+ hours spent:

  • Finding the best marketing scientific papers (among 10,000/year)
  • Studying them and extracting practical recommendations
  • Sending two 3min tips in my newsletter each week

I’ve probably spent the same amount of time growing Ariyh.

Two days ago I finally launched a new website on ariyh.com

I’ve managed to reach 1,199 subscribers mainly through LinkedIn, reach outs, and word-of-mouth.

I’ve connected with the best marketing professors, and they’ve endorsed the work I’m doing.

Ariyh testimonials from marketing professors

That has been a huge satisfaction.

And now is the big day that I hope will kickstart a faster pace of growth.

Ariyh just launched on Product Hunt!

I would love any support you feel like sending my way, thank you so much!

Thomas

January 21, 2021 1,000 Subscribers!

It took about 4.5 months, 39 issues, and the work of going through thousands of research papers to find the right ones, but we are finally here - at a crucial milestone: 1,000+ subscribers.

What went well:

  • Subscribers are mostly professional marketers who I expect can easily expense a future paid version to their companies
  • Great feedback, both from professionals and marketing professors whose research I cover
  • Growing LinkedIn network and following
  • Slow but steady word of mouth
  • 3 traffic spikes: 2 articles on the front page of HN, and 1 mention in Marketing Brew (newsletter to 100+K marketers)

What could go better:

  • Need to find a way to accelerate word of mouth and conversions (ideas: a new landing page + referral program)
  • Need to find new consistent growth channels beyond LinkedIn
  • Need to build my Twitter presence, which is almost non-existent

If you think 'Wow he's growing fast!': Keep in mind I am working on this full time and I had a decent existing network in the marketing field before this

If you think 'Wow he's growing slow!': Keep in mind my ideal target market isn't overly broad, and any suggestions for growing faster are welcome!

October 7, 2020 Front page on Hacker News (re-upped by moderator)

Yesterday my research summary "People prefer products with rituals" got picked up by Y-Combinator’s Hacker News for about 18 hours!

Here are is the post if you want to check it out: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24688842

How it happened:

I posted the link to the article about 5 days earlier. But it was 're-upped' for a second chance. A moderator emailed me this:

"A submission entitled "A ritual for your product increases satisfaction and spending" that you posted to Hacker News (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24688842) looks good, but hasn't had much attention so far. We put it in the second-chance pool, so it will get a random placement on the front page some time in the next day or so.

This is a way of giving good HN submissions multiple chances at the front page. If you're curious, you can read about it at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11662380 and other links there. And if you don't want these emails, sorry! Let us know and we won't do it again."

I did not know they did this, it was a pleasant surprise!

The research summary that sparked it: https://ariyh.substack.com/p/attach-a-ritual-to-your-product

August 28, 2020 300 subscribers 4.5 days after launch!

Hi IndieHackers! You’ve been a huge inspiration to get me started.

Last Sunday I finally threw myself out there and kicked off my own project! Now I’m at 327 newsletter subscribers, having crossed 300 last night (in 4.5 days), way more than I expected!

My project is a newsletter to share evidence-backed marketing tips, based on the latest scientific research. It’s free for now and I’ve kept things simple by using Substack. My target subscribers are people in marketing, leadership, UX, and entrepreneurs.

Typically, it's people that have already figured out the basics and want to take things to the next level.

Here’s the LinkedIn announcement if you want to check it out:
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thomasdmckinlay_marketing-digitalmarketing-research-activity-6703228981694488576-g-ow

About

💡 3-min actionable tips based on the latest marketing science.

🎓 Research from the best business schools in the world.

❌ No biased opinions or sketchy data.

Weekly. For $0.