Changeletter
Actionable, bite-sized sustainability newsletter
It's been a few weeks since our New York Times feature and the subscribers have continued to pour in.
I'm a little nervous on how to sustain similar levels of growth without a major press piece -- being featured in NYT is exciting, but hardly a growth strategy!
I'm currently reaching out to other outlet to see if I can get more momentum and spread the word. I've set up a referral program with SparkLoop (founded by Indie Hackers too) and I'm trying to get on "top newsletter" lists for 2021 like this one by Buffer! (We're #14)
It's been a few weeks since our New York Times feature and the subscribers have continued to pour in.
I'm a little nervous on how to sustain similar levels of growth without a major press piece -- being featured in NYT is exciting, but hardly a growth strategy!
I'm currently reaching out to other outlet to see if I can get more momentum and spread the word. I've set up a referral program with SparkLoop (founded by Indie Hackers too) and I'm trying to get on "top newsletter" lists for 2021 like this one by Buffer! (We're #14)
I got featured in the New York Times! www.nytimes.com/2020/12/28/style/self-care/how-to-buy-less.amp.html
My subscribers bounded up from 1,290 to almost 2,100 (at the time of writing this) within 48 hours.
I still have to see what this means for engagement and open rates, but I'm so excited to finally get a push for my newsletter.
I'm trying to find joy in the small wins and celebrate this month as my highest-revenue month based on sponsorships.
My newsletter is centered on making sustainability easy for busy people, and I had TWO sponsors this month instead of just one (how it's been the last two months I piloted sponsors).
My December sponsors are a food waste meal planning company called Ends and Stems as well as a Digital Bootcamp for budding entrepreneurs.
I'm currently at almost 1,200 subscribers. My open rates have been SUPER wack; I segmented them and the highest is around 60% but the lowest is in single-digits. I emailed my lowest-engaged subscribers telling them they'd be purged... but 10 already replied to me in the last 24 hours saying they DO read my emails; they just use pixel blockers.
It's a little hard for me to figure out how to optimize for open rates. Mine used to be 40% but now they're low 30s, and I don't know what to make of it because the data seems more skewed than I thought.
Anyway, if you're building a sustainably-focused business that you think zillennials would enjoy learning about, let me know!
I have almost 1,000 subscribers on my newsletter with ~40% open rate, ~9% click rate, and high intent to purchase since everybody's looking for actionable steps they can take to fight climate change.
I posted in a few Facebook communities of other founders asking if anyone had a D2C sustainability product or service. I got a few interested replies, and finally went with Reprise, a plant-based activewear clothing company!
It's perfect for our audience of 20-34 year old zillennials, many of whom live in SF and are all about that athleisure lifestyle.
I'm pricing three slots for my newsletter: $75/week for VIP (top of page), $50/week for premium (farther down), and $25/week for shoutout (no long product description included).
Since my newsletter model is picking one monthly topic, I'm only selling slots by the month.
I don't want to take on the work of reporting, so I've asked every potential sponsor to simply send me a trackable link that I can include, so they can see metrics on their end.
It's still going, but so far I've messaged over 100 people, onboarded two new folks from my team right before the launch, shared new team member profiles, and really upped our social media game in the last week.
We're currently at 118 upvotes, 18 comments including my replies, and a subscriber boost of almost 100! Before the launch, we were at about 330 subscribers; that's now 420 and counting.
Most likely going to be trigger happy and post another milestone update tomorrow post-PH-launch!
EDIT: Here's a writeup from the launch: https://www.soapboxproject.org/blog/3-things-i-learned-from-our-first-product-hunt-launch
I've been promoting Changeletter through all my channels, including my own personal email list of 1,000 people (I honestly thought more would subscribe - sad).
I also hosted an event in SF and have been promoting an upcoming giveaway to drive more traction to my IG page & subsequently newsletter, and I've also personally reached out to friends and power users to tell more people about it. My goal for 2019 is 1,000 subscribers and I'm still very far off, but I'm 25% there!
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