First Big Sponsor
by Harry DryGot the news last week that EmailOctopus was going to sponsor MarketingExamples for the next 3 months and I'm absolutely delighted :)
How'd this come about?
I started getting a couple of requests from companies to sponsor the site. But I didn't use any their products myself. It seemed like a bit of a waste to just promote something to my audience that I had no real love for.
But this gave me belief. So I thought who would be my dream sponsor?
And I thought of EmailOctopus. The audience matches up well. I love their product myself. And I use it to send my marketing newsletter.
So I only sent out one outreach email. And that was to their COO.(quality over quantity)! And fortunately he was interested.
I'd gotten to know him at a few London Indie Hackers meetups over the last 8 months. I think meeting in real life a few times definitely helped.
He knows that I've got a twinkle in my eye, that I'm serious and willing to put in the work. And that's something you can't really convey just on a text based email.
Anyway, sending my blessings to EmailOctopus for taking a shot. It's time to rock and roll!
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You've put in the work over the years, now you can carry that brand wherever you go!
I've been wondering what your plan of monetization was. Has sponsorship always been the goal?
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Hiya Jordan. Thanks a lot.
To be honest, in the short term I'm not that fussed about monetisation. Just as long as I can make enough to be able to work on it full time.
My theory is value, value, value. Keep offering value with articles, with the twitter threads, helping people over email and hopefully the audience will keep growing.
I think @adamwathan on the podcast gave the analogy of compressing a spring. The more value you're offering for free the more that spring keeps compressing and compressing and when you finally say, "O, Now I've got a product ...", people don't think twice before buying it. And obviously you've got the audience to promote it to.
Think of @wesbos with coding. He's done his time over the years. Free blogs, free courses, and now can grosses in excess of $1million for every new course he puts out.
I'm not necessarily going down that route, where I end up releasing a book or a course. That product could be anything. But atm, it's all about putting my skin in the game and Marketing Examples building up a reputation. Happy to trade short term money, for longer term reputation.
Thanks for sharing a few of the threads on twitter btw. Big fan of your writing, so if you like it I must be on the right lines haha!
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For sure, I know that theory well. James Clear is another great example. Once I quit my full-time job that's the direction I'll take with my website.
Your stuff is great. Excited to see where it all goes. Keep cranking out good stuff!
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I love that spring analogy. :) Oh, and congrats!
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thanks Ptrei!
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that's awesome to get a committed sponsor! and great to have a relationship with them, instead of one offs that are only after clicks
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1 million Percent.
People don't factor in time commitment when handling sponsors. For example imagine a sponsor at $150 for one week. Ok, sounds alright but when you factor in adding the:
- email back and forth
- uploading logo + text,
- pushing to git hub
- the inevitable copy tweak
- providing data report after
it's a nightmare and probably not worth your time.
I was eager to to lock into something longer term. Just allows me to get on with growing the site :)
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Yeahh i feel your pain, I do all of those tasks with my sponsors! So I look for the same thing - a long term relationship. That's what works best too, when you believe in the product sponsoring, and they believe in you!
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Love tracking your progress man, you're absolutely nailing it! Well done on the sponsor! Just signed up for EO, so I guess their sponsorship is already paying off ;) (I made sure to use your ref link) Currently a user of MailerLite but EO looks very similar and seems the pricing is way better than any competitor.
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Haha! I love it Frank! I really owe you for all the support. Nice to se Early User Growth course pick up some traction.
Regards to the sponsor, it's a dream. Cause I'm such a big fan anyway, I'm like to bang on about how good they are. You're right, pricing is great. My favourite thing is that the sole focus is on emails. So there's no cluttering in the UI, like on Mailchimp. Really easy to automate a welcome email as well.
I think it's worth setting up this stuff to improve deliverability.
If you need a hand, with any of it, ping me on Telegram and I'll walk you through it. Pretty straightforward though :)
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Because of Harry, I'm now an advocate of EmailOctopus. I absolutely love the email templates it comes with. It does what it promises: sending email campaigns very easily. And goodness, their documentation is really straightforward and easy to understand. I followed their guide on setting up DMARC, SPF and DKIM and my emails now don't go to the spam folder. Sweet. Thanks Harry!
Congratulations on getting a great sponsor like EmailOctopus. I hope they stay on as a sponsor for the long term. You both have complementary offerings!
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This is amazing news, congratulations harry!
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cheers big man
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You have been doing some great work over the last few years. Totally deserve this. Congrats
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You put in the reps, now you are reaping the rewards.
Good Job!
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Congrats Harry, well deserved. This is great news.
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That are really great news Harry, congratulations! Keep it up ;)
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Cheers Rich - Thanks for the support
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Congrats
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Harry,
Love that your site has great insights PLUS actionable advice. Just subscribed :)One suggestion. I closed the initial email sign up popup form. Then after reading through a few of the tips, I decided I wanted to subscribe, but it took me a while to find the "Get New Tips" link in the corner because it blends in with the twitter icon. Maybe make that a button so it stands out more and with a different color than the blue that you have everywhere else on the site.
Congrats on the sponsor!
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Hi Chris,
Great to have you onboard :)
Good points. Thanks - Will look on changing that up
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Fantastic - the best type of sponsorship is sponsoring a product that you use yourself and legitimately enjoy! Good on you :)
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100% - And thanks :_)
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Thanks Callum! Very nice of you :)
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