Read Time: 11 mins (or listen to this issue)
This past Friday, myself and 400 others traveled from all over the world. We converged in Manhattanâs iconic NY Times building to talk about⊠newsletters.
How sexy. How cutting edge. Oooh, just say it out loud: NEWSLETTERS. đ„đ„đ„
Weird, right? Even weirder⊠I went to an entire conference dedicated to talking about newsletters. Duly named: âThe Newsletter Conference.â Naturally.
(left to right) Dan Oshinsky of Inbox Collective, Stephanie Talmadge of Boardroom, Louis Nicholls of SparkLoop, and Chenell Basilio of Growth in Reverse
But in all seriousness, individuals are building legit media empires on the backs of their newsletter.
These success stories were the evidence and signal I used to prioritize my newsletter as the foundation of my business. But just because you start a newsletter doesnât mean youâre 7-figure bound. Hardly.
Anyone can launch a newsletter. And these days, it seems like anyone is an accurate description â given the massive surge of newsletters launched every week. But growing a successful newsletter? Much harder.
Growing a newsletter into a product you monetize requires you to create something uniquely valuable. Content your readers await and engage with, week after week. As they do, word of mouth spreads. You turn a corner. Youâre able to begin monetizing. But first, you need to crack that growth code.
Luckily, I took notes from Fridayâs newsletter conference on how to do just that... Pro tips from renowned newsletter growth experts.
My notes covered, both organic and paid strategies. In todayâs issue, Iâm covering organic. In a future issue, weâll look at paid.
Letâs get into them.
Organic growth levers
Organic growth is growth you donât pay for. Itâs the growth lever most scrappy entrepreneurs start with â before profits.
In your early days, youâre iterating your way to content-market fit. Once customers begin paying, itâs a good signal youâre ready to turn on paid acquisition. By delaying, you de-risk funding a newsletter thatâs missing the mark; as well as running out of cash too soon.
There were lots of organic growth strategies shared during the conference. Below, I summarized ones I know work or am keen to try. I separated them by 4 sub-categories:
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