👋 Hi friends -
Welcome to The Newsletter Growth Memo. Twice a month, I share short reflections with my newsletter clients.
Zero formality, ads, or affiliate links - just a guy sharing learnings from working with media operators doing $25-250k / month with newsletters.
Recently, I opened this list up to a few folks from Chenell’s Growth in Reverse newsletter and founders I’ve met in person. If that’s you - welcome and hope you stick around!
In case you missed it….
The first-ever newsletter conference was a masterclass in content, growth, and monetization.
Not only did Jesse/Ryan get nearly all of the top newsletter founders to attend….
….Those founders openly shared deep, practical lessons on their success formulas.
The 1.5 days were a blast - I had so much fun meeting Twitter friends in person.
Some highlights:
It takes <10 seconds speaking to Erika Burghardt (1440) to see why she made Adexchanger’s list of top folks in media. Their ad account (IMO) sets the standard for creative testing
If you go one-for-one on cocktails with Matt McGarry he’ll be absolutely fine the next morning (a superpower I unfortunately do not possess)
Great writers make great speakers - Boye (The Future Party), Jacob Donnelly (A Media Operator), and others asked thoughtful questions and weren’t afraid to dig into the challenges/shortcomings of the industry
Anyway, onto the success formula stuff.
I’ve picked my 10 favorite conference takeaways - lil’ nuggets that you need to know to grow your business this year.
Newsletter length is going in the direction of Reels/TikToks
Shorter = better.
Brad Wolverton (The Hustle) has gradually made each story block shorter over the past 2 years.
First, 500 words became 400. Now no story can be longer than 300.
This change drives higher CTR and reader cohort retention.
The riches are in niches
There is too much supply in niches like AI and general news.
If you aren’t a top 5 player in them, the odds are against you.
The past 6 months I’ve seen a surge in M&A in the 25-100k subscriber range.
Most of it is burn-out founders who went too general with their newsletter and couldn’t drive enough sponsorship revenue.
And that shows in the CPLs those newsletters are acquired at.
The odds are in favor of newsletters creating room for themselves by niching down.
One thematic example - Fintech is Femme, The Assist, and The Gist cover female-first fintech, career advice, and sports, respectively.
Don’t try to break news, help your readers analyze breaking news
Twitter and other alternatives to traditional media have made breaking news a commodity.
The new vehicle for value is giving readers your perspective on the “so what” - how does this news apply to them, their industry, and their interests?
See Axios, The Hustle, and The Neuron for great examples.
Pre-newsletter CTAs → Post-newsletter CTAs
Twitter/LinkedIn posts published the day before your newsletter will drive significantly more sign-ups than asking people to sign up the day after.
Matt McGarry covers this well on his Twitter + in his cohort course.
Stop writing selfish ads/landing pages
Your landing page’s / ad’s job is to call out precisely how a reader will benefit from your newsletter.
I frequently see large newsletters write about themselves in terms of features (5-minute stock summaries, career tips, etc.) and not outcomes (make $XYZ per year swing trading, raise your salary, etc.).
Don’t make this mistake - it will show up in your CPL.
People follow people, not businesses
If you’re a sponsorship-driven newsletter not looking to exit via M&A, adding your face can build loyalty and give you the option to launch products down the road.
My buddy Pete from The Neuron has grown his personal brand alongside the newsletter.
This helped him and his Co-founder launch The Neuron’s podcast to the top of Apple charts last month.
Monetize your sign-up flow
If you’re not monetizing your post-sign-up pages with affiliate offers or a low-ticket ($5-20) product, you’re leaving money on the table.
One of my favorite parts of the conference was seeing my friends Joanna + Andy (The Assist) get unplanned shoutouts from multiple speakers for their genius sign-up flow.
Andy also helped me build a sales page for a newsletter I run that’s subsidizing my subscriber cost by 40%.
Sponsorship-monetized newsletters are hard
Many panels touched on the ‘race to the bottom’ for cost-per-click deals.
Namely, how these types of sponsorships don’t price in newsletter brand value.
My view is newsletters that aren’t in B2B niches (where their readers are often also sponsors) will face more pressure going forward without a strong outbound sales team.
No one can agree if Sparkloop subscribers are good or bad
Adam Ryan (WorkWeek) believes co-reg platforms like Sparkloop accelerate reader churn and give subscribers to your competitors.
Other operators reported no impact and love using Upscribe/Boosts to monetize readers upfront.
Figure out which camp you’re in by measuring your reader quality/retention by channel (an easy task if you’re on Beehiiv).
This is just the beginning for newsletter industry growth
Immediately before the conference, I did a workshop for execs from one of the large media holding companies.
Reflecting on this + the conference, 1 thing is clear: Newsletters are here to stay.
They aren’t get-rich-quick schemes (like many new operators thought before they started trying to sell sponsorships to closed doors).
But there will be many, many more cashflowing businesses and acquisitions that will stand on the shoulders of Beehiiv building the ‘Shopify of newsletters’.
That’s the letter.
- Nathan May
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Have a question on growth, monetization, or content? Reply here or shoot a note to [email protected]