Grow Your Newsletter Fast: Secrets to Skyrocketing Your Subscribers

Do you already have 50-100 subscribers for your newsletter? Do your subscribers LOVE the content you’ve been putting out? Are your subscribers frequently sharing the content you send in your newsletter? 

And yet, if the number of subscribers for your newsletter doesn’t seem to be growing the way you thought it would and you just can’t figure out a way to grow your newsletter’s subscriber numbers, then congratulations! you’ve come to the right episode of the right podcast!

Hi, my name is Yong-Soo Chung and I am a first-generation Korean-American entrepreneur living the American dream. I started Urban EDC to cater to enthusiasts of everyday carry gear. I also own two other successful ventures: GrowthJet, a climate-neutral certified third-party logistics company for emerging e-commerce brands, and SpottedByHumphrey, an online boutique curating dog goods for good dogs. Through these three ventures, my business makes an annual revenue near eight-figures and I'm here to tell you how YOU can do the same!

This is the second of a two-parter on launching and growing your own newsletter business. So, if you haven't heard the previous episode yet, you should probably go check that out first. Episode 22, in case you are looking. Listen to that one and then come back to this one. Don't worry, your podcast player should automatically pick up this episode from this point onwards. Ready?

Okay, so, assuming you have followed all the previous instructions to a tee, you should now have a newsletter with about 50-100 subscribers who all LOVE your content and frequently share it with others. Now, you need to get new people, more people, to subscribe and grow your newsletter.  Now, how do you do that?

Well, that's precisely what this episode is going to be all about - finding new subscribers and growing your newsletter! Strap in - I promise you this is gonna be a mind-blowing ride! Let's get down to business!

In the last episode we spoke about how you can leverage the simple act of writing simple emails into a superb business through newsletters. I outlined FOUR key lessons for you to remember while starting your own newsletter business.

Let's recap those four lessons quickly:

1. Plant as many seeds as you can. Gathering an audience - especially in the early days - is key for your newsletter.

2. Build in public. Be open and honest about your attempts on a regular basis.

3. Make your content -not just good but- GREAT. Good content gets a like, great content gets shared.

4. For a newsletter to succeed, it needs both good content AND effective distribution. An effective distribution strategy requires you to stay hyper-aware and react quickly.

...and the bonus lesson: Ensure that your newsletter passes the regret test for example, make sure your audience doesn't say "Yes" if they are asked, "Do you regret opening this newsletter?"

Let’s continue.

Towards the end of the last episode, I outlined the TWO primary ways in which you can grow your newsletter. You can either grow your own audience or you can borrow someone else’s audience.

I gave examples from my own life for how to bring the audience from your existing endeavors over to your newsletter. In my case, for example, I own 2 e-commerce businesses and also make regular episodes for this podcast. So, I frequently mention  my newsletter on my podcast. I put links in my welcome emails to people who sign up on my e-commerce businesses. These are low-hanging fruits that you should also absolutely and definitely take advantage of.

...and I'd say that's our growth strategy number one - let's make a note of it, shall we?

1. Bring over an existing audience.

Sure, people visiting these websites or listening to this podcast might already know about me and my newsletter but always assume that there is someone new who doesn't know about it! Remember: in the early days, every subscriber counts!

A quick sidebar here. All this depends on the assumption that you have worked on your content and made it absolutely, without a doubt, GREAT. If you are going to ask your audience to sign up for your newsletter, make sure that you are providing them really good value by doing so. 

Remember what I said in the previous episode: Content is the heart of your newsletter. If your newsletter is a startup, content is the product. If your product is bad, no amount of sprucing it up is going to help. You need to be absolutely sure that your content is GREAT  - not just good, but GREAT - before you attempt any of the strategies I have laid out in these two episodes.

Okay? Right. Now, back to what I was saying...

Something that has worked wonders for me -is REGULARLY drumming up enthusiasm for my newsletter.

I can't begin to tell you how important it is to write before/after posts on your social media! It doesn't have to be anything elaborately crafted. In fact, I would argue that it needs to be totally opposite i.e., tease what is coming up in the newsletter a day before and promote what they missed out on, the next day. That's it. Just make sure that you give them only a taste of what’s coming and not the entire meal. Sometimes, I have found that a bit of FOMO also helps to build curiosity.

Use this strategy on your social media profiles such as Linkedin and Twitter and point them to your newsletter page and ask them to sign up. And if you use a platform such as Beehiiv, you can even share a direct link to a specific edition of the newsletter because Beehiiv creates a direct link to it - just like a blogpost!

That's our SECOND growth strategy for today:

2. Give ALL your audiences a taste of your content REGULARLY.

Okay, an incredibly important point to note here is this: The content you post on your social media and social platforms must also be original and from your own point of view. 

Original content helps you stand out from the crowd. In a world where everyone is posting more or less the same kind of content, probably rehashed from various sources on the internet, posting original content differentiates you from the others. It helps you establish your own unique voice, your own unique perspectives and values!

More importantly, people connect with original work. It helps them identify with you better. And I don't have to tell you that people who like and follow you for your original content will automatically form a bond, a kinship with you. This bond, this kinship is crucial to building a dedicated following. Because, once you have built a strong bond with your followers on your social platforms, you can also leverage it for your newsletter.

Trust me when I say this: A lot of people DON'T realize how powerful the strategy of leveraging your existing followers on other social media sites can be! My own experience in this regard has been nothing short of incredible. For example, I work with a virtual assistant to connect with new followers and send them a link to sign up to my newsletter. I have found that these followers are some of my highest quality subscribers. There is definitely a very strong case to be made for converting as many new followers into subscribers as possible.

But how do you convert new followers into newsletter subscribers? Isn't it kinda like badgering them into doing something? What if they don't like it? What if they see it as unnecessary upselling? Is there a guaranteed way, a secret sauce to getting new followers to subscribe?

These are some of the questions I myself struggled with while building and growing my own newsletter. In the process, I found answers to some of those questions that I am going to share with you today. But I'd like to take a moment here to tell you about my newsletter...

It's called "The Brief'' and it is a companion newsletter to this podcast. I'm building First Class Founders in public. That means I share weekly reflections including valuable lessons that I learned while experimenting with strategies on growing my podcast and newsletter. I don't hold anything back. In fact, I reveal all my podcast and newsletter metrics like downloads and subscriber numbers inside the newsletter. So if you are curious and want to see some behind-the-scenes content of this podcast, you'll love my newsletter. Go ahead and sign up at FirstClassFounders.com/Newsletter. I'll see you there!

I've learned a ton of stuff while experimenting with various strategies for my newsletter. I have tried - and continue to try - various growth strategies trying to figure out if there is a specific combination that definitely equals growth. I've spoken to several other newsletter operators to get their perspective on this question, as well. And I can tell you this...

The secret sauce is trial-and-error. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to convert your new followers into subscribers for your newsletter. You will need to try out different strategies and see which one fits best for you specifically. I will try and outline a few of them in this episode but there is no way I can exhaustively list all of them in one episode.

Secret Sauce Strategy #1: Lead-magnets - A lead-magnet is something you offer for free in exchange for capturing people's contact details. Typically, this can be a short guide or an e-book. Something actionable. Maybe you want to try that for your newsletter. A/B test different lead magnets to see which one performs best for you.

Once you have their contact details, the first thing you must do is have a welcome series that is aimed at building trust with these newly-minted subscribers. Following up with your subscribers is an incredibly important part of the process. It shows that you respect their involvement in your endeavor and you appreciate them for it.

Secret Sauce Strategy #2: Referral Programs - Referral programs work on the principle that every existing subscriber is practically an advocate and evangelist of (and for) your newsletter. A referral program basically rewards your subscribers for helping you find news subscribers by giving them a "commission" for every successful referral.

Kinda like an affiliate commission, if you know what I mean. You get paid an affiliate fee for each new paying customer the site acquires. The referral program relies on using the collective power of all your subscribers as your affiliate.

Pretty powerful, right? BUT the incentives for referral rewards have to be set up right for the referral program to be effective. For example, you want your first reward to trigger after just ONE referral. Why? Because the feeling of being rewarded is a positive feedback loop that drives subsequent motivation to keep referring more and more people.

From my discussions with various newsletter growth experts, I have found that there are a few optimal behaviors and benchmarks(?) for when to trigger rewards in a referral program. This is what I have found and recommend:

• Make the first reward trigger at 1 referral, then 5, then 10.
• The 1st reward should be a short, actionable guide they can do right away, something as simple as showing them how to tweak their social media bio. Basically, you want them to be able to take action on it right away and something that they can accomplish within an hour or so.

You might be tempted to give them something big, something powerful right away as a 1st reward, hoping it would give them the feeling of having accomplished a LOT but I would strongly advise AGAINST it. If you give them too much too soon, they’ll get overwhelmed. In fact, they may never even complete or consume the "freebie" and you will have lost both the freebie and an opportunity to build on the relationship with your subscribers!

Remember, you want them to complete the freebie. You want them to have and relish that feeling of accomplishment. After they consume your "freebie" they will look to you as a source of 'nourishment' and that is a great way to start building trust with your audience.

Let's make a note of that as our THIRD growth strategy:

3. Experiment with different lead-magnets and rewards for your referral program, to find new subscribers.

Full disclosure, I haven't tried either of these strategies i.e., lead-magnets or referrals myself. BUT I've heard from people who have tried it and found some degree of success with it. I plan to experiment with both of these shortly myself. Your mileage may vary, of course! 

Okay, if you've been following along diligently, then you should have reached out to every possible person in your audience and exhausted all contacts & connections in your personal circles, at this point. There is literally no other person you can reach out to. Also, there's only so much you can do on your own, right?

This is where you should consider looking at other people's audiences and ways to - let's say - 'borrow' them.

And how do you do that? There are only TWO ways, actually - paid ads and cross-promotions.

Paid ads are exactly what you think they are - you pay money to get in front of other audiences. For example, you can sponsor other newsletters that have an overlap with your target audience. I recommend driving them to your newsletter sign-up page. You can also run A/B tests to see which taglines are the most effective for your newsletter.

Another alternative is to run paid ads on facebook, TikTok, and all the other social media channels. This is a quick way of boosting your subscriber numbers in the short term but, beware, these subscribers may not necessarily be sticky. I haven't needed to run any paid ads yet but, based on what I have heard, the cost of acquisition per subscriber can be quite high if you don’t know what you’re doing. I recommend this only when you’ve exhausted all the other growth strategies we’re discussing today.

But, let’s say, you don't have the cash. Or you aren't sure of spending the cash. This is where cross-promotions can come in handy.

Cross-promotions are a roundabout way of achieving the same results as paid-ads - except you don't pay any money. They rely on the fundamental principle of barter - you exchange value instead of money. Cross-promotions can be a bit tricky to pull off since they require a great deal of research, coordination, and most importantly - trust.

Often, the simplest and easiest cross-promotions can be found closest to you - in your own network! You can find and connect to someone in your network and work out cross-promo deals with them. Or, maybe, you can ask your followers for recommendations on who else they follow and set up collaborations and cross-promotions with them. Most platforms like Beehiiv, Substack, ConvertKit, etc. have great recommendation engines that will show other newsletters similar to yours - maybe one of them might be open to additional cross-promotions and collaborations? And this I want you to note as growth strategy number four!

4. “Borrow” other audiences by advertising or cross-promoting your content

Outside of your immediate network, you can find other support systems to lean on for such cross-promotions and collaborations. For example, there are discord channels where you can get recommendations for other newsletters to swap with. One of them that I highly recommend is called Newsletter Blueprint, run by Paul Metcalfe. You can connect with other newsletter creators and work out cross-promotion deals where each of you writes guest articles for the other. Check out newsletterblueprint.com for more details - I'll link to this in the show notes.

Finding other creators to shout you out on their newsletters is something I would totally recommend as a growth strategy! In my opinion, this is a collaboration-game, not a competition-game. There is both ample content and ample audiences for both of you to share and reap benefits from.

Of course, this takes more time and coordination and, again, it doesn't make sense to pursue cross-promotion as a primary growth strategy if your list size is small. In such situations, you'd be better off working on some of the other things first - like developing original content, or posting on social platforms, or making your subscriber list bigger. How small is small? Well, let's just say, a thousand subscribers is a good target to aim for before attempting cross-promotions with other newsletters!

That said, did you know that there is a trick to figuring out which newsletter to collaborate with? I discovered this trick after speaking to newsletter growth expert Matt McGarry, Founder of GrowLetter. He has an impressive list of clients including the Hustle, Milk Road, Trends, Contrarian Thinking, Bankless, and the Daily Upside.

Ready? Okay here it is: The growth-rate of a newsletter is more important than the size of its list. A fast-growing newsletter will help you find a more engaged audience for your newsletter.

Seems so obvious in hindsight, doesn't it? When you think about it, a newsletter that is growing fast is also a newsletter quite like your own. It is probably following the same trajectory as your own. So, it makes sense to get in on each other's ground floors, right? So, do that! Get in on another creator's ground floor and boost each other all the way to the moon!

Another recommendation that I often give people is also the fifth growth strategy I want you to note:

5. Use single opt-in to add subscribers to your list.

Now, I know this is a bit controversial but I genuinely feel like double opt-in causes too much friction. Instead, I recommend using a single opt-in and then cleaning or pruning your list regularly. 

What you could also do is engage with new subscribers directly - for example, encourage them to reply to your welcome email and strike up a brief conversation. Believe me, this helps immensely with deliverability and open rates!

And that brings us to the end of today's episode! Let's quickly summarize the five growth strategies I outlined in this episode, shall we? 

1. Bring over an existing audience. If your audience likes your content in one format, chances are they might also like your content in another format, right?

2. Give ALL your audiences a taste of your content REGULARLY. Leveraging your existing followers on other social media sites can help drum up enthusiasm for your newsletter.

3. Experiment with different lead-magnets and rewards for your referral program, to find new subscribers. There is no one-size-fits-all strategy to convert your new followers into subscribers for your newsletter - so, experiment to find what works for you and your newsletter!

4. “Borrow” other audiences by advertising or cross-promoting your content. There's only so much you can do on your own and reaching outside of your networks is a great way to find new audiences!

5. Use single opt-in to add subscribers to your list. This is a bit controversial but single opt-in overcomes the friction and second-guessing that can result during a double opt-in.

That's it!

It’s now time for our Ask Me Anything segment. This question was submitted by a member of our First Class Founders community.

“Who do you look up to in the world of creators? What do you think the future holds for the creator economy?”

There are so many great creators these days it's hard to pinpoint just a few. I think each creator brings their own strengths in a certain niche. For example, when I was just starting out as a podcaster, I would devour podcasts about podcasting. But now, I'm in the newsletter world and I'm following newsletter growth creators. It just depends on what I'm looking to grow.

A trend that I'm seeing more of is the emergence of creators outside of entertainment. So think educational content. I'm very bullish on the educational vertical for creators.

I believe that "being a creator" will no longer be a term in 5-10 years. Similar to how we used to call certain companies "tech", now every company is a "tech company" to a certain extent. "I work in tech" doesn't mean much anymore compared to 10 years ago.

Similarly, the term "creator" will no longer mean anything in 5-10 years because it'll be widespread. Company CEOs will be building their companies in public. Hollywood studios will be more transparent about how they're making their films. It's just a natural progression of where things are headed.

Alright, that wraps up today's show! If you also wanna ask me a question like this, you can sign up for a membership at FirstClassFounders.com/join.

In the next episode of First Class Founders we have a special guest. We’re inviting Arvid Kahl of the Bootstrapped Founder Podcast to discuss how his life has changed since selling his company, his framework for content creation and distribution, and last but not least, how he uses AI to help with his workflow. You don’t want to miss out on this one!

And, one last thing before I go... If you're a new listener and you enjoyed this episode, you can follow the show by going to FirstClassFounders.com and clicking on the link that matches your preferred podcast player - like Apple Podcasts or Spotify. If you are a repeat listener, I'd really appreciate a five-star review. I know every single podcast show asks you to leave a rating and a review but this is a relatively new show and your ratings and reviews really help new listeners find the show! Every single review matters and I really appreciate them! Please head over to FirstClassFounders.com/review and leave us a five-star review. Thank you so much!

If you wanna connect with me, I'd love to hear from you! You can follow me on Twitter @YongSooChung and let me know if you enjoyed this episode. I take feedback very seriously and would love to hear your thoughts on how to improve the show. You can find links to all my social accounts in the show notes.

I'll see you on the next episode of First Class Founders.