A Beginner Guide To Promote a Newsletter + Ideas With Examples To Grow Your Newsletter
Table of Contents
You might be hearing that many big shark newsletter companies are making thousands of dollars monthly through their newsletter; we know it sounds interesting and lucrative!
Honestly, publishing a newsletter is very easy nowadays especially with platforms like Substack and Beehiiv where you can sign up and start a newsletter for free. But, it is hard to grow your newsletter and reach the target audience. There are millions of newsletter operators and from everyone from companies to businesses to individual operators and less than 10% of them actually see the first dollar.
But we’ve got you covered!
In this article you can learn how to promote newsletter with ideas and examples of the big newsletter operators who grow their newsletter. Save this article to come back to these ideas anytime you’re in a pickle.
15 Top Ways to Promote a Newsletter
The following 15 are the top methods that you can use to grow newsletter:
- Newsletter marketing on Newsletterworthy.com
- Promoting your newsletter on social media
- Using Paid Ads
- Using Newsletter recommendation platforms
- Substack Notes as a marketing tool for getting inbound subscribers
- Using SEO for acquiring more subscribers
- Collaborating with other newsletter operators
- Leaving comments on other newsletters.
- Writing on third party platforms like Medium or Vocal Media
- Creating a referral program
- Appearing in Podcasts
- Giveaway to get more subscribers (the MrBeast way)
- Sponsoring other newsletters
- Cold emailing or cold approaching your target audience.
- Join Niche forums and communities online and interact with people
I have years of experience running and growing newsletters and this article will help you understand what ways you can use to promote your newsletter and get more subscribers to help you make more money.
Let’s discuss each of the methods in detail:
Newsletter marketing on Newsletterworthy.com
Newsletterworthy is a newsletter discovery platform where readers can find reviews of hundreds of newsletters. It allows readers interested in a specific niche to discover newsletter they might like. You can also become of the names they subscribe to.
Our lists are carefully articulated, but we also love to bring emerging newsletters to their targeted audience. If your newsletter delivers quality content to readers, you will see a hike in the number of subscribers when marketing with Newsletterworthy.
Promoting your Newsletter on Social Media
The audience you have been looking for everywhere is scrolling on social media platforms. Your work is half done if you already have a profile with a good audience. Share snapshots and tidbits of your newsletter before and after publishing to build interest in your audience. Also, add a direct link to your newsletter under the posts so that interested readers can directly land on your newsletter without hassle.
You can post on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Telegram groups. Even if you don’t have an audience, you can create a profile and promote your newsletter through paid social media ads.
For example, Blusteak's CMO has WhatsApp and Telegram groups where he promotes the newsletter content with a direct link for the readers' ease.
Using Paid Ads
Besides being a query genie, Google is the perfect ad platform for reaching your target audiences. Furthermore, you can run paid ads on social media to reach people who might be interested in your newsletter.
It might feel like a heavy investment initially, but targeting your audience properly will bring you an amazing ROI, making paid ads a favorite choice among newsletter promotion strategies.
Use Newsletter Recommendation Platforms
There are several newsletter recommendation platforms or newsletter directories where people go to find newsletters. Some of them are InboxStash, Newsletterworthy, and Newsletter Directory. These platforms will help you get passive subscribers who are interested in reading your content.
Collaborate with Other Newsletters
Search for other growing newsletters (with more or equal subscribers) in your niche or any related niche with a similar target audience. Get in contact with these newsletters’ operators to discuss collaborations. You can publish your newsletter as a guest post in their newsletters and offer the same to them. Cross-promotion will help you reach your target audience in the blink of an eye.
The effectiveness of collaboration was evident when Burnt Toast by Virginia Sole-Smith collaborated with SubMakk to promote it to their subscribers.
Use Substack Notes and Recommendations
If you have a Substack newsletter, the platform offers Notes as a marketing tool for creators. Substack Notes will help you get frequent inbound subscribers as they simplify the interaction between creators and readers. Make summarized notes about your newsletter publications on Substack in a way that catches the audience's interest and gets them to subscribe.
You can also use the recommendation feature on the Substack by turning on 'Recommendations.' The platform will then recommend your newsletter to other publishers as well as new readers.
Improve Your SEO Game
There are many ways to improve the SEO of your newsletter for better search engine rankings. First, start with basic SEO tricks, including SEO-friendly titles and meta descriptions. Also, use relevant keywords in your newsletter to land in the Google search engine results of your target audience. This way, you will get a larger audience and, apparently, more subscribers for your newsletter.
Add links to your newsletter landing page on your social media accounts, as it will help in SEO. Plus, if you have a domain for your newsletter, connect it to Google Search Console for better search engine optimization.
Comment on Other Newsletters
Whether it's YouTube, Facebook, Substack, or Beehive, subscribers tend to read the comments under the posts. Grab this as an opportunity to promote your newsletter by talking about your newsletter in the comments.
Find at least 10-20 newsletters in your niche or other niches with similar target audiences. Interact in their comment sections, write comments related to the post, or reply to another comment. However, make your comments seem natural and not like you're blowing your own trumpet.
Publish Articles on Third-Party Platforms
Want to promote your newsletter to a broader audience? Start publishing your newsletter blogs on third-party platforms like Medium and Vocal Media. When you write on such platforms, you will get better exposure for your newsletter. With that, be sure to add a simple email opt-in option/form in the middle or end of your articles. The audience that enjoys reading your content will submit the email opt-in form and subscribe to your newsletter.
The racked newsletter used frequent email opt-in forms throughout the newsletter to get new subscribers, and it did work positively for them.
Also, make summarized posts of your newsletter on platforms like Quora and Reddit and add a direct link. Interested readers will click and land on your newsletter to read further.
Create a Referral Program
Creating referral programs helps both big and growing newsletters to get subscribers. Tools like SparkLoop help create referral programs that meet your requirements. You can offer prizes on every referral, depending on what your audience will prefer. The prizes can be anything from a T-shirt and mug to a free 1-month subscription and early course access.
Take, for instance, how Morning Brew has used a referral program to increase its subscriber growth by 30% in just a week.
Appear in Podcasts
Many newsletter platforms allow podcasts as well, and podcasters are always on the lookout for new people to interview.
Find some podcasts in your niche and contact them with the necessary details and your offer related to the interview. When you appear on a podcast, discuss your newsletter in the interview a little.
Also, request them to attach a link to your newsletter landing page in the description box so that interested people can click, read, and subscribe to your newsletter.
Announce Giveaways to Get More Subscribers
Giveaways are an excellent way to get subscribers instantly. You can announce a giveaway with a few steps to participate and a prize that attracts your target audience.
In the giveaway entry steps, you can ask the audience to subscribe to your newsletter, comment, and share it with their friends. You can also ask them to read any of your publications and give correct answers (to any given questions you may ask) to win the prize.
Cold Emailing Your Target Audience
Cold emailing has always been a great marketing strategy to get subscribers for your newsletters. Find your target audience through other newsletters in your niche and try cold-approaching them. Create personalized emails for everyone and mention how they can benefit from reading your newsletter.
Sponsoring Other Newsletters
Sponsoring other newsletters on your newsletter will benefit not only them but also you. You can search for newsletters with a similar target audience and similar audience size. Decide a fair price and offer to sponsor them in your newsletter to interact with your audience.
Eventually, they will bring their audience to read their content, who might also read your newsletter.
Join Niche Forums and Communities Online and Interact with People
People interested in a specific niche often have platforms and communities where they discuss the best publications in the category. Join these forums and communities and subtly mention your newsletter to interest them in reading it. Moreover, it will also help you identify any flaws in your newsletter through reader reviews.
Winding up this article, I’d suggest you start with a combination of two to three marketing strategies and eventually expand to others. It will allow you to find out the best ones for your newsletter that you can utilize in the long term.
