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How To Grow Your Newsletter Fast On The Hottest Platform Today
with Tyler Denk - Beehiiv Founder
Amardeep Parmar
September 03, 2023
Hello hello, it’s Amar here, the host of EH podcast and Season 2 is officially underway!
Today we have Tyler Denk, Beehiiv CEO and Founder, the hottest newsletter platform for creators.
Tyler was the 2nd employee at Morning Brew and helped them grow from 100,000 subscribers to 2.5 million! He took all the learnings from there to build Beehiiv which is growing rapidly and has already raised a $12.5m Series A.
We’re covering How To Grow Your Newsletter Fast On The Hottest Platform.
How To Grow Your Newsletter Fast On The Hottest Platform
Here are some of the key takeaways from the episode if you’re in a rush!
The Source Matters
People underindex on replies. Why did they sign up? What would incentivize them to share?
Not all subscribers are the same and you’ll miss out if you treat them that way. You might have many different acquisition channels but people who come from one place are the super fans. You need to know this.
The better you can understand the motivation of your subscribers, the more likely you are to retain them and get them to share.
1 Referral Reward
We’ve seen a lot of success of people offering a digital reward for one referral because it gets people in the behaivoral mindset of “oh, this is how the referral system works.”
Too often newsletter creators try to squeeze their subscribers for as many referrals as they can get. Yet if they need to do 100 referrals to a get mug with your face on it, they aren’t going to bother.
You should optimize for a great single referral reward that gives instant gratification. Once subscribers have referred on time, it feels less intimidating to do so again. And hopefully again. And again. And again…
SEO Still Plays
It’s so old school blogging but it’s free growth and it’s organic. There’s nothing better than someone looking up something on the internet, your article shows up as one of the first few searches and then you’re collecting subscriber growth. The intent is so high.
I asked Tyler what people often overlook when trying to grow their newsletter and I was surprised by the answer. Tyler has seen newsletters expand rapidly by mastering the old-school art of SEO.
It’s a long game but when you are consistent for several months, it can pull in hundreds of high-intent subscribers for free each week.
No Single Silver Bullet
What are the 6 or 7 that all compound and snowball over time to provide you more touchpoints and opportunities to scale your audience? And if you can do all of them 8 out of 10…
SEO isn’t the silver bullet because there isn’t one. Think of it as part of your toolkit. Avoid putting all your effort into one growth channel because the marginal effort rarely pays off.
Create a compelling offer by being 8 out of 10 in several areas instead. SEO. Referral system. Lead magnet. Social media. Paid advertising.
It pays to be well-rounded in the newsletter space.
The Internet Is Bigger Than You Think
There’s a group of people or audience out there that will align and have the same interests as you in almost any topic you can imagine. We have very large newsletters outside of the scope of just tech, business, entrepreneurship, crypto and AI.
There are people selling their newsletters for 7-figures in the weirdest niches.
You don’t need to flock to what’s popular. You need to find a gap in the market that you can serve well. Give them what they wish they had.
It’s better to have thousands of people love you and buy your products than billions think you’re adequate.
Want to appear on the podcast?
Our bar is high because we want our audience to get their advice from the best.
Meet one of these criteria? Reply to this email and tell us!
For venture-backed businesses, we want valuations of $100m+.
For LinkedIn/X creators, we want 100k+ followers.
For VCs, we want partners with $1bn AUM.
For bootstrapped founders, we want $1m MRR.
If you want us to get someone else on, tell us and we’ll try our best!
Next 3 weeks:
Sandhya Hegde (Partner at Unusual Ventures) How Generative AI Is Shaping SaaS
Sabrina Castiglione (COO at Pento) - How To Use Automation As A Product Differentiator
Lloyed Lobo (Founder of Boost.AI & Traction) - How To Leverage Community For Rapid Growth