Part 2: Mastering Organic Growth

2 strategies you must focus on to have a successful newsletter

how to decide which growth tactic to use (and how to make it work better)

Growth tactics (that don’t reply on social media) that you can implement

4,351,852 emails sent per second

What’s your favorite newsletter? AND why?

• maybe something that will offer you instant benefits?

• james clear

• startup spells

• money with Katie

• write with AI

Great Content - insanely valuable content IV content

can’t wait for the next one, something good in every issue

IV content is the growth multiplier for everything else

“meh, that was okay” - “omg, I have to share this”

So how do we create IV content:

6 Buckets of IV Content

1. make money

2. save money

3. save time

4. make them feel something (🥹/😮/🤣)

   1. use storytelling

5. Teach Them Something (make them feel smart)

6. Speed to Market

   1. news orgs that come out and they’re the first one to drop something in your inbox

(you should combine 2 or more of these!!! now)

Why We buy: buyer psychology (Caitlin makes it fascinating)

1. her personality into every part of this

2. why something works

   1. entertaining you

3. show you why it works exactly with visuals, examples

4. she is doing 1,2,4,5

Drunk Business Advice:

1. comical

2. visual

3. wild stories

4. she is doing 1,2,4,5 (feel smarter hh)

Justin Moore (Creator Wizard)

1. offer sponsorships every week

2. 1,3,6 (timely opportunities)

Growth “hacks” won’t work nearly as well without IV content

2 Ways to Own the Inbox:

1. IV Content

2. Building Relationships

   1. people to grow with

   2. friends to jam on ideas with

   3. feedback, help, strategy

A lot of the most sustainable ways to grow a newsletter rely on other people. They don’t work as well without having great content and relationships packed together.

• recommendations

• cross promotions

• collaborations

• guest posting

• guest podcasting

• co-creating content

• social media

• sponsorships

• referral programs

• giveaways

• speaking

• webinars & summit

Different stages

0-1,000 subscribers

• the hyper-personal stage

• most manual outreach

• feel extremely hard and tiring

• build your ravin fan now

• never be as close as you’re right now

• don’t rush - more time now, take advantage and enjoy the process

strategy:

• engaging with other people’s content (80%), social media newsletter

  • but all your assets should be well defined and clear, and ppl understand what you’re talking about

  • every piece of this is super crystal clear for people coming to this - well optimized

    • header image

    • clear profile picture

    • profile name

    • clear description

    • clean URL

    • try to keep all info consistent across online socials

    • make ppl remember who you’re and where you live online

    • landing page - same concept, easy to find and use / not perfect in the beginning

      • simple

      • clear

      • newsletter signup on the top not hidden in the footage

  • thoughtful comment on other ppl’s post and will get subscribers

• DM-ing ideal audience members

• replying to every email/newsletter

  • impactful early on, should be consistent but will get harder later on

• reply to other newsletters

  • one growth hack of building relationship

  • sign up for a newsletter in your space

  • they have adjacent audiences/you’d potentially want to partner with in the future

  • follow their newsletter, subscribe and reply to it

  • compelling piece -> don’t do it every time, be thoughtful with replies

  • email signature - bottom of every email, when reply, ppl see, oh same picture, see on Twitter

  • building this whole ecosystem, ppl are starting to remember who we are

  • remember you here and there - have affinity who you are

  • people like replies and reactions

  • “i enjoyed because XYZ” “appreciate”

• cross promotions

  • relationship builder

  • another creator in the space - hey let’s just share each other’s stuff

  • early - work with small newsletters, goal not to get hundreds of subscribers but build relationships with them

    • entry point to build that deeper relationships

    • some subscribers, a few

    • make sure they have some audience and also the relevant audience, even small

growth + relationships…at the same time

• do them at the same time/together

• work smarter & build this at the same time

• can’t do XYZ because you don’t know anyone - do them at the same time - compound and get easier over time!!

• Guest Posts & Co-Creating Content

  • a big one

  • power of creating guest posts & co-creating content: case of maja voje

  • “product growth” by Aakash

    • tactical go-to-market 101: how to go from 0 to 1

    • he got 100k subscribers

    • but partner with Maya with 3k subscribers

    • 88 minutes to read:

    • Maya did this over and over again with other newsletters and quickly grow with 19k subscribers

    • she just dm, say want to collab on LinkedIn, Aakash said he saw her content was increbily valuable so said yes!

  • so it just works just put time into it

  • How:

    • you both get a piece of content to share

    • you both get in front of new audiences

    • can keep sending you subscribers for a long time

      • evergreen content that lives on

    • * build relationships

  • Lenny’s

    • write on Firstround/andrew chen

1,000 to 10,000 subscribers

• posting on social media more

  • pick one channel to start

  • 100% of ppl researched use social to grow. And 86% get to 100k before adding another channel

  • focus is the thing that’s going to take you far with this game

    • want to repurpose your content elsewhere like twitter and threads - just don’t focus on those other two, really try to get good at LinkedIn if that’s your one thing

  • The 80/20 of social growth

    • “tease” the newsletter the day before

      • people fomo

      • great hooks

        • what’s the problem

        • tmr I will share tips

        • subscribe first and keep posted