More Growth Strategies for Your Newsletter

Lesson 9 of 11: Launch & Grow a Newsletter to Boost Your Writing Career

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Hi writers!

We’re in the homestretch. This is the last week of our March newsletter course. You can do it!

Lesson 8 mostly covered Substack’s built-in growth tools — and, of course, the universal value of collaboration and community. Today, we’re extending our education off the platform to additional newsletter promotions and marketing strategies.

Make it easy to subscribe

According to James Cridland, editor of the to-go podcast newsletter Podnews, the key to newsletter growth is simple: Make sure your newsletter signup form is front and center on your website. Don’t have a lot of other content distracting people from the main action you want potential readers to take. You want people to subscribe, so make it as easy and obvious as possible.

In-person events are an underrated way to drive newsletter growth

In Lesson 7, I mentioned how The GIST threw a launch party. But it doesn’t matter if you’re just starting your newsletter or it’s been going for five years, this is a good promotional strategy for any phase of your publication. 

I randomly threw a podcast meetup presented by Podcast Bestie in December 2022, a little over a year from my launch date. It was super fun. I made some friends. I got a sponsor — who pitched me! — so I actually make some money from it. And I got 125 emails for the newsletter.

I hadn’t thrown a live event since well before the pandemic. I felt a little rusty. So in preparation, I listened to Nick Gray, author of The 2-Hour Cocktail Party: How to Build Big Relationships with Small Gatherings, on Jay Clouse’s Creator Science podcast.

That’s where I learned the “NICK” method for networking party success, which is:

• Nametags

• Icebreakers

• Cocktails only

• Kick people out

Hearing this validated my instincts about name tags, icebreakers, and making it a cocktail event. It also gave me permission to thank everyone and say goodbye at the pre-established end time.

Eventbrite has been easy to use as a ticketing platform. Even though the event was free, I set aside some extra tickets as donation-based, and five people were generous enough to donate $50. Eventbrite paid that out quickly, without any hassle, which was nice because I had some expenses associated with the meetup (nametags, markers, champagne for a toast, and note cards and pencils for the icebreaker game).

I’ve also done this for The Bleeders twice. One of those meetups wasn’t very well-attended; it was in the early days, and only four people came. But now I regularly have dinner with three of those people. So don’t feel bad if it’s not a rager. Even if your event has a low turnout, you can still make valuable connections. I think it’s a great idea to host a meetup for your newsletter’s topic to connect with potential local subscribers.