Despite being VP of Marketing spark toroa classically trained chef, and past host Growth Machine Marketing PodcastAmanda Natividad has difficulty expanding her newsletter following.
when she started menu, she is more enthusiastic and ambitious than subscribers. Her following has not grown as fast as she had hoped. After six months of hard work, she only had 400 subscribers.
Amanda didn’t give up. Instead, she turned her vast marketing experience into a plan and got to work. After a month and a half, she had 1,000 subscribers. Today, she has 2,600 readers and is adding about 500 readers every month. Here’s how to help Amanda get 600 new subscribers in six weeks — and help you too.
Planning for a sustainable format
Consistency is critical to building a successful newsletter.Before you write your first email, decide what do you want to send and how often. The most important thing is to find a schedule that you can stick to.
It may take some time to figure out what works. If the format you choose is stressing you out, keep iterating until you find one you can stick with. Swap out the parts where you never have enough content with something that is more flexible or sent less frequently than you originally intended.
[I]If you’re not sure if you’ve found your sweet spot, keep testing new things.
“If you’re not sure if you’ve found your sweet spot, keep testing new things,” advises Amanda. “Not just new ideas, but also test your schedule, writing pace, trying to post early to see if new ideas will come to the newsletter.”
Amanda’s newsletter has undergone several changes since its launch. “I knew from the beginning that I wanted some curatorial element,” she said. But it took her a while to get the Petits Fours name and four-bar format. At one point, she included screenshot interviews in every issue, but dropped them because they took too much time. She can try new things without losing followers because she consistently delivers high-quality, trending information.
Gain initial audience through existing network
Your network can help you start your email list, but you need to reach a larger audience to continue growing. Even with word of mouth from her initial subscribers, Amanda couldn’t reach many people. When she focused on the built-in social media audience, her subscriber numbers started to rise again.
Amanda promotes her newsletter Twitter.
She uses her social media presence — mostly on Twitter — to draw interest in her newsletter. If you don’t have a lot of followers, reply to big accounts with fresh insights or interesting observations. Add a plugin to your newsletter to follow up on every compelling post. Twitter hashtag discussions can help you gain traffic and gain new followers. Amanda also joins the writing community inside and outside of Twitter to find support and subscribers.
Use early subscribers as beta testers
Your relationship with your audience should not be one-sided. Amanda A/B tested headlines and tracked link clicks to optimize her content.main Metric Her focus is on open rates, which she hits at 60%.For reference, our Latest benchmark report The average email open rate was found to be 21.5%.
Amanda also solicits feedback by asking questions from her subscribers. In fact, she still does it “when it feels organic.” Only a small percentage of subscribers will reply, but their comments are invaluable. Sometimes readers will respond without prompting if they feel strongly about something: “Once, I skipped the recipe and offered a food tip instead, and two people responded that they were very Frustrated, I didn’t send the recipe,” says Amanda. Since then, she’s gone the extra mile to include the recipe.
There are more people who support you than you think.
One of the things Amanda wants her to test is to send a shorter newsletter. “Sometimes I wonder if my newsletter is too long, but now I have a few thousand subscribers, so it might be weird to go against the length,” she told us. However, her main takeaway has nothing to do with her content, schedule or newsletter logistics. “[The] The most important thing I’ve learned is really the importance of creating a safe space for yourself to test ideas,” says Amanda. “There are more people who support you than you might think. “
Incentivize signup (and make signup easy)
Even dedicated followers are unlikely to believe they should sign up for your newsletter.Amanda provides value registration magnet. She doesn’t go the traditional route of making downloadable resources available to anyone who shares her email. She tells her Twitter followers that if they sign up before her next email, they’ll get her Roast Shepherd’s Pie recipe. Seventy people joined that day. It wasn’t an offer she could use multiple times, but it did provide a sense of urgency.
For subscribers who didn’t see the incentives she posted, Amanda showed exactly what her newsletter had to offer. her website, amandanat.com, has a copy of every newsletter she sends. A free preview is provided so readers can see what they’ve registered before submitting.
The easier your signup form is to fill out, the more subscribers you’ll gain. Amanda emails via Revue owned by Twitter. As a Twitter user, she likes that anyone who finds her on Twitter can sign up for her newsletter with one click.
Elements of a good newsletter signup page
How can you registration page Reduce risk and make it easy for new readers to subscribe? Here’s Amanda Natividad’s advice:
- Set expectations: Tell readers what they’ll get when they share an email, and provide sample content for them to review before signing up.
- Prove Credibility: Amanda mentions her training in culinary school and technical/marketing work to show she knows what she’s talking about.
- Provide social proof: Share the size of your email list or comments to prove that your subscribers benefit from your newsletter.
Create opportunities to improve yourself
Outperform your audience by appearing on podcasts, writing guest posts, or contributing to other trusted outlets in your field. Choose promotions that benefit you and another creator in your niche for maximum effect.
Every external marketing opportunity needs to have a dual purpose or I can’t commit to it.
The size of your audience and the time you spend promoting yourself will determine the type of opportunities you should be looking for. Here’s what Amanda recommends:
- Affiliate Marketing: Use your newsletter to recommend and link to other newsletters in the same subject area. In return, you’re likely to get yelling, especially if you know the author.
- Podcast appearances: Contact podcasters to see if they are looking for guests and tell them you will be cross-promoting your episode on your email list. Then mention your newsletter during the recording.
- Guest Post: Contact a blogger or newsletter author and offer to offer a guest post. Make sure your name is prominent and add a link to your newsletter.
- Webinars: Collaborate with friends to host webinars. After you’ve won attendees with your expertise, mention your newsletter and invite them to subscribe.
Cross-promotion opportunities can also help you come up with ideas for your own newsletter. Write an entire issue about things you’ve discussed on the podcast, or add excerpts from your guest posts to your next newsletter.
Amanda is now considering opportunities to enhance her personal brand or that of SparkToro where she currently works. “Every external marketing opportunity (like a podcast or webinar) needs to have a dual purpose (eg, promoting SparkToro and serving as inspiration for my personal account’s Twitter thread) or I can’t commit to it,” she said.
Be careful not to stretch yourself too thin. Amanda learned the hard way that taking every opportunity meant losing the time she wanted to spend on other pursuits. She advises writers to “set time on your calendar, look for serendipitous opportunities (like potential podcast episodes), and stick to them.” While too many opportunities may sound like a good question, you don’t want your newsletter (or other commitments) suffer because you’re too busy.
Anyone Can Start a Successful Newsletter
Everything Amanda does can be replicated if you’re willing to put in the work. The effort you put into promoting yourself and your newsletter will pay off.
The most valuable thing you can give your newsletter is time. “I spend about 2 hours on each newsletter edition, sending it the same day. The fastest I’ve been able to do this is over 1 hour,” shares Amanda.
She’s also constantly thinking about how to improve her email. “Since you ask me, I might always A new section is being tested. You might see me try new ways to promote my YouTube show in the near future,” she told us.
You can see her new efforts for herself by subscribing menu Or follow her on Twitter @Amandana.
