How the Best Newsletters Grew to 50,000+ Subscribers

5 proven growth tactics used by the best newsletter writers

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Dear subscribers,

Today, I want to share how the best newsletters grew from 0 to 50,000+ subscribers.

This post is a must read if you want to start and grow a newsletter.

Chenell Basilio has spent 100s of hours studying top newsletters. Together, we looked at how top writers grew through the following tactics:

1. Pick the right niche

2. Build a content system

3. Drive sign ups

4. Get organic traffic

5. Optimize paid traffic

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1. Pick the right niche

Your niche sits at the intersection of what your ideal reader wants, what you’re good at, and what you’re interested in.

A newsletter that has nailed its niche is:

Technically by Justin Gage

Technically includes learning tracks to help readers learn faster

Justin reached 50K+ subscribers in 3 years while working a full time job. His niche is:

Technical concepts explained in a simple way for non-technical people.

Per our definition of a great niche:

1. What your reader wants: Non-technical people want to be more technical.

2. What you’re good at: Justin has a technical and data science background.

3. What you’re interested in: Justin loves to “explain like I’m five” key concepts.

For more, check out Chenell's deep dive on Technically’s growth.

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2. Build a content system

Your content system helps you avoid having to stare at a blank page.

A newsletter that has an amazing content system is:

The Saturday Solopreneur by Justin Welsh

Justin Welsh uses a content system to create social posts from a single newsletter

Justin has 130K readers and only spends a few hours writing each post. His niche is:

1 actionable tip to launch, grow, and monetize your internet business.

This niche already suggests brevity, but it’s his system that saves him even more time:

1. Idea capture: Look at social, other newsletters, and YouTube for topic inspiration.

2. Research: Pick a topic and do research.

3. Template: Use a template for the first draft.

4. Editing: Simplify and add visuals.

5. Social: Break post into 7 social posts (e.g., threads, contrarian takes, stories).

For more, check out Chenell's deep dive on The Saturday Solopreneur’s growth.

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3. Drive sign ups

Your sign up page plays a key role in converting casual readers to active subscribers.

A newsletter that has nailed its sign up page is:

Marketing Examples by Harry Dry

Harry reached 130K subscribers in 3.5 years. His sign up page has all 3 elements:

1. Dream outcome: “3 examples, 2 copywriting tips, and 1 tweet” to learn marketing.

2. Social proof: “Marketers voted it the #1 marketing newsletter. 130K people like it.”

3. Testimonials: Quotes from readers.

Harry also displays his sign up form via the nav bar and at the end of every post. It’s no wonder that his sign up rates are above 50%.

For more, check out Chenell’s deep dive on Marketing Examples’ growth.

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4. Get organic traffic

Great organic traffic can come from social, referrals, and SEO.

Your organic channels help you get new sign ups without spending a dime.

Below’s a newsletter example for each channel:

Social

Superhuman by Zain Kahn 

Zain grew his AI newsletter to 250K+ in just 5 months.

He created viral social posts on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram to ride the AI wave.

For more, check out Chenell's deep dive on Superhuman’s growth.

Referrals

First 1,000 by Ali Abouelatta

Ali grew his newsletter to 74K+ in 3 years without a social presence.

He did this by building a custom referral program:

1. Refer others to unlock a new gift every month (e.g., a PDF or template).

2. Referrals reset every month, adding urgency to the unlock.

The Sadness character from Inside Out probably helps too. Ali’s top referrers have sent over 100 referrals.

For more, check out Chenell’s deep dive on First 1000’s growth.

SEO

Starter Story by Pat Walls

Pat used SEO tactics to more than double his website traffic

Pat’s grew his newsletter to 114K+ in 3 years thanks to his lean SEO framework:

1. Research: Identify content opportunities through quick research.

2. Create: Create minimum viable content to test if your page will rank.

3. Test: Measure results over a 30-day period.

4. Decision: Iterate on content based on its performance.

5. Scale: When a piece of content works, flesh it out and optimize.

Pat places many small bets and then doubles down when content works.

For more, check out Chenell’s deep dive on Starter Story’s growth.

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5. Drive paid traffic

Great paid ads optimize for short payback periods and lifetime value > cost of acquisition.

Your paid ads can be a major growth driver once your newsletter is making money.

A newsletter that grew rapidly through paid ads is:

The Milk Road by Shaan Puri and Ben Levy

Shaan and Ben grew their newsletter to 250K+ and sold it for a million in a year.

From a case study on The Milk Road’s growth, they focused on:

1. Measuring success. “We were looking for a payback period of 3 months or less. That means if we made $0.50 / subscriber / month, we would only be willing to pay $1.50 to acquire a subscriber.”

2. Optimizing one paid channel. “We spent most of our time on Facebook due to their scale and tested a bunch of different creatives and audiences. After a ton of testing, we found that meme and social proof ads worked best.”

Paid ads added 50K+ readers to the newsletter.

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5 proven growth tactics from the best newsletters

To recap, the best newsletters use these tactics to grow faster:

1. Pick the right niche
   A great niche helps your ideal reader achieve their dream outcome. 

2. Build a content system
   A great content system lets you write 1x and publish 7x. 

3. Drive sign ups
   A great sign up page includes a dream outcome, social proof, and testimonials.

4. Get organic traffic
   Great organic traffic comes from social, referrals, and SEO.

5. Optimize paid traffic
   Great paid ads have short payback periods and lifetime value > cost of acquisition.

Of course, the best growth tactic is to show up every week to write great content (like Chenell’s newsletter). Let me know if you have any questions about growing a newsletter in the comments.

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