The Ultimate Guide to Start Your Newsletter
Five simple steps to build your newsletter to 10,000+ subscribers
2 years ago I started the newsletter ‘Growth Notes’ at SaaS company Hypefury.
Today it’s read by 10,000+ people and has a 40%+ open rate.
Let’s first understand why you should have a newsletter.
1. Your Twitter / Instagram / Youtube / Linkedin followers are all platform dependent. That means if Twitter decides to ban you one day, you lose everything you’ve built.
Your newsletter will have an email list. That list is a csv. Take it on any platform and you can communicate with it.
2. 100% Visibility never happens on these platforms.
You may post a reel and have 300K followers, but your reel won’t be shown to everyone. It is algorithm dependent.
While your newsletter will be sent to each of those 300K followers.
But starting one can be overwhelming.
Here’s how you can start your newsletter in 5 simple steps:
1. Choose a theme and audience
A specific theme will have you showcase your work to your Audience as an Authority.
To choose your theme and target audience, answer these 3 questions as specifically as you can -
- What is the end result?
- Who are you helping?
- How are you helping?
For Example, for my Newsletter Growth Notes, the answer to these questions is
- Growing your Twitter account 10x
- Creators who want to grow on Twitter and make money
- Sharing actionable Twitter growth and tweet writing tips
I have another newsletter called $0 to $10K, here are the answers to each of these questions.
- A successful online side business
- People with 9–5 who want to have a side hustle
- Sharing tips on the full package needed to start a biz — audience, product, marketing
2. Create a Landing page
Make a Landing Page.
You can use tools to make it within a few minutes.
For this + sending emails, I’d suggest you use the tool Convertkit. It’s super easy to use and has a lot of built in simplicity.
This is how the dashboard looks like -
Right now, your only focus is
- Broadcasts — the emails you’ll send
- Subscribers — the people you’ll send to
Now, coming back to landing page.
ConvertKit has templates to make your landing page in 10 mins.
Don’t write more than 200 words.
Tell a story and end with your offer.
Here’s a flow
- Pain
- Problem
- Solution — Your newsletter
- Deliverables — Content of your email
- CTA
Here’s how $0 to $10K landing page looks like.
It’s conversion is 48.8%
It’s simple.
It’s scrollable.
It has a lot of headings and subheadings.
And it shares the points across.
That’s all you need.
3. Welcome Email
Write a welcome and confirmation mail.
This is the first email that goes into the inbox of your audience.
And it’s going to create your first impression.
Expectations of your subscribers are high at this point.
Tips:
- Introduce yourself but don’t make it about you.
- Share loads of value.
- Give a freebie if you can.
- Ask a question.
Try to make them reply to your email.
They’ll remember you. Also, you’ll land in their inbox from now and not promotions. And,
Don’t miss out on this email.
You don’t want them to wait for the next email you send when they’d have already forgotten you.
In Convertkit, you can find it in Landing Page Settings > Settings.
Click on “Edit Email Contents” and write it.
4. Consistent Value in Emails
Your email or newsletter issue is what you’ll write every month or week.
It should be valuable for your reader.
It should also be simple for you. As the more complex it is, the more issues you’ll miss.
So, Decide on your email issues and write the first one.
Here are some points to take care of -
Have a template
- Your reader should know what they’ll get when that mail hits their inbox.
- Don’t leave the space for “Uhm what could they have written, I’ll check out later.”
- Make it expectable.
- A repeatable template also means it’s easy for you to write.
- You’re not thinking every Monday what to write, but rather just filling up the sections.
For Example, the Growth Notes Newsletter has a repeatable formula
- 3 Twitter Growth Hacks
- 2 Tweet writing tips
- Folks under 10K you should follow
- 3 Best tweets
Be clear and simple.
No scientific jargon.
No walls of text.
Lots of line breaks.
Have images and embeds
It’s not a professional email.
So, add image breaks, tweet embeds, and anything that gives relief from the block of text.
If you’re adding a blog, add a clickable image of the blog
Give loads of examples, and make your Newsletter actionable.
Remember, Your email is delivered among 5 notifications, kids screaming in the background, and 67 to-do lists.
They have 5 seconds to read it. And they should be able to.
Here’s a sneak peek of my $0 to $10K issue -
Also, writing on convertkit is super easy.
Just like writing on medium. So, it’s not a high tech thing to learn.
Plus, you can create a template too — for example — I have a repeated design every week.
The header image, headline, then next header image — so on.
So I’ve got a template saved. I use it, fill the para and send it.
5. Marketing and Launch
A newsletter’s marketing is as important as the launch.
DM your friends asking them if they’d like to join.
If you have digital products, send an invite email to your customers.
Plug your newsletter link beneath viral tweets.
One such tool to Plug your newsletter is Hypefury
And a secret tip — do cross promotions.
It’s where people with newsletters promote each other’s newsletter in theirs. It’s a very simple way of helping each other out.
One thirds of my audience is from cross promotions.
To recap
1. Choose a theme and audience
2. Create a Landing page
3. Write your Welcome issue
4. Have consistent value in your Newsletter issue
5. Launch and do consistent marketing
It’s a weekend’s work but it’ll save you from losing your audience because of platform risk.
The best time to start a newsletter was yesterday. The second best is now.
Hi, I’m Arunima. I’m a writer and crazy about creating digital products and building an audience.
If you liked the story, could you give it some love? I would love to reach 100 followers sooner — to send my articles to publications.
You can follow me here for more stories on writing, building audiences, and digital products!
I also have a newsletter that helps you build your online business and audience while doing your 9–5. You can sign up here -> Get from $0 to $10K here, FOR FREE
Thank you for reading :)
