📈 Newsletter Advice From a $200m/yr Media Company

Welcome to BetterLetter 📧

Isaac and I are newsletter operators turned agency owners. We’re building a go-to resource for newsletter operators to:

• Launch 🚀 

• Operate ⚙️ 

• Grow 📈 

..a world-class newsletter.

This week is going to be a bit different - some tactical but more high level (we’ll get back to tactical next newsletter).

We think it’s important to zoom out to get perspective and take advantage of the opportunities in front of you as a newsletter operator.

In today’s email:

• 🗣️ Advice from a VP of marketing at a $200m/yr media company

• 🚀 Trust + Growth = long-term advertising partners

• 👀 4 simple ways to earn your audience’s trust

Helpful Links 🔗 

•  🎟️ The first ever Newsletter Conference is happening in NYC on Friday, May 3rd (link)

• 🤖 How to filter out bots from your newsletter (link)

•  💻️ How to not look like a criminal on video calls (link)

• 🐝 The power of beehiiv to customize subscriber experience (link)

• ❓️ Beehiiv’s latest updates to subscriber surveys (link)

• 🚀 Why founders often outshine their companies on social media (link)

Let’s dive in.

We Went to A Legacy Media Conference 🛫 

Two weeks ago, Kieran and I flew down to Nashville, TN for the NRB (National Religious Broadcasters) Convention at the Grand Ole Opry.

We're deep into the faith-based newsletter game and wanted to see what the big, legacy media organizations are doing in the space.

We're talking: TV networks, streaming platforms, radio shows, and major players who have been around for ages.

For comparison’s sake:

• 👴 This was the 80th NRB conference

• 👶 2024 is the 1st newsletter-specific conference

Insights From 2 Conversations ✌️ 

Two conversations in particular had our wheels turning, and we wanted to share some insights.

Convo #1: Jackie, VP of a $200 Million Media Conglomerate

In between talks, Kieran and I were checking on our agency client ad campaigns.

The lady next to us was in her ads manager too and I struck up a conversation.

Turns out Jackie is the VP marketing at a massive media conglomerate doing > $60 million/quarter in revenue.

Why was a VP in the ads manager? Your guess is as good as mine.

This media company does everything: they own > 100 websites, podcasts, apps, radio shows and run an influencer agency.

Here are some high level notes from conversation #1:

♻️ This company basically built the equivalent of “Sparkloop” and “beehiiv boost” referral networks before either of those existed.

They’ve been using a custom “co-registration” solution they built for years.

So when people sign up for one of their newsletters, they either:

• Funnel them to other publications they own, OR

• Charge $2-$3 per lead for any outside advertiser that wants to be recommended on their Thank-You Page

(and since they own it entirely, they don’t have to pay a middle man 20%)

→ Co-registration is not new. What’s new is that it’s democratized.

💰️ Jackie offered us some unsolicited advice.

“Never leave Facebook. We spend 80% of our marketing budget there.”

And she said they have no plans to de-emphasize the power of newsletters in their overall business strategy.

Email has been king for over a decade and it will continue to be.

→ For people who are wondering if newsletters and FB ads are worth learning, the answer is yes.

📊 This media company owns over 5 million subscribers across dozens of lists.

Some have over 1 million subs. Others reach niche audiences as small as 100k.

Both provide significant power to monetize with ads.

And most have some audience overlap, which reduces their average CPA.

Example: If they acquire a subscriber for $1 through FB ads and refer them for free to another newsletter they own, they got “2” subscribers for $1, effectively cutting their CPA in half.

→ If you own multiple newsletters in adjacent niches, consider using one with a low CPA as the “front door” newsletter that feeds your other newsletters.

Soap Box 📣 

Most people never take the time to be grateful for the time we live in.

Entrepreneurship is more accessible than ever.

Monetizing a niche hobby or subject matter would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.

Everything this massive media company is doing, a single newsletter operator has the ability to do.

You can:

• Own your content distribution channel instead of renting it from social media platforms

• Earn money (and grow) through co-registration marketplaces like beehiiv boosts and Sparkloop upscribe

• Refer subscribers between multiple newsletters you own to reduce your effective CPA

• Segment your audience to monetize via highly targeted ad campaigns

• Get your newsletter in front of millions of people by advertising on platforms like Meta

Convo #2: James, The Ad Broker & The Changing Ad Landscape

We met with an OG advertising broker named James.

He’s been working for this media company for 37 years, brokering ad deals for email lists for the last 20.

James said 2 key things for newsletters that want to monetize through longer-term sponsorships..

(rather than spending countless hours cold emailing brands or relying solely on beehiiv’s built-in ad network)

To distill this down, many advertisers are looking for:

Current Engagement (Audience Trust)

+

Future Potential (Audience Growth)

On Building Trust 🤝 

As more newsletters pop up and advertisers have more choices to reach their target audience, the newsletters that will win are the ones who have gained the trust of their audience.

👉️ Here are 4 simple ways to earn the trust of your audience:

1. Solve a problem: This is always rule #1 of operating a successful newsletter. Solve a problem consistently for someone and they will like and trust you.

2. Be a human: More than ever, people trust people more than brands. This is why influencers are a thing. Most creators and brands would benefit from building a more personal connection with their audience. Show personality. Show your face. Infuse a little humor.

3. Leverage social proof: Share testimonials with people who are already subscribed. When people see specific examples of others getting value from your newsletter, a few things happen:

   1. They get new ideas about how they can apply what they learn from your newsletter

   2. They feel more like they’re part of a community than an individual reading an email

   3. Confirmation bias goes to work and it reinforces in people’s minds: “if others think this is valuable, this must be valuable.” The higher the perceived value, the more engagement.

4. Reward superfans: Set up an automation to send a thank you email with a gift anytime someone responds to a feedback poll in your newsletter (give them a discount code, lead magnet, or other valuable thing as a thank you). Find other ways to surprise, delight and reward subscribers for taking actions you want them to take.

→ Don’t just optimize for impressions. Optimize for trust.

On Growth 🚀 

If you want longer-term advertising partners…

it’s in everyone’s best interest to be focusing on growth.

1. Consistent growth is attractive to an advertiser. They don’t want to advertise to the same 35k subscribers for 12 months straight. They want to know that simply by partnering with you, they’ll be getting in front of new people over the course of time.

2. Consistent growth means you can charge higher rates as you grow. As long as you’re delivering results for your advertising partners, they’ll be happy to pay more because your audience has grown.

James said the most interesting thing about our niche 12k subscriber newsletter was our engagement (open + click rates, premium subscribers, reply rates, poll results) and our rate of growth.

“Advertisers will love that. They don’t see you for who you are. They see you for who you’ll become.”

Consistent growth doesn’t just give your newsletter a higher earning capacity.

It’s a selling point for long-term advertisers (especially if you have an audience < 10k).

→ Once your newsletter has content-market fit and a plan for how you’ll monetize, invest in paid ads so you can grow your audience in a scaleable way.

(These 2 principles (Trust + Growth) don’t only apply for ad-driven business models. They also apply if you monetize through your own products and services.)

That’s all for today.

👉️ Here’s a summary of the takeaways:

• Be grateful. Newsletter-driven businesses aren’t a fad. But modern platforms have made it way more accessible.

• Meta isn’t going anywhere. It’s not the only place to acquire newsletter subscribers, but it’s still typically the cheapest and most effective way.

• Most things a $200m/year media company is doing with newsletters is possible for you:

  • Own your distribution

  • Earn money (and grow) through co-registration marketplaces

  • Refer subscribers between multiple newsletters you own

  • Segment your audience into hyper-niches

  • Leverage ad platforms like Meta to get in front of millions of people

• Build trust into the DNA of your newsletter with automation and intentional decisions as the operator.

  • Deliver value, but also be human. Have personality. Tell jokes. Show your face.

• Build a repeatable system for audience growth. Use that as a selling point in conversations with potential long-term advertising partners.

Until next time,

Isaac + Kieran ✌️

P.S. When you’re ready to grow your newsletter…

• We’ll do it for you: We help creators, brands and ministries grow their newsletter so they can drive more sales and donations. And we’re fun to work with. If you want us to grow your newsletter for you and are ready to invest at least $2k/month on ads, book a call with us here.