The vast majority of new clients that discover me these days come through my newsletter–and in this post I’ll describe my newsletter has become such an important driver in my business.
For the past 3 years, my newsletter has done much of the heavy lifting in my business. Whenever I ask new clients how they found me, 9 out of 10 say “your newsletter” (1 out of 10 says either Pinterest or Google). And all of that without being on social media: I’ve not been on social media since October 2021.
I believe that two things contribute to the success of my newsletter: the gentle and minimal way I market my newsletter, and what I write about.
How new clients and customers discover my newsletter
I do fairly minimal marketing for my business. And the marketing I do, feels surprisingly and remarkably spacious.
Newsletter growth is a slow and long game, and it certainly was that for me as well. It took the first three years of my business to get to 250 subscribers. Since then, it’s grown quite rapidly.
When I first started my newsletter, I thought that somehow just setting it up would be enough for people to find it. I see this same thought with many of my clients—in the early stages of our business, we all seem to have a kind of ‘build it and they will come’-mentality.
But potential clients and customers can’t discover your newsletter if they don’t know about it.
So how do you gently and intentionally market your newsletter?
#1 Website
My newsletter is a menu-item at the top of my website, and I use a pop-up as well (a contested tactic but one that feels fine for me). In every single blog post, a sign-up box is included near the top prompting people to sign up.
All of this is very gentle and not pushy—I’m simply making it easy for people to sign up for my newsletter if they want to.
#2 Pinterest and SEO
Since most of my blog posts are old newsletters, and all blog posts are shared to Pinterest, the newsletter itself is also marketed through Pinterest. Blog posts are also great for SEO, making my website and newsletter more easily discoverable through search engines.
#3 A free resource
Whenever people sign up for my free email series “Move your business away from social media” they are also signed up for my newsletter. This email series has been going for years and new people sign up to it every week. It is marketed solely through old blog posts (and thereby SEO) and old Pins. I haven’t put any work into marketing this resource since 2022.
#4 Outreach
In early January 2023 I had a newsletter of just over 250 subscribers. In early February I did a podcast interview with Alice Sheridan of Art Juice and my list exploded. I’ve been on several podcasts over the years, but have never experienced this. I know that this kind of success is something I can’t control. Even if a podcast interview or guest blogpost doesn’t bring in hundreds of new subscribers to your newsletter, outreach like this remains a worthwhile thing to do, especially since both podcast episodes and blog posts keep being rediscovered.
Growing your newsletter in this way is at the heart of my self-led, lifetime access course Small business newsletter magic. It launches for the waitlist only a few times a year, and I’d love to have you on board. 💌
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