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What One New Newsletter Writer Did to Go from 0 to 5K Subscribers in 100 Days
Using a simple formula
Matt McGarry of growletter.co and newsletteroperator.com experienced fast and sustainable growth after he launched newsletter operator in January 2023.
Here’s how he got from zero to five thousand newsletter subscribers in one hundred days.
Pre-launch promotions
Before his first email went out, he Tweeted and posted about his newsletter on LinkedIn. He says had small audiences, of less than one thousand followers on each platform, and he got 75 subscribers before he sent his first email.
Matt says he got 2,626 high-quality subscribers from Twitter — around half his subscribers. By high quality, he means the subscribers he got from Twitter have high open rates (65%) and high click-through rates (CTR) (27%).
These open rates and click through rates show that the people who signed up after ‘meeting’ Matt on Twitter were REALLY interested in what he had to say.
Good to know:
On Substack, you are not able to see how subscribers from different sources behave. Matt is using Beehiv, a Substack competitor to get these stats.
But hang on a sweet-old minute! I thought you said Matt had less than one thousand followers on Twitter?
When he started his newsletter, in January 2023, he had less than one thousand followers. Six months later, he has more than seven thousand.
He got there by following a simple formula that everyone can copy.
Matt’s Twitter formula
- Write one or two Twitter threads per week;
- Ask people to subscribe at the end of every thread;
- Quote the first Tweet of the thread in the last Tweet of the thread and tell people if they like it to share the first Tweet;
- Write one ‘normal’ Tweet per day;
- Reply to every one of your own Tweets with a plug for your newsletter (“P.S. Check out my free newsletter with deep dives on topics like…” plus a full-preview link to the welcome page)
- Put a clear CTA (call to action) in your bio that tells people to subscribe and includes a link to your newsletter.
Matt’s Twitter bio says: “The Newsletter Guy” | I teach you how to start and grow a newsletter business | Subscribe for growth and monetization guides 👇 Join 7k+ newsletter operators: newsletteroperator.com/subscribe
Note that Matt has included social proof in his bio. He mentions his large subscriber base and includes icons of famous newsletter brands in his cover image.
More Twitter tactics
Other tactics Matt says worked for him on Twitter include:
- offering lead magnets automatically to new followers using auto-DMs. This brought him 150 subscribers.
- Tweeting about forthcoming newsletters before they are sent;
- Consistency (“Twitter growth snowballs, stay consistent” - Matt).
Twitter ads
Matt used Twitter ads to get 987 subscribers out of his first 5000. That’s the second biggest source of subscribers for him in the first few months, but note that it’s only about half the number he got from organic (free) Twitter activity.
He spent $2,724 to get the 987 subscribers and each new subscriber cost him $2.75.
Paid ads are not a subscriber-getting strategy for the faint-hearted. Matt must have been very confident he could successfully monetise those subscribers to justify the expense of getting them.
Before you embark on a paid ad strategy be sure you know what a subscriber is worth to you. That way if an ad campaign is costing more per subscriber than they are worth, you can stop it before you lose too much money.
Referral program
Matt used a referral program where he gave away digital products as rewards to people who introduced a certain number of new subscribers to his newsletter. He got 279 new subscribers this way.
Cross-Promotions in other newsletters
He got 200 new subscribers by cross-promoting with other newsletters in his niche.
Things that did not work
Newsletter ads, and Facebook ads did not work for Matt. He thinks his newsletter might be too niche for Facebook, or perhaps he did not optimise the Facebook ads well.
Summary
It’s possible to start a newsletter with zero subscribers. And it’s possible to grow fast. Matt is living proof of this.
The biggest source of subscribers for Matt in the first few months of his newsletter, in 2023 was from Twitter. Organic (free) Twitter brought him more than 2.5K new subscribers. Paid ads on Twitter got him around 1K new subscribers.
He started with less than one thousand Twitter followers and grew to more than seven thousand followers in six months. He got these new followers by Tweeting daily and by posting threads once or twice per week.
Depending on your niche and your Tweeting skills you might not be able to emulate this creator’s success with Twitter, but I reckon it’s worth a try. One Tweet per day does not take a lot of time or effort. Plus, it’s free and good short-form writing practice too.
Will you give it a try?
Source: https://twitter.com/JMatthewMcGarry/status/1663169072882917377
Hey, have you heard about The Sample? It’s a newsletter aggregator that will show your newsletter posts to new readers. For FREE! If you use my link to sign up, I will be rewarded with more exposure (not money), at no cost/effort to you. Try it: The Sample.
