Week 4: Getting Subscribers

I started watching Peaky Blinders for the first time this week. Yes, I know I’m late to the party on this and no, I don’t know why I’ve never watched it before but I am really enjoying it. However, despite being massively distracted by Cillian Murphy, I have been working hard on my experiment so I do have some updates for you.

This week, I’ve been thinking about strategies for getting more subscribers.

I’m four weeks in and currently only have 35 subscribers to this newsletter. Considering 23 of those signed up during my pre-launch, my growth rate isn’t particularly spectacular.

I’ve exhausted the easy options - posting about it on social media. LinkedIn got me a few subscribers. Facebook is a load of shit (I don’t know why I bother).

I also shared a story about it on Medium. It didn’t bring me any new subscribers but it did earn me a whopping $0.12.

I also shared the link on Reddit. That got me two new subscribers - one of which sent me a spammy message on LinkedIn and then unsubscribed. Not helpful!

I did get a couple of new subscribers after someone shared the link in a comment on a LinkedIn post (thanks Lou). The poster was asking for opinions and thoughts on Substack and she signed up for these emails (hi Michelle) after seeing the link. I also got another subscriber around the same time who I am going to assume (although I don’t know for sure) also saw the same comment.

So I am getting subscribers, but they are coming in dribs and drabs. That’s not a problem for me as I’d rather have a list of quality subscribers - people who are genuinely interested in my content - than a list full of people who don’t even open my emails.

However, as part of this experiment, I did promise to do some research into how to attract subscribers so let’s look at some of the options for growing my list.

Social media

I’m currently using LinkedIn and Facebook to promote this publication and The Freelance Fairytale. I’m using Instagram to promote New Brew Thursday. I will continue to promote all three on my socials as it seems silly not to.

Reddit

I only joined Reddit recently (unrelated to this experiment, but why not use it for this too). I need to work out how to use it properly, but I think sharing links to my content where they are relevant to the conversation could be a good way to get a couple of extra subs. I think I’ll also use Reddit to see what kind of questions people are asking and I’ll use that as subjects for my posts.

Blogs and articles/SEO

I have some ideas in mind for blog posts for my websites (Make Your Copy Count and LS Mentoring) that can link back to my publications. I’m also going to continue using Medium to promote them through relevant content.

Paid ads

Paid ads are a popular strategy, but not one I’m going to use right now. They are great if you have a clear sales funnel (I hate that word), but at the minute, I don’t.

I could use ads to get subscribers for The Freelance Fairytale Newsletter to then sell my book, one-to-ones and mentoring programme. But I want to wait until I have a bit more content on there and a clearer strategy.

New Brew Thursday is all free content - I don’t currently offer any paid products. So if I ran paid ads, I’d be paying for people to read my free blog posts and potentially attend my free networking events. I don’t really want to spend money on giving away free stuff that already costs me time to create.

And that leaves this publication. I could pay to generate new subscribers and then offer a range of relevant products such as webinars, guides and so on. I will probably create these types of things going forward, but I’ll try and promote them for free first.

So, in summary, paid ads are a no for now.

Lead magnets

This strategy is more up my street and certainly something that is in my plan. I just need to figure out what content would be attractive enough for each of the platforms.

I did create a guide this week that provides a step-by-step to setting up a beehiiv account from scratch.

At some point, I want to create a PDF guide to setting up, launching and managing an email newsletter. Ideally, I’ll have covered most of the key points in these weekly updates and guides (like the one above and the pricing guide) so it will just be a case of collating the info.

In the meantime, I am open to hearing your suggestions for stuff you would find useful (free or paid). I would be happy to run a live Q&A or webinar on using any of the platforms if there was enough interest.

Anyway, lead magnets are in but I need to create some and then get them in front of people.

Video

I’ve seen a lot of advice saying promo vids are good for getting subscribers as they show the person behind the publication.

I’m happy to make videos and it is something I originally planned to do. Yet again, it’s just been a lack of time that has stopped me doing it so far. But now I’ve got the publications up and running, I should be able to dedicate some time to videos. It’s on the agenda for February.

Referrals and recommendations

This ones on you - if you are enjoying these emails and are finding the content useful, please do tell people.

I got a couple of sign-ups off the back of a LinkedIn comment this week, so it does help. If you don’t feel confident posting on socials, share with any friends or clients who you think might be interested.

And if you have a podcast (or know anyone with a podcast) about marketing or running a small business, I’d love to come on as a guest.

Selling my soul

I’m not talking about literally selling my soul. I’m talking about using dodgy tactics to get subscribers and inflate my numbers. Things like joining engagement pods, subscribing to other newsletters in return for subscribes back, buying email addresses, or scraping emails from LinkedIn and subscribing people without permission.

Yes, people do this.

And stuff like this is what makes me embarrassed to work in the marketing industry.

I have over 4000 followers on LinkedIn. I could get their email addresses and subscribe them to my emails, screenshot the dashboard and tell you how easy it is to get a big following.

But I won’t do that because I’m not an arsehole.

You can rest assured that any results I get through this experiment are genuine and have been achieved through hard work and honest methods.

I might be left poor and exhausted by the end of it but at least my integrity will be intact.

Content marketing is a long-term strategy

I was thinking about this email last night on my run - thinking about what I’d cover. And I was thinking about content marketing in general.

Coincidentally, when I got back I had a notification on my phone from Reddit. It was a notification of a new post and the question being asked was: How do I get to just 10 subscribers on my newsletter?

The poster had just launched a newsletter this week and only had two subscribers. They wanted advice on how to get subscribers.

At the time of reading it, there were only three comments and all three said things along the lines of ‘create great content’, ‘give value’, ‘it takes time’.

It just confirmed what I already know. The way to do content marketing properly is to create valuable, useful or interesting content and be patient.

I might be new to these platforms, but I’m not new to content marketing. I’ve been writing about it, talking about it, and doing it for over ten years.

And in all that time, I have always maintained that content marketing is not a quick fix. There are faster ways to get sales - direct marketing, paid ads, even networking in some cases.

But I love content marketing. I love bringing clients to me by building that trust through content.

So although I might only have 35 subscribers, I’m not worried. I’d rather have 35 people who want to be on my list than 350 who only subscribed so I’d subscribe to their newsletters in return.

Weekly progress report

As has been the case most weeks so far, the majority of my time has been spent on creating content.

A weekly email and post for The Freelance Fairytale, a couple of notes for New Brew Thursday, and the set-up guide and today’s email for this publication.

Next week we’re at the end of the month, so I’ll be sharing a full review of results - costs, subscribers, investment of time, and earnings (spoiler: there are no earnings so far).

Until then, let me know if you have any questions and please do share the link to this publication with anyone who might be interested.

And if you’d like help with your marketing strategy, book a 90 minute session with me for only £150.