How to Start a Newsletter (Step-by-Step Guide)

Why a Newsletter Is Still the Best Asset You Can Build

Social media algorithms change. Ad costs go up. Platforms die. Your email list is the one thing nobody can take from you.

I've built personal brand channels across YouTube, cold email, and content - and my newsletter has consistently been the highest-converting channel I own. When I send an issue, it lands directly in someone's inbox. No algorithm deciding whether 3% or 30% of my audience sees it. That ownership is worth more than any follower count.

The numbers back this up. There are over 4.4 billion email users globally today - that's more than half the world's population. Email marketing consistently returns around $36 for every $1 spent. And unlike any social platform you're renting space on, a newsletter subscriber gave you their direct contact information and said: yes, I want to hear from you.

If you're an entrepreneur, agency owner, consultant, or creator and you don't have a newsletter, you're building on rented land. Here's how to fix that - step by step.

Before You Do Anything: Should You Start a Newsletter?

Short answer: yes, if you have something consistent to say to a defined audience. But the longer answer is worth sitting with for five minutes before you pick a platform and start uploading your logo.

A newsletter only makes sense if you're willing to treat it like a recurring commitment, not a one-time project. The people who fail with newsletters either start too broad (writing for everyone, reaching no one) or start with energy and stop three issues in when the list is still small. Both failures are avoidable if you're honest with yourself upfront.

Ask yourself: Do I have a genuine point of view on a specific topic? Do I interact with people who keep asking me the same questions? Do I have the discipline to send something on a consistent schedule even when nobody is watching yet? If the answers are yes, you're ready. If you're just starting a newsletter because everyone says you should, you'll quit. The newsletters that make it to 1,000 subscribers - and beyond - are run by people who actually care about the topic.

One more thing: your newsletter doesn't need to be polished to be valuable. The best newsletters I've seen are often the ones that feel like a direct message from someone who actually knows what they're talking about - not a corporate bulletin. Personality and specificity beat production quality every time.

Step 1: Get Brutally Specific on Your Niche and Promise

The number one mistake people make when starting a newsletter is being too broad. "Marketing tips for business owners" is not a niche. Nobody gets excited about that. Nobody forwards that to a friend.

The newsletters that grow fast own a narrow category. They serve a specific person with a specific problem. Before you pick a platform, pick a lane. Ask yourself:

• Who exactly am I writing for? (Job title, industry, stage of business)
• What is the one problem I help them solve or insight I give them?
• What can I write about that nobody else can - because of my experience, access, or perspective?

Write a one-sentence mission for your newsletter before you do anything else. Something like: "Weekly cold email tactics for B2B agency owners trying to book more demos." That sentence will guide every issue you write, every subject line you test, and every subscriber you try to attract.

If you're not sure your niche has an audience, look at what you already get asked about. What do people DM you? What do your clients keep asking? That's your newsletter topic.

Specificity is also what makes your newsletter shareable. When someone reads your newsletter and thinks "this is exactly for someone like me," they forward it to three other people exactly like them. That's organic growth you can't buy. "General business advice" newsletters don't get forwarded. "The one newsletter for SaaS founders trying to break $1M ARR" does.

Step 2: Choose the Right Platform (And Stop Overthinking It)

This is where most people stall. They spend three weeks researching platforms and never send a single issue. Don't do that. Here's the honest breakdown:

Beehiiv - Best for Growth-Focused Creators

If your goal is to build an audience and eventually monetize through ads, paid subscriptions, or referral programs, Beehiiv is the strongest option right now. It was built by early Morning Brew employees who scaled that newsletter to millions of subscribers - they designed it for exactly this use case. The free plan supports up to 2,500 subscribers with unlimited sends, and it includes a built-in referral program and recommendation network that function as a growth engine from day one. When you're ready to scale, paid plans unlock ad network access, custom domains, and more.

Kit (formerly ConvertKit) - Best for Creators Selling Products

Kit is the better choice if your newsletter is part of a larger business where you're selling courses, coaching, or digital products. The automation is more powerful than Beehiiv's, and the free plan is remarkably generous - it supports up to 10,000 subscribers with unlimited landing pages. Paid plans start at $25/month for 1,000 subscribers. The trade-off on the free plan is that Kit shows recommendations for other newsletters at signup, which some people find distracting.

AWeber - Best for Deliverability-First Operators

AWeber has been in the email game for over 20 years and has a strong reputation for inbox placement. If you're running a business newsletter where deliverability is paramount - and you don't need all the growth bells and whistles - AWeber is a solid, reliable pick. The free tier supports up to 500 subscribers.

Substack - Only If You Want Their Network

Substack is free to use but takes a 10% cut of paid subscription revenue. The main advantage is discoverability within Substack's own ecosystem. The main disadvantage is you have limited control over design, automation, and monetization. Use it if you want the simplest possible setup and you're willing to trade revenue share for built-in distribution. Don't use it if you want to own your data and monetization fully.

Mailchimp - Best Known, Not Always Best

Mailchimp is the household name in email marketing and is often recommended for beginners because it's free up to a certain subscriber count and widely familiar. It's user-friendly and has decent templates. The downside is that it's built more for e-commerce marketing than for creator newsletters - the growth-specific features that Beehiiv or Kit offer don't really exist here. If you're already in the Mailchimp ecosystem for another reason, staying put is fine. But if you're starting fresh for a personal brand newsletter, there are better options.

Ghost - Best for the Publication Model

Ghost is worth mentioning if you want your newsletter to live inside a full publication - think blog plus newsletter in one. It's open-source, highly customizable, and takes a smaller cut of paid subscriptions than Substack (just a transaction fee). The downside: it's more technical to set up, and if you host it yourself, you're responsible for maintenance. Ghost-managed hosting removes that burden but adds a monthly cost. Best for people building something that looks and feels like an independent media outlet.

My honest recommendation: If you're starting from zero and want to grow an audience, go Beehiiv. If you're a business owner attaching a newsletter to a product or service funnel, go Kit.

Step 3: Set Up Your Subscribe Page and Lead Magnet

Once you pick a platform, your first job is giving people a reason to subscribe. "Get my newsletter" is not a reason. You need a clear value proposition on your subscribe page - ideally one that answers three questions in under 10 seconds:

• What will I learn or get?
• How often will you send?
• Who else is reading this? (social proof)

The fastest way to jumpstart signups is a lead magnet - a free, specific, immediately useful resource that someone gets in exchange for their email. Think templates, checklists, swipe files, calculators. Not a 40-page ebook nobody reads. Something you can use in five minutes.

On this site, I give away proven resources like killer cold email templates and subject line formulas that I've tested myself. Those lead magnets convert because they're specific, immediately actionable, and tied to what the reader is already trying to do.

Don't skip this step. A great lead magnet can double or triple your opt-in rate. The logic is simple: you're asking someone to give you access to their inbox - arguably the most valuable piece of digital real estate they own. You need to give them something tangible in return, not just a promise of future value.

What makes a great lead magnet? Three criteria: (1) It solves one specific, immediate problem. (2) It delivers value within five minutes of downloading. (3) It's directly aligned with what your newsletter is about - so the people who grab it are exactly the people who should be on your list. A checklist that attracts the wrong audience is worse than no lead magnet at all, because you'll end up with low engagement and high unsubscribe rates.

Step 4: Write Your Welcome Email Sequence First

Most people set up their platform, grab their first few subscribers, and then scramble to write the actual newsletter. Don't do it in that order. Write your welcome sequence before you launch.

Here's why this matters: welcome emails have the highest open rates of any email you'll ever send. Research consistently shows welcome emails achieving open rates around 50% or higher - that's dramatically higher than your average newsletter issue will ever get. The moment someone subscribes, their attention is at its peak. That window doesn't last long.

Your welcome sequence should accomplish four things:

• Deliver the lead magnet immediately - Send whatever you promised at the moment they sign up. Delays here create a terrible first impression and hurt your deliverability when people mark you as spam because they forgot they signed up.
• Set expectations clearly - Tell them what they're going to get, how often, and why it's worth reading. This is not a sales pitch. It's a handshake.
• Ask a question - Replies are gold for your sender reputation. Ask something specific: "What's the biggest challenge you're dealing with right now in [topic]?" People who reply once are more likely to open every future issue.
• Point them to your best content - Link to your two or three most useful existing articles, videos, or resources. Get them to take action immediately and they're more likely to stick around.

A three-email welcome sequence spaced over the first week is a solid starting point. Email one goes out immediately with the lead magnet. Email two goes out two or three days later with a deeper piece of your best content. Email three goes out on day seven with a direct invitation to reply and tell you what they want to learn more about. That's it. Simple, personal, effective.

One tactical note: make your welcome emails look slightly different from your regular newsletter issues. This helps new subscribers understand the cadence and what to expect, and it reduces the confusion of receiving multiple emails in a short window.

Step 5: Write and Send Your First Three Issues

Here's the thing most people won't tell you: your first issue will be mediocre. That's fine. The goal is to ship it anyway.

A strong newsletter issue has three components:

• One clear insight or idea - not five. Not ten. One thing you can go deep on.
• A concrete example or story - abstract advice doesn't stick. Real examples do.
• A clear next step or CTA - what do you want the reader to do after reading?

Keep your first issues tight. 400-600 words is plenty. You're training your readers to open your emails, not testing their endurance. Use plain language. Write like you're talking to one person, not broadcasting to a crowd.

For subject lines, specific beats clever every time. "5 cold email frameworks that booked us 200 meetings" will always outperform "This week's roundup." Research on subject line length backs this up - shorter subject lines under 20 characters tend to outperform longer ones. Get to the point fast. If you want a deeper breakdown of what makes a great subject line, grab my cold email subject line guide - the principles apply directly to newsletter subject lines too.

Set a schedule and stick to it. Consistency builds trust. Don't send when inspired - send on a cadence your readers can predict. Weekly or bi-weekly is the sweet spot for most newsletters. Monthly is too infrequent to build a habit. Daily is too demanding unless you're a media company with a dedicated content team.

One more thing about the actual writing: don't try to be someone else. The newsletters that develop cult audiences are almost always deeply personal. They have a specific voice, a specific worldview, and a specific set of opinions. If your newsletter reads like it could have been written by anyone, it'll be read by no one. Your experience and perspective are the product. Lean into them.

Step 6: Nail Your Email Deliverability From the Start

Most newsletter guides skip this section entirely. That's a mistake that will haunt you later. Deliverability is the difference between your emails landing in someone's inbox versus disappearing into their spam folder - and once your sender reputation is damaged, it's much harder to repair than maintain.

Here's what actually matters for deliverability when you're starting out:

Authenticate Your Domain Properly

Before you send a single issue, make sure your email platform has helped you set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your sending domain. These are DNS records that verify you are who you say you are - they prove to Gmail, Yahoo, and other inbox providers that you're a legitimate sender, not a spammer. Every reputable platform (Beehiiv, Kit, AWeber) walks you through this setup. Don't skip it. Inbox providers now require proper authentication for bulk senders - it's not optional.

Use a Custom Domain

Sending from a Gmail or Hotmail address signals that you're an amateur and tanks your deliverability. Get a custom domain for your newsletter - it's a few dollars a month and dramatically improves how inbox providers perceive you. Send from yourname@yourdomain.com, not yourname@gmail.com.

Don't Buy or Scrape Your Initial List

This should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: your list must be 100% opt-in. Every person on it should have explicitly chosen to receive your emails. Purchased lists are full of spam traps and disengaged addresses - sending to them will get your domain blacklisted before your newsletter even finds its footing. Build your list the right way: through your subscribe page, lead magnets, and personal outreach.

Keep Your List Clean

Regularly removing unengaged subscribers is counterintuitive advice for someone trying to grow, but it's correct. Inbox providers track engagement signals - opens, clicks, replies. If a large percentage of your list never engages with your emails, that hurts your sender reputation and reduces inbox placement for everyone, including your engaged subscribers. A smaller, highly engaged list will always outperform a large, disengaged one. Consider running a re-engagement campaign every six months and removing subscribers who don't respond.

If you want to verify email addresses before importing a list you've collected elsewhere, a tool like ScraperCity's email validator can clean your list and reduce bounce rates before you send.

Ask Subscribers to Add You to Their Contacts

In your welcome email, include a simple line asking new subscribers to add your sending email address to their contacts. This one action moves your emails out of the Promotions tab and into Primary on Gmail - a massive deliverability upgrade that you can't achieve any other way. Most people will do it if you ask and tell them why it matters.

Step 7: Build Your Initial Subscriber List

Waiting for subscribers to find you organically from day one is a losing strategy. You need to actively seed your list. Here's what works:

Your Existing Network

The fastest path to your first 100 subscribers is your existing contacts. Go through your phone contacts, LinkedIn connections, and email history. Message people personally who would genuinely benefit from your newsletter - not a mass blast, actual individual messages. This alone can get you to 50-100 readers in a week. Don't spam your entire address book. Reach out personally to people who would actually find it useful, and let them opt in at a link rather than adding them without permission.

Social Media Cross-Promotion

Pick one platform where your audience already hangs out and post consistently about the topics your newsletter covers. Every post should have a call to subscribe somewhere - in the post, in your bio, in the comments. LinkedIn works exceptionally well for B2B newsletters. Twitter/X works well for tech and creator audiences. Don't try to be everywhere at once - own one channel first.

Newsletter Cross-Promotions

Find newsletters in adjacent niches with similar subscriber counts and propose a swap - you promote their newsletter to your list, they promote yours to theirs. This is one of the highest-quality growth channels because the subscribers you get are pre-qualified: they already read newsletters in your space. Beehiiv's Boosts marketplace makes this easy if you're on that platform. The subscribers who come in through cross-promotions are often more engaged than those from paid ads, because they were already newsletter readers before they found you.

Lead Magnet + SEO

Over time, the most scalable way to grow is content that ranks in search. Write articles that answer specific questions your ideal subscribers are already Googling. Put opt-in forms in those articles. This compounds - a post you write today keeps driving subscribers for years. The lead magnet strategy I described earlier is what turns casual blog readers into actual subscribers. Without a compelling reason to subscribe, most visitors will read your article and leave.

YouTube and Podcast Sponsorships

If you have budget, sponsoring a creator in your niche to mention your newsletter is one of the fastest ways to add hundreds of subscribers quickly. Find smaller creators with engaged audiences in your niche - their rates are lower and their audiences are often more targeted than large channels. A mention at the right moment from a trusted voice in your space can add more subscribers in a week than months of organic posting.

Cold Outreach

This one is underrated for B2B newsletters. If your newsletter serves a specific professional audience - agency owners, SaaS founders, real estate investors - you can reach out directly to people who fit the profile. Not a spray-and-pray blast, but targeted, personalized outreach to people who would genuinely benefit from what you're writing. I've built my outbound playbook around this exact approach. Grab my cold email templates and adapt them for newsletter outreach - the structure is the same.

If you're doing B2B outreach to build your newsletter list and need to find contact information for specific types of prospects, a B2B email database can help you identify and reach your target audience directly.

Referral Programs

Once you have at least a few hundred engaged subscribers, a referral program can supercharge your growth. The logic: your best readers probably know more people like themselves. Give them an easy way to share your newsletter - and optionally, an incentive (a free resource, exclusive content, recognition) for referrals who subscribe. Beehiiv has a built-in referral program. Kit's SparkLoop integration does the same thing. The viral coefficient of a good referral program is genuinely powerful once you have a base of engaged readers.

Step 8: Write Newsletter Issues That People Actually Read

Growing a list is one challenge. Getting people to actually open and read your emails consistently is another. Here's what separates newsletters with 40%+ open rates from the ones that get ignored:

Write for One Person

Every great newsletter is written for a specific individual, not a crowd. I don't mean a vague "avatar" - I mean picture an actual person you know who represents your ideal reader, and write directly to them. When you write for everyone, you write for no one. When you write for one person, everyone who fits that profile feels like you're reading their mind.

Lead With the Payoff, Not the Setup

Your opening sentence needs to earn the reader's attention immediately. Don't warm up, don't explain what you're about to say - just say it. The first line of your newsletter is competing with every other email in that person's inbox. If you start with "Hi everyone, this week has been crazy..." you've already lost. Start with the most interesting thing you have to say.

One Idea Per Issue

Newsletters that try to cover ten things in one issue leave the reader with nothing. You're not a news aggregator (unless that's explicitly your format). The issues that get forwarded, replied to, and remembered are the ones where the writer went deep on one thing and made it undeniably useful or insightful. Give me one idea I can use today, and I'll open your next email the moment it arrives.

Mix Content Formats

Even within a single-topic newsletter, varying your format keeps things fresh. Some issues can be a long-form essay. Others can be a numbered list. Others can be a quick story with a lesson attached. The best newsletters develop a recognizable structure - a consistent format that readers come to expect - while still mixing things up enough to stay interesting.

Use the Preheader Text

Most newsletter creators ignore their preheader text - that short snippet of copy that appears next to your subject line in the inbox. It's essentially a second subject line. Use it to extend the intrigue of your subject line or add a specific hook. It's a free open-rate boost that almost nobody takes advantage of.

End With a Clear CTA and a Question

Every issue should end with a direction. What do you want the reader to do? Click a link, reply to your question, share the issue with a friend, check out a resource? Pick one. Multiple CTAs at the end of an issue dilute the action rate. And always end with a question - something easy to answer that invites a reply. Those replies are your most valuable signal, and they do wonders for your deliverability by training inbox providers that your emails generate real human engagement.

Step 9: Monetize (Once You Have an Audience)

Don't think about monetization before you have readers. But once you're past 1,000-2,000 engaged subscribers, you have real options:

• Sponsorships: Brands pay to reach your audience. $20-$50 CPM (cost per thousand subscribers) is a reasonable starting range for B2B newsletters. As your list grows and your niche tightens, that number can go significantly higher.
• Paid subscription tier: Offer premium content, community access, or exclusive resources to subscribers who pay monthly. Substack, Beehiiv, and Ghost all have built-in paid subscription support.
• Your own products and services: A newsletter is a trust-building machine. The readers who open every issue are primed to buy your course, your coaching, your software. This is by far the highest-margin monetization path - you're not sharing revenue with anyone.
• Referral revenue: Both Beehiiv and Kit have built-in ad networks where you earn money by recommending other newsletters to your readers. This works best when the newsletters you promote are genuinely relevant to your audience.
• Affiliate marketing: If you recommend tools and products your readers already want to buy, affiliate links are a natural fit. The key is recommending things you actually use - readers can tell when a recommendation is genuine versus transactional.

The newsletter I run converts readers into customers for my other businesses more efficiently than any other channel. If you're an agency owner or consultant, a newsletter that teaches your ideal clients is one of the highest-leverage things you can build. I cover newsletter strategy as part of a broader outbound and personal brand system inside Galadon Gold if you want to work through it with direct feedback.

Step 10: Track the Right Metrics

Most people obsess over subscriber count. That's a vanity metric. What actually matters:

• Open rate: Newsletter open rates vary significantly depending on your platform and audience. On Beehiiv, the network average sits around 37-38%. If you're below 20%, your subject lines or sender reputation need work. If you're above 45%, you're doing well. Note that Apple's Mail Privacy Protection has inflated open rate numbers across the board since it began pre-loading email images - so use open rate as a directional signal, not an absolute truth.
• Click rate: If you include links, what percentage of readers click? The industry average hovers around 2%, but a highly engaged niche newsletter should be doing better than that. This is the cleaner metric post-Apple Privacy changes because it requires actual human action.
• Reply rate: Ask a question at the end of your issues and see how many people respond. Replies are the best signal of genuine engagement - and they improve your deliverability because they tell inbox providers your emails generate real conversations.
• Unsubscribe rate per issue: If a specific issue spikes unsubscribes, that's a signal about what your audience doesn't want. Average unsubscribe rates sit around 0.2% per send. Consistently higher than that means something is off with your content, frequency, or audience fit.
• List growth rate: How fast is your list growing week over week? Track this in absolute numbers and percentage terms. Flat growth means your acquisition channels need work.
• Revenue per subscriber: Once you're monetizing, this is the number that actually tells you how valuable your list is. A 5,000-person list where every subscriber is worth $5/year in revenue is far more valuable than a 20,000-person list where nobody buys anything.

Track these in a simple spreadsheet. I have a tracking sheet template built for outbound sequences that you can adapt for newsletter performance tracking - same principles apply.

Common Newsletter Mistakes to Avoid

I've watched a lot of people start newsletters over the years. The failure patterns are consistent. Here's what kills newsletters before they ever find their stride:

Waiting Until It's Perfect

This is the biggest one. People spend months on design, platform comparisons, and naming before they send a single issue. Your first email doesn't need to be great. It needs to exist. Ship it, learn from the feedback, improve issue two. The only way to get good at writing newsletters is to write newsletters.

Starting With Paid Ads Too Early

I see people dumping money into Facebook ads or Beehiiv Boosts before they've proven their content works organically. If your newsletter doesn't have a strong open rate and reply rate from people who already know you, paid subscribers won't fix that - they'll make it worse. Prove out your content first with your own network, then scale acquisition.

Inconsistency

Missing your send cadence is a trust killer. Subscribers develop habits around the newsletters they read. If you disappear for three weeks, you've broken the habit. You don't need to send every day - but you need to send on a predictable schedule. Set a cadence you can sustain even in your busiest weeks, not the one that sounds impressive.

Writing for Other Newsletter Writers

This is subtle but common. You start reading a lot of newsletters as research, and slowly your newsletter starts writing for the meta-audience of "people interested in newsletters" instead of your actual target reader. Stay anchored to the mission statement you wrote in step one. Every issue should serve that specific person with that specific problem.

Ignoring the Reply Signals

When subscribers reply to your emails, those messages are the most valuable feedback you'll ever get. They tell you exactly what's resonating, what's confusing, and what they want more of. I've written entire issue series based on a single reply that mentioned a problem I hadn't thought to address. Read every reply. Respond to them. Use them to improve your next issue.

Trying to Go Viral Too Early

Some newsletter operators spend more time on growth hacks than on making their content worth reading. Growth without retention is a leaky bucket. Focus on making your first 200 subscribers genuinely love the newsletter. That's what creates word-of-mouth, referrals, and a growing reputation in your niche. Viral distribution built on mediocre content just means you'll have a big list that doesn't open your emails.

What Great Newsletter Content Actually Looks Like (With Examples)

Theory is fine, but it helps to get concrete. Here are the types of newsletter issues that consistently perform well across niches:

The Contrarian Take

Pick a commonly held belief in your space and argue against it - convincingly, with evidence. These issues get shared because they make people think. "Why your open rate doesn't matter anymore" or "Why posting more on LinkedIn isn't the answer" are examples. The key is backing up the contrarian position with real reasoning, not just being edgy for clicks.

The Behind-the-Scenes Breakdown

Show your readers something from the inside. A campaign that worked. A decision you made and why. A failure and what you learned. This is the content that builds genuine trust because it's the kind of thing people don't share publicly. When you're willing to show your real process - including the mistakes - readers feel like they're getting access to something most people don't see.

The Tactical Deep Dive

Pick one specific tactic or framework and go deep. Not "here are 20 growth tips" but "here is exactly how I set up my cold email sequence to book 200 meetings in 90 days, with every step explained." Depth beats breadth every time for newsletters. The more specific and actionable, the more the right people will share it with other people exactly like them.

The Curated List With Commentary

Pick five or ten things - articles, tools, frameworks, examples - and share them with your genuine opinion on each. Not a link dump. Your take is what makes it worth reading. "Here are 5 tools I actually use for prospecting and why" is dramatically more valuable than "here are 20 tools for prospecting." The curation is the commodity. The opinion is the value.

The Story With a Lesson

Narrative is the oldest and most effective teaching format. Tell a story - something that happened to you, a client, or someone in your space - and extract a lesson. People remember stories when they forget frameworks. A story about a deal that almost died and how you saved it teaches sales principles better than any listicle.

How to Use Your Newsletter as a B2B Sales Asset

If you're an agency owner, consultant, or service provider, your newsletter is more than just a content channel. It's one of the most powerful pre-sales tools in your arsenal.

Here's the dynamic: when a prospect receives your newsletter every week and finds it genuinely useful, they've already decided you know what you're talking about before they ever get on a call with you. The sales conversation is completely different. Instead of spending 20 minutes establishing credibility, you can spend 20 minutes diagnosing their specific problem. The trust is already there.

This is why I tell every agency owner to include their newsletter link in their cold email signature and LinkedIn bio. When someone receives a cold email from you and checks out your newsletter before responding, your reply rate goes up. The newsletter is doing credibility-building work 24 hours a day without you doing anything.

To make the most of this, make sure you're sending your newsletter to the same audience you're prospecting into. If you do cold outreach to SaaS companies, your newsletter should teach SaaS growth. If you prospect into e-commerce brands, your newsletter should address e-commerce challenges. The alignment between what you teach and what you sell is what makes the channel compound over time.

If you need to build a targeted prospect list to seed your newsletter outreach, you can filter by industry, job title, and company size using a B2B lead database - I use this lead database tool to pull targeted lists for outbound campaigns. When it comes to cold email follow-up templates for your outreach, grab my cold email follow-up templates - the same follow-up principles apply whether you're following up on a sales email or driving newsletter subscriptions.

Newsletter Growth Benchmarks: What to Expect at Each Stage

Growth is rarely linear, and most people underestimate how slow the early stage is - and how fast things can move once momentum builds. Here's a realistic picture of what different subscriber milestones look like:

0-100 Subscribers: The Seeding Stage

This is the hardest phase psychologically, not technically. You're mostly writing for people you already know. Your open rates will be high - 60%+ is normal - because everyone on your list at this stage actually knows you. Use this phase to figure out what content gets the most replies and engagement. Don't judge your newsletter's potential by the subscriber count yet.

100-500 Subscribers: The Proof Stage

Now you have a mix of people who know you and strangers who found you through other channels. Your content needs to stand on its own without the familiarity advantage. If you're seeing strong engagement from this colder audience, your content is genuinely working. This is the stage to double down on your best-performing content types and topics.

500-2,000 Subscribers: The Momentum Stage

Things start compounding here. You're starting to get organic referrals from existing subscribers. Some of your articles are ranking in search and sending a trickle of new subscribers consistently. Cross-promotions with other newsletters become worth doing. Your newsletter is starting to develop a reputation in your niche. This is when sponsorship conversations start to become viable.

2,000+ Subscribers: The Asset Stage

At 2,000+ engaged subscribers, your newsletter is a real asset - one that drives leads, generates revenue, and builds your brand with compounding returns. Sponsorships are easy to sell. Paid subscribers are converting. Your most loyal readers are buying your products and services. And every issue you send creates more of the above. This is where the investment starts paying off in ways you can quantify.

The Most Important Thing: Send the First Issue

Every week I talk to people who have been "almost ready to launch" their newsletter for six months. They're still picking fonts. Still debating platforms. Still waiting for the perfect topic.

Here's the truth: the only difference between a newsletter that exists and one that doesn't is whether you hit send. Your first issue doesn't need to be great. It needs to exist. Send it to 20 people. Get their feedback. Improve issue two. That's the whole game.

The compounding value of a newsletter - in audience trust, inbound leads, and monetization optionality - only starts accumulating once you actually start. Pick a platform today. Write 400 words. Send it to everyone in your network who would care. That's how you start a newsletter.

The data supports the urgency too. The newsletter economy has been growing fast - and competition for attention in any niche increases over time. The newsletter you start today in a relatively open niche will be harder to establish in two years. The best time to start was last year. The second best time is now.