As Silicon Valley teaches us on a regular basis, growth is the only decisive factor in the first few months of a startup. Ideally, creators need to develop a strong presence on social media and build a fan base (or community) that they can rely on when they launch their own product. Clio Chang shines a light on the importance of a strong following in her highly informative essay “The Substackerati”. According to the essay, when Substack wants to ascertain whether someone will be successful with a paid newsletter on the platform, it takes the creator's Baschez score (named after formed Substack employee Nathan Baschez), which analyzes the Twitter interactions of an account with its followers, to calculate the chances of success.
In contrast to many of their counterparts in the US, local journalists in Germany tend to only have a minimal following on social media, and some don’t even have a Twitter account. Their product starts from the ground up and first need to grow, grow and grow. Put simply: marketing is key. When researching the creator economy, I discovered that even in 2021, journalists remain apprehensive about promoting their own work. Self-marketing is simply an awkward alien concept to many, which is an issue. Anyone who wants to achieve success as a creator needs to not only vouch for their own product; they need to actively promote it and find ways to encourage others to get the word out. Ideally before the launch. The questions is how?
In an episode of “Was mit Medien” (minute 50:01 onwards), Dani Woytewicz, Format Developer for the WDR content network “funk”, advocates the development of a reach and distribution strategy prior to launch and provides countless handy tips. She advises listeners to identify influencer accounts among the target audience and to use these accounts as multipliers because they find the new product great (seeding). According to Woytewicz, it's best to involve influencers as early as possible when developing a product and ask them for feedback (check out this example from BR). To begin with, they need to be sent enhanced written content and images to optimally get across their message. Influencers could be used for guest posts (which they link to in their own channels), or you could make an appearance in their products and market your product if the target audiences overlap (cross-promotions). Utilize your fan base by asking them to refer your newsletter; this will allow your product both to grow and increase its reach.
It may also be worth contemplating which other forms of media could be useful for the launch of your newsletter. Direct competition from the world of publishing may prove to be a thorn in your side, but it may be worth reaching out to that reporter who works for the public broadcaster that you remain in good contact with. It can also be conducive to consider analog marketing campaigns with stickers, flyers or a promotional stands at events (once COVID-19 subsides). Mull over which local Facebook groups may be interested in your product and which social media accounts you should create to advertise your product.
Unfortunately, there's no such thing as a universal formula for success. I’m currently helping two colleagues get their free newsletter off the ground. Both managed to accumulate a strong subscriber base within a few weeks, but have since only grown at a snail’s pace. If you hit this point, it's time to come up with something new, give it a go and explore new horizons.
Canadian entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson began a fascinating experiment in 2019 by paying journalists to compile top news stories from his hometown Victoria on Vancouver Island in a compact newsletter. He invested 200,000 dollars in Facebook and Instagram ads to get followers. Now, his Capital Daily newsletter boasts over 45,000 readers and, according to his stats, is therefore more successful than The Times Colonist, which has been around for over a century. Ad customers are queuing up to get a feature in his newsletter. Needless to say, the project has already made a profit. (You can follow the entire story in this thread on Twitter.)
You should now have answers to the following questions:
- What is the distribution strategy when the product is launched?
- How do you plan to ensure continuous growth after the launch?