From this week, Make&Market looks slightly different. You'll receive two every week. 

Monday: A step-by-step growth tactic you can start working on this week.

Thursday: 5 short and sweet resources/links to give you the inspiration you need for the rest of the week

How does that sound?

/Jens

PS. Did someone share this email with you? Sign up here to get the next one!

Before we start, I want to share one amazing newsletter:

💌 No-Code Exits by Katt Risen

It features real stories from profitable or acquired projects made with No-Code. Over 5000 subscribers learn in a weekly interview how No-Code makers went from 0 to $ by building and growing their products without code. 

Sign up for free here!

The first time after launching a newsletter can be challenging. Before word-of-mouth and organic growth take off, it might feel as if you are sending into a void. 

By teaming up with other newsletter owners, you can grow by talking about each other's newsletters.

The cross-promotion works best when you both have audiences that have similar interests.

• Find newsletters (tools and resources below) with similar audiences.
• Reach out to the owners with your offer.
• Track your progress

"Once you have a few editions published —OR— a quality lead magnet, try to do a bit of cross-promotion w/ other newsletters"

- Dylan Redekop, Growth Currency

• Josh Spector ran a cross-promo in For The Interested and sent 1200 people to their sign-up page (250+ subscribed).
• Emanuel Cinca started running cross-promotions when Stacked Marketer crossed 2000 subscribers. Out of the 50k they have now, between 4000-8000 are from cross-promotions.
• Dylan added the "GC Newsletter of the Week" to his Growth Currency newsletter and is doing weekly swaps. This is one of the reasons he recently hit 3k subscribers.
• Greg Bussman got 30% of his subscribers from swaps with other newsletters.
• Lenny Rachitsky is getting 78% of his new subscribers from Substack's referral feature.

"You get exposed to a very similar audience (and recommended by a trusted source, the author. You build a relationship with the other creator" - Alex LLull, The Steal Club

“At the very beginning, shoutouts and paid/cross-promos were the core. Those strategies can generate 50-200 new subscribers very quickly, and when you start from nothing, that’s a big increase.”
- Emanuel Cinca, Stacked Marketer 

"Find someone with a similar audience as yours and see if it's a match.

• How big is their list?
• Who are their subscribers? What are they interested in learning?
• What's the format of their newsletter?"

- Jason Resnick, Evergreen

"I like to schedule one every week and have really low expectations. That way, if I get a few subscribers, it’s a win, but I’m not relying on them as my main promotional strategy. Unexpected relationships often form out of just connecting with other creators around a shared goal."
- Chenell Basilio, Growth In Reverse

• Not tracking the results. There's no one-size-fits-all. Make sure you track the return for each cross-promotion. That way you know if it is worth repeating a few months later!
• Not using UTM tags. By adding a simple UTM tag on the link to your opt-in page, you'll be able to see the exact number of subscribers from each collaboration.
• Once you go over 10,000 subs, swaps seem to be a time sink and not scalable.

• Organize your cross-promotions with this free Notion template.
• Lettergrowth is a fast and simple way to find and connect with newsletter owners open for cross-promotion.
• Sparkloop's Ubscribe is a cross-promotion tool that works with all major newsletter platforms. 
• Collab Match currently has 200+ newsletters in their database, open for swaps.
• Refind offers a 1-for-1; you send them one, and they send you one.
• Post on Indie Hackers. Katt Risen posted asking for others interested in Swaps and received dozens of replies. 
• Discover amazing newsletter at Inbox Stash
  
• InboxReads: Email newsletters for any topic.

• Cross-promo email template from Dan at TLDR.
• The subreddit r/tech_newsletter opened a thread for connecting other newsletter operators.
• How to make 6 figures with an email newsletter.
• The Newsletter Blueprint: a vibrant community for newsletter owners.
• Newsletter Swaps, A Powerful Way To Grow Your Audience

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Hit reply and we'll talk!