Hi Everyone - This has been a big systems building week. Excited to share what we worked on!
This week:
A current status update for the week
What we are using AI for
Abandoning AI ads?
What we are working on
Weekly Update
This week we added 177 subscribers, down 26 from last week. I finally pulled the trigger and moved all our ads to go directly to our website instead of lead forms. In the short term this means less subscribers for the same ad spend, but it also means we can just spend more money on ads (because these subs are net cheaper with our Sparkloop flow)
We finished the “How to grow your business with a newsletter guide” and are finishing up the Linkedin Guide. Our plan is to launch the Linkedin one first (first week of May), and then the how to grow your business with a newsletter in about a month.
Between the guides, new ad creative, and sparkloop, I think there is a real shot that we reduce our net acquisition cost to 0 by the end of May.
Our New Cold Outreach Cheat Code
A friend of mine, Manav, runs a similar play in his world and walked me through it. Warren and I are testing it this week.
The pitch isn't "sponsor our newsletter." It's "we have a free business directory for Austin founders, and we'd love to add you." The directory entry is useful for the business: free distribution to our audience, a backlink, a place to be found. When they sign up, one of the form questions asks whether they'd be interested in sponsoring the newsletter. Around 50% are saying yes or maybe.
That number alone made me sit up. We've been pitching sponsorships directly for months and the response rate has been a fraction of that. The directory reframes the first ask as a gift instead of a request, which changes both who replies and how warm they are when they do.
Two reasons I think this works:
The directory is a real asset. We're not using it as a Trojan horse, it's free SEO and marketing for the businesses listed, and a reason for readers to come back to the site. Growing it is a win on its own, sponsorships or not.
The sponsor question lands when they've already raised their hand. By the time they see it, they've decided we're a useful entity in their world. That's a very different starting position than a cold pitch.
This is also a low touch way to get them to subscribe and engage with our content. The business directory already has over 60 businesses, so there is really strong social proof as well.
Meta Ads Update (Direct to Website)
The only thing I really changed with our ads was that I started sending all of them to our website directly instead of using lead forms. We are getting consistent CPA, so I’ve been focusing on monetization over lowering cost.
Still, it is about time I start exploring some varied ad strategies. I got a ton of new ideas from this video, I’m going to plan them out this week: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePcEcT2PH8E
Next Week’s Initiatives
What we're working through this week:
Finding the best way to source emails at scale. Open to suggestions if you've solved this one.
Running the same play on LinkedIn and Instagram, since cold outbound on those channels has different mechanics than email.
Tracking response rate carefully so we have a real number to compare against direct sponsor outreach. More on that next week once we have a full week of data.
Thanks for reading. Feel free to respond to this email with any advice or questions!
Until next week,
Ken