By Silvana Ordoñez, Bulletin Strategic Partner Manager
Our “Master Class” series dives into masterful newsletter-building strategies that are working for writers on Bulletin, Meta’s newsletter platform for independent writers. Discover fresh voices and tune into new conversations at Bulletin.com.
The audience development funnel shown below is a framework for Bulletin writers to understand the path to someone buying a newsletter subscription in 4 stages.
First, a Bulletin writer finds an audience and raises awareness about their newsletter; second, they can deepen their relationship with readers and build loyalty on social media; third, they convert social followers into free newsletter subscribers; and finally, they monetize and turn free subscribers into paying premium subscribers. It’s a cyclical process — Bulletin writers can be focusing on different parts of the funnel at the same time.
Here’s how 5 Bulletin writers have mastered each funnel stage.
Dana James, a local journalist and a leader in Iowa’s news industry and Black communities, writes the Inside Black Iowa newsletter. She shared how she harnesses every surface across Facebook and Instagram to continue finding new readers. “It's really great to be on a platform like Bulletin with all of these tools that help you get more eyes on your content,” she says. “From the start, you have to embrace all of what social media can bring to you.”
Nonfiction writer and memoirist Julie Lythcott-Haims, author of the Julie’s Pod newsletter, likes and replies to every comment, good or bad, both on her Bulletin and on social media. “You build loyalty by showing people that you've noticed them,” she says, “I want people to know that I actually do care about them and what they think.”
Chef Nik Sharma, author of This Is A Cook-Letter, grew his free newsletter subscriber base 25% in just six weeks.* One trick he employs is posting a single newsletter multiple times, in different ways, across social media. Learn the smart way he thinks about crafting Facebook versus Instagram posts, stories and videos.
Acclaimed poet Andrea Gibson, author of the Things That Don’t Suck newsletter, saw an average 6% jump in premium subscribers in just 1 day,** three separate times, after crafting a specific kind of social post encouraging people to subscribe. Learn how Gibson thinks about monetization end to end, from launch to promotion to what kind of content is free versus paid.
Paul Lukas writes Uni Watch, the sports world’s only column devoted to uniform design. Learn how he generated an immediate jump in premium subscribers after announcing his newsletter would go behind a paywall at 100% (no free articles).
Discover more Bulletin writers’ newsletters on bulletin.com.
*Nik Sharma saw a 25% increase in free subscriptions during a six-week growth sprint. Source: Creator Studio from October 15 to November 30, 2021.
**Andrea Gibson saw 6% average growth in premium subscribers in one day. Source: Internal Meta data, October to December 2021.
