How I’m growing my email list to 100,000 subscribers this year

DEEP DIVE

This month my newsletter passed 54,000 subscribers. More importantly, the business is growing revenue and profit faster than ever and most customers come from email.

Today I’ll break down:

• How I got here

• How I plan to grow my list to 100k+

• Why your total subscriber number doesn't matter

• What you can learn my experience publishing 117 newsletters and spending $150k+ to grow my email list

How I grew my list to 50,000+

Here is where my email subscribers have from from in the past 12 months:

• Meta ads for newsletter: ~32,500

• Meta ads for webinar registrations: ~9,000

• Website direct traffic: ~10,000

• Google organic traffic: ~2,000

• Beehiiv boosts: ~1,500

• Twitter organic: ~1,110

• YouTube: ~900

• LinkedIn: ~300

These acquisition sources are almost entirely different from the ones I used to get my first 10,000 subscribers.

My first 10,000 subscribers came from:

• Twitter organic: 4,219

• Twitter ads: 2,921

• Website direct: 1,333

• Google organic: 548

• Beehiiv boosts: 367

• Referral: 346

• Other: 2,617

Here’s what changed:

Twitter is dead for growth.

In 2023 when I hit 10,000 subscribers, Twitter (now X) was a reliable source of organic growth. That’s completely changed. Now most people see a fraction of the reach they had on the platform.

There are some exceptions but Twitter/X is mostly dead if you want grow your email list. The golden years were 2020-2023.

It sucks for list growth now. But I’m glad I was able to get ~10,000 subscribers from Twitter before reach fell off a cliff.

Everyone moved to LinkedIn, including me.

I have about 11,000 LinkedIn followers. It’s been a good channel for acquiring agency clients but it’s not as good as Twitter was for list growth.

The dynamics of the platform make it hard to get people to click a link.

My analytics say ~300 subscribers have come from LinkedIn.

I expect that number is actually closer to 1000-2000 because people discover me on LinkedIn then find my website or google me.

I could do a better job on LinkedIn. I simply haven't put in the work.

• I spend a fraction of the time creating content for social I did in 2023

• I haven't promoted lead magnets on the platform

• I haven't tested any “comment to get” posts

• It's simply not a priority for me.

I’m bullish on LinkedIn. It’s the last text-focused social platform you can use to grow.

I’m using paid ads much more.

Here’s why:

• Organic list growth has slowed

• I found reliable ways to turn advertising into profit

Depending on how I run the numbers 30-60% of my customers come from paid ads.

• Yes, on average subscribers from paid ads are less engaged then organic sources.

• But it’s faster, more consistent growth and I still convert them into customers.

How I’m turning paid ads into profit

It’s simple:

• Ads drive traffic to my newsletter landing page or webinar registration page

• I send emails and newsletters the nurture subscribers

• They join a live webinar where I sell Write, Grow, Sell

If you’re new here: Write, Grow, Sell is our flagship product. It’s training, community, coaching program that helps founders build profitable newsletters.

And no, the webinar is not all “sales”.

I teach, answer questions, and share an offer at the end. Without these webinars I would have a fraction of the customers I do now.

If you have a product in the $1k to $20k price range, doing some type of live training like this is a must. I’ve found subscribers who join my list through webinar registrations not only buy more but have nearly double the email CTR (click through rate).

How I plan to grow my email list to 100k+

With one word: Focus. I plan focus entirely on 2 acquisition sources:

1) Meta ads

About 80% of ad spend will be used to drive webinar registrations for Write, Grow, Sell.

The other 20% will be used to drive sign ups to my newsletter and/or a lead magnet.

Then immediately after they sign up and complete a survey ask them to register for a webinar.

Those percentages could change depending on performance. We’ll see what happens.

2) YouTube

This will be the only organic source I focus on.

My plan:

• Publish 2-3 videos a week and include a call to action in each video to sign up for a webinar, newsletter, or lead magnet.

• Improve the packaging - Better video ideas, titles and thumbnails

• Make the video editing less bad. I’ll keep is simple. Remove the fluff. Make the videos look more professional.

• Keep the production quality low and focus on insightful content.

Compared to my paid ads experience, I’m YouTube beginner. My channel has 5,000 subscribers and 100k views.

It’s early but I see a path to growth if I publish consistently.

I'm excited about YouTube because:

• It’s more stable than social platforms like Twitter/X or Facebook

• It’s the only “discovery” platform (excluding search) where your content can be discovered for months and years after publishing.

• You can build a deep connection with viewers (the only channels where you can build deep relationships are email, podcast, community, and YouTube)

• It allows prospects to “research” me. Meaning people may discover me from a Meta ad. Then search for me on YouTube, watch, and buy after getting to know me and my brand better.

Still, my goal with YouTube is not to build a massive following there. It’s to build a large following on YouTube and convert those views into email subscribers, SMS subscribers, and customers.

My “audience” goals in 2025

• 100,000+ email subscribers

• 100,000+ YouTube subscribers

• 25,000+ SMS subscribers

And of course, more customers and clients.

I won’t be sharing my customers and clients goals publicly now. But goals for acquiring customers and giving them an incredible experience come before “audience” goals.

Will I get there?

I'm confident we’ll hit the email and SMS goals. I’m over half way there.

The YouTube goal is more ambitious. But it’s worth striving towards.

Why your total subscriber number doesn't matter

It’s nice to have a goal for total newsletter subscribers, followers, etc.

It helps to show you’re moving in the right direction. But it should never be the primary goal for a business.

What matters most is:

• Revenue and profit

• Customer/client success and retention

Growing your email list doesn't always improve the most important metrics.

What you can learn from my experience

I’ve published a newsletter 117 weeks consecutively.

I’ve spent $150k+ to grow my email list and tens millions to drive 10M+ newsletter subscribers and $100M+ in sales for clients.

Here are a few things you can take away from this:

1) Email is the best way to sell things. Newsletters are the best way to build engagement and trust in the inbox.

To sell, you need to build trust first. Do that with:

1. High-quality newsletter you send consistently 1x per week

2. An automated welcome sequence nurtures new subscribers (with no or little selling). This should be 5-10 emails over 14-30 days

And to sell you need to send dedicated marketing emails to segments of your list.

I know that sounds obvious, but most people I talk with have one without the other:

• They have a good newsletter — but no marketing emails to sell (remember: newsletters don’t sell, they build trust and engagement)

• Marketing emails — but no newsletters and welcome sequence that builds trust, engagement, and improves inbox placement.

You need both to win.

2) Collect data about your subscribers (and phone numbers)

You need more than an email.

• Use a post sign up survey to collet data you can use to sell sponsorships and send customized emails to segments

• Collect phones for SMS blasts and automations

3) Learn how to turn advertising into profit

Big tech is going to keep making it harder to get website traffic and grow your list using their social and video platforms.

But big tech is incentivized to make advertisers successful.

If you can convert ad traffic from Meta, Google, and other channels into customers and sponsorship revenue profitably — you’re in a better position that 99% of businesses.

Side note: This is what we help clients do at GrowLetter.

That said, you still need organic growth too…

4) Master 1 paid growth channel and 1 organic growth channel

It takes two to tango. Yet, spreading yourself too thin and trying to grow on all the platforms will set you up for failure.

Find one paid channel, one organic channel, and focus.

5) Get good at selling things

There's only one way to make money from your audience: Sell products/services.

• That could be your product/service

• Or another companies product/service (your sponsors)

A media business in 2025 should be able to do both successfully.

That doesn’t mean your revenue must be 50% direct and 50% sponsorships. It could be 80/20 or 70/30 in favor of one or the other.

But if you’re 99% or 90% sponsorships you're probably in a bad position.

Of course there are exceptions. This doesn't apply to everyone. But it does apply to most media/creator businesses that have started in the last 5 years.

Sponsorships are less sustainable.

• You need to rely on another company to convert the traffic and leads you send to them into customers.

• Or hope you get “brand” advertisers that are happy to throw money away.

• Getting brand ad dollars is almost impossible unless you've already built a large and trusted brand yourself. (It’s worth aiming towards. But it takes time).

Newsletter sponsorships/ads are one of worst ways to sell.

• I'm talking about what's often referred to as “primary ads”.

• These are 50-100 word ads in the top 20-30% of your newsletter.

• They can sell. But not as well as dedicated emails, custom content, webinars, lead gen, and other marketing methods.

Businesses that drive most of their revenue from newsletter ads are hurting.

If that’s you, find better ways to sell for your sponsors. Think about yourself as a marketing partner or agency for the sponsor. Not just a publisher.

Offer services like:

• Webinars

• Sponsored social content

• Custom content and advertorials

• Lead generation (you create a lead magnet and promote it for the brand)

• Dedicated marketing emails (only a handful per month to segments of your list)

• And more (be creative)

Marketing services allow you to sell bigger packages at higher CPMs that SELL more for your sponsors. When you do that, sponsors pay more, renew more, and work with you longer.