The best growth hack you’ve never heard of

DEEP DIVE

I sat down with Jason Woodruff, founder of The Pour Over, to talk about how they grew to over 900,000 subscribers without an existing audience or funding.

What Jason and The Pour Over team have built is impressive:

• 900,000+ subscribers

• 7-figures in annual revenue

• Incredible newsletter engagement: 55%+ open rates

• One of the best sponsor renewal rates I’ve ever heard of

• A passionate audience that consistently shares its content

It’s worth listening to the full interview on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or other podcast players.

But I want to share one interesting tactic with you here…

• Jason broke down this clever growth hack on the podcast.

• It’s something I haven't seen before, and it’s worth replicating if you can pull it off.

Here it is. The best newsletter growth hack you’ve probably never heard of.

The $5 Chick-fil-A gift card referral reward

Here’s how it works:

• If you successfully refer two people to sign up for The Pour Over, you get a $5 Chick-fil-A gift card.

• This isn’t a giveaway or a sweepstakes. It’s a reward.

• Refer two real, unique subscribers using your referral link and during the promotion. Then, they send you the $5 gift card.

Jason says, “It’s a home run every single time we do it.”

Here’s why this works so well:

• The reward is valuable and a great fit for The Pour Over audience. They’ve tested rewards like Starbucks gift cards, notebooks, Bibles, and more. But the $5 Chick-fil-A gift card works best.

• The reward is guaranteed. Refer 2 real people and get the $5 gift card. This increases the likelihood that their audience shares.

• There’s a deadline. This promotion is usually done over a 3-7 days so there’s urgency to share before the reward is no longer available.

• The Pour Over’s cost per subscriber is capped. They never pay more than $2.50 per new subscriber.

• The actual cost per subscriber is lower. If someone refers 1 person, The Pour Over doesn’t pay anything. If someone refers 50 people, they only pay $5. Jason says, “The actual cost per new subscriber is always under $2”.

• The subscriber quality is high. Jason shared, “Referrals are always our most engaged [subscribers].” I’ve found this to be true with other newsletters, too. If a friend refers you to a newsletter, you’re more likely to read it.

• It’s easy to deliver. With a corporate Chick-fil-A account, you can copy and paste an Excel file and email $5 gift cards to everyone. “So it takes 30 seconds to send 5,000 gift cards,” Jason explained.

• It’s easy to set up. With beehiiv’s built-in referral tool, you don’t need complicated software to set this up. It can be spun up in 10 minutes.

• There’s only one downside: They can only do these promotions once a month. Any more than that, and the audience gets fatigued. Luckily, once a month is still often. This is a consistent growth tactic they can use again and again for years to come.

It’s that simple.

I'm surprised more newsletters haven’t done a referral promotion like this. But now that you know about it, you can give it a shot.

Now, is a $5 Chick-fil-A gift card the best reward for your newsletter?

Probably not.

This reward works for The Pour Over. But it may not work for your audience.

The Pour Over tested many rewards before this. You should test different rewards, too.

I recommend:

• Keeping the reward at the $5-$10 price point so your cost per subscriber is capped at $2.50-$5.00

• Using the 2 referral guarantee. 1 referral is too easy. More than 2 referrals is more challenging and will stop people from sharing.

• Make the reward digital so it's easy to deliver to hundreds of people.

• Avoid cash or Amazon gift cards. These can attract fraudulent referrals.

• Watch out for fraud. Review the winners and verify the subscribers they referred before sending the reward.

• Use language in your promotions like this: “Only real, unique people count as referred subscribers. Don’t cheat. We can tell.” This can discourage fraud.

• Make the reward on brand for you and your audience.

Hope this helps!