Roadmap to 100k Subs

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Hey, Alex here… Many of you have asked me how I grew Marketing Examined.

I shared some of our playbooks before.

Something I’ve never covered in detail is the playbook I used to go from 0 to 100k subscribers.

Here’s the behind-the-scenes play-by-play.

P.S. We just dropped our best podcast episode yet with Oren John. We built a 9-figure DTC brand from scratch in the episode.

Here’s proof:

You can listen here.

1. 50 Twitter Threads Over 50 days

I needed momentum. And I needed traction.

So, 50 marketing threads on Twitter for 50 days straight.

The result? 9,000 subs and 44,000 followers.

The key? Cementing the topic I’d talk about for 50 days and making sure it bridged people to the newsletter.

I used this to share my experience, and expertise, and establish my digital identity aka what someone knows you for.

2. Use Audience Feedback to Narrow Down the Best Content Type

I intentionally send out different types of content and kept my eye out for one metric.

Organic replies.

When someone takes the time to respond, it's the best evidence that they love the content.

The content types that got the highest reply rate were Playbooks.

That's now our signature content.

And we got there because people told us it's what they wanted.

Don’t guess what people want. They’ll tell you. But its your job to listen.

3. Turn the Audience into Advocates Through Referral Programs

I launched a referral program with SparkLoop that allowed me to gate exclusive content that can only be viewed if you refer a friend.

That program drove thousands of subscribers.

One person alone drove 50 subscribers!

4. The Content Flywheel: Maximizing Impact of One Piece of Content

I repurpose every long-form newsletter content to 3-5 short posts to be shared on Twitter & LinkedIn, as hooks to acquire new subscribers.

I plug a CTA to subscribe after 20-30 likes on these posts using TweetHunter & HypeFury.

5. Content Swaps with Other Newsletters

If you haven’t monetized yet, how do you acquire subscribers without a big budget to spend on ads?

What I did was do barter deals with other newsletters, plugged their content in the newsletter and they ran ad placements for us in their newsletter.

Now, it’s even easier with tools like Beehiiv Boost that allow you to cash in through recommending other newsletters.

6. Trade Newsletter Placement for Social Media Exposure

Similar to content swap, I cross-promote with TikTok and IG creators.

They have 30k followers on IG.

I have 30k subscribers.

I offer to promote them to our subscribers, and in return, they do a video for me as a lead magnet.

This brought in an additional 5-10k subscribers.

7. Paid Ads: Use Creatives to do the Targeting in Paid Ads

Here’s my approach to paid ads.

The creatives and respective landing pages are customized with different personas and their goals in mind.

For growth marketers, the creative would be about how to become a better marketer.

For CMOs, it would be about how to make better marketing decisions.

Instead of setting the target audience in ad platforms, let creatives handle the targeting.

8. Giveaways as Lead Magnets

Do this every month and you can build a list of 10k in a year.

Here’s how:

Do a post with a preview of a playbook like the “Ultimate Guide to Landing Pages”. Then ask followers to reply keywords like “landing page” to get a link to the case study through auto DM.

I had one post that got over 900 comments and drove thousands of subs!

9. Unique Welcome Flows for “Cold” Subscribers

For “cold” subscribers from sources like Beehiiv Boost, it’s crucial to customize different welcome flows vs. your usual inbound subscribers.

They don’t have context.

You need to duplicate your existing welcome flow, change it up so it contextualizes why they are receiving this welcome email, and give an easy way for them to unsubscribe if they accidentally subscribed.

There’s no use in holding on to an unengaged audience.

10. Use Social to “Test the Water” of What You Should Write About.

Social platforms became the testing ground for content ideas.

Engagement metrics helped identify hot topics before investing time in long-form newsletter content.

If I get at least 15 comments, I turn that into a newsletter.

11. True Fans > Subscribers

Honestly, I can get an additional 250k subscribers quickly through Beehiiv Boost.

But there’s no point in chasing that vanity metric.

We want to cultivate true fans who genuinely engage, support, and find value in what we do.

A community that will notice and care if I go ghost tomorrow.

“A creator, anyone producing works of art – needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.”

And that’s what I am after.

You should too.

The Road to 100K Playbook:

1. Use social to test content ideas.

2. Your core KPI is organic replies.

3. True fans are greater than subscribers.

4. To grow without a big budget:

   • Turn fans into referrers.

   • Trade placements with other creators.

   • Leverage giveaways.

   • Use creatives to do the targeting in paid ads.

5. Write unique welcome flows for cold audiences.