How to grow your newsletter with cross-promotions
Use cross-promotions to gain newsletter subscribers
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What are cross-promotions?
Very simply, cross-promotions are when newsletters agree to promote each other. This is an entirely non-financial and reciprocal arrangement, and one that mutually benefits the newsletters as well as their subscribers.
Almost all cross-promotion is done via links in emailed newsletter issues. You say something like "Sally's newsletter is a fantastic read, you should check it out", and include a link to Sally's newsletter. Sally does the same for you.
Your subscribers benefit from learning about Sally, and you benefit from some of Sally's subscribers signing up to your newsletter. Done well, cross-promotion is all upside.
We offer a range of tools to help you cross-promote well. We can even automate some of it for you.
Find good partners
When you're using our automated cross-promotion feature, we'll figure it all out for you.
But if you're finding your own partners through our platform, there are two very good rules:
Partner with newsletters that have complimentary content. This isn't quite as simple as thinking readers who like sports want more sports because "complimentary" has a range of meaning. Someone subscribed to a motor racing newsletter might like the lifestyle and enjoy discovering a newsletter about luxury yachts, for example. Use your knowledge of your content, and your readers, to make good choices.
Partner with similar sized newsletters. Nobody with 10,000 subs wants to cross-promote with someone who has 500. Think about it - the larger newsletter will be sending twenty times as many readers as the smaller one. It's an unfair deal. Try to find partners who are between half and twice your size.
Set expectations
Once you've found a good cross-promotion partner, things are very much up to the two of you. But it's a good idea to agree on a few things:
Estimate how many readers you'll send to each other. If you know your advertising click rate then this is easy. If you're in the 99% of newsletters who don't, then a good estimate is half the number of clicks your posts typically receive.
Agree the dates of the cross-promotion. You don't have to promote each other on the same date - in fact, it's unlikely you'll have the same publishing schedules. But try to keep things close, within a few days or so.
Agree on the link texts. But don't get hung up on this! If you want the link to your newsletter to read "Bob's awesome and his words are like silk on an ice-rink" but your partner prefers a more formal tone, allow some formality. His readers are more likely to click a link that's in keeping with his writing style.
Make it happen
You've found a partner, and you've set expectations - now it's time to send the cross-promotion link to your readers. There are two golden rules:
Send the link no matter what. You've made an agreement, so you must follow through on it, even if you think your partner hasn't. Reputation is everything in the creator economy, and newsletters are no exception. Your word is your bond.
Make the link visible. The more of your readers that click the cross-promotion link the better. And if you over-perform, you'll be able to evidence it to your next partner - you might even be able to convince bigger newsletters to work with you and greatly expand your reach.
