By Alex Lieberman

I started Morning Brew during my senior year at the University of Michigan while helping students prepare for job interviews.

When I asked them how they stayed up-to-date with business news, they all gave similar answers. “I read the Wall Street Journal because my parents told me to. It’s dense. It’s dry. I can’t get through it.”

I was surprised. These were future business leaders who couldn’t connect with the very content that was supposed to inform their careers. But that shock sparked an idea: What if I could create something different — something that made business news engaging and easy to digest?

That idea became Morning Brew, a daily newsletter with over four million subscribers. We’ve expanded beyond general business news, with spin-off newsletters dedicated to retail, marketing, emerging tech, finance, and more. Below, I’ll share that growth journey.

Here are my top five tips to make your newsletter unmissable.

Growing from a PDF to a Massive Newsletter

I had an idea — creating a product that makes business news captivating and memorable. I decided to test the idea by writing a daily newsletter.

Every morning, I’d spend hours combing through The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Financial Times, and The Economist to identify the most important stories for business-minded students. I’d then break them down into 150 to 300-word summaries that were informative yet concise.

The response was immediate.

Despite having zero tech infrastructure — I was manually converting Word docs into PDFs and emailing them out — our subscriber base kept growing.

I knew we had something special because getting on the list was painful. Students had to email me directly just to get added to my listserv (themarketcorner@umich.edu, in case you’re curious). Even with that friction, they wanted the newsletter anyway.

Within three months, we had 750 subscribers in Michigan’s business school, and that number soon grew to more than 1,500. I remember sending out an email saying, “I want to take this newsletter a little bit more seriously. If you want to help me, let me know.”

I brought on a few people, and we moved to an email platform. We created a template. And, in March 2015, the very first Morning Brew was sent out following today’s format.

That’s the origin story, but getting here wasn’t easy, and the lessons I learned along the way will help anyone trying to build their own newsletter.

Tips for Building a Newsletter

1. Find your Level 3 sub-niche — and go deep.

One of the biggest mistakes I see people make when starting a newsletter is going too broad right out of the gate.

General interest newsletters covering topics like global business or politics may sound appealing, but they’re the most competitive, hardest to grow, and often have the lowest customer value.

That’s why I always recommend picking a very specific niche — one where you’re either already a subject matter expert or are committed to becoming one through research and interviews.

I like …read more

Source:: HubSpot Blog

      

Author: Aaron