How I grew this newsletter from 0 to 18K in one year 🎉

Your ultimate Substack growth playbook

Wow, what a ride! 🎊

Today marks the first birthday of MarketingIdeas.com, and it’s been the best year of my career. I’ve published 52 articles, attracted over 17,800 subscribers, and reached more than half a million website views.

I’m blown away—thank you!

Running a newsletter is like playing an addictive video game. 🕹️ The goal of the game is to get more subscribers. I’m obsessed with testing creative growth tactics and discovering new channels—and this newsletter became my real-world experiment. This is fun.

In this special article, I’m sharing my top 3 biggest mistakes and my 7 most powerful tactics for growing a newsletter. Ready to start? 🎮

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❌ My Big Regrets

1. Wasting months (and $$$) on design perfection

2. Writing looooooooong in-depth posts

3. Neglecting to post on LinkedIn

Let’s dive into each mistake.

🖼️ Mistake #1: Pixel-perfect design

Before launching this newsletter, everyone told me: “Just start! Don’t get hung up on graphic design.” But did I listen? Nope. 🥺

I was convinced my newsletter needed the perfect retro video game branding and logo. That led to months of back-and-forth with Fiverr designers and thousands of dollars down the drain.

In retrospect, the whole design fiasco was just an excuse for me to postpone starting the newsletter out of fear that it wouldn’t succeed and, honestly, out of laziness. My mindset was like: “Oh well, I could launch the newsletter even today if I wanted, but I can’t... I'm waiting for the designer to create the welcome page cover image.” 🙄

Lesson learned: Ignore design FOMO and focus on building your audience from day one. You can always change your logo later.

📜 Mistake #2: Longer = better

I used to believe my job was to share every detail, insight, and hard-earned lesson in loooooooong articles.

I was wrong:

My longer posts underperformed, while my shorter posts went viral.

My specific audience is probably different than other newsletters. They want to learn the cool tricks and quick wins, but they don’t need full A → B guides or walkthroughs. That’s why I developed a new rule of thumb: If something can be understood with common sense or a simple Google search, I don’t mention it.

✂️ Now, I’m not only talking about writing with fewer words - I’m talking about writing with a lesser scope. When I’m putting maximum effort into writing an article like 9 quick wins for pricing, I sometimes get the feeling that people would prefer to read it in smaller chunks - e.g. 9 different articles where each quick win is featured independently, with more examples and inspiration.

Currently, I spend 90% of my writing time deleting words. My most popular post ever? Only 120 words.

The game-changer for me was the book Smart Brevity. ☝️ It’s about saying more with less. If you haven’t read it yet, do your future self a favor and grab a copy ASAP.

Lesson learned: Test different styles and lengths. Stick with what your audience likes (NOT what you like).

😴 Mistake #3: Sleeping on LinkedIn

Confession: For the first year of MarketingIdeas.com, I barely touched LinkedIn (or any other social media). I’d pour my heart into writing killer newsletter content, hit send, and call it a day. 🙊

Big mistake. Huuuuge.

🚫 What stopped me from posting on LinkedIn:

1. “LinkedIn posts need a totally different style—it’s too much work.”

2. “What if I post and nobody likes it? My professional rep will be toast!”

✍️ Adapting my writing style for LinkedIn:

It’s true: LinkedIn requires a completely different writing style. I can’t just post a summary of my latest newsletter and expect it to perform. If I write 7 ways to write better cold emails in my newsletter → I’ll pick just one tip for LinkedIn. People on social (vs newsletters) have much shorter attention spans. Memes are the best way to grab the attention of people who have a short attention span. When I shared my founder marketing guide → I created a funny video for the LinkedIn post and it blew up:

📅 Committing to a posting schedule:

Two months ago, I finally got over myself and committed to posting on LinkedIn at least once a week. I’m also paying LinkedIn $50 per month to have the ‘Subscribe to my newsletter’ button under my name. Nowadays, each LinkedIn post nets me at least ~150 new subscribers.

🏝️ The mindset shift that changed everything:

Everything clicked for me when I accepted this very simple truth: “If a post flops and gets zero engagement, the algorithm will bury it anyway… Nobody will see it, so who cares?” Failing on social media is a zero-risk game. Think about it.

🤔 Why LinkedIn?

As

Elena Verna

once said: “Don’t ask me why not Twitter; it was a random choice.” Same here! I was already fairly active there before starting the newsletter, and briefly became LinkedIn-famous with my Viral Post Generator. It’s a random choice, and that’s okay. I’m all-in on LinkedIn.

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🏅 My Proven Growth Strategy

So, what actually moved the needle for MarketingIdeas.com? Here are 7 growth tactics that worked really well.

But first, let me drop my MOST important advice: 👇

🥊 Be aggressive on growth.

In the early days, when your subscriber count is low, you need to go all-in to build momentum. Get from 0 to 10,000 as quickly as possible. This means:

• 💦 Working every spare minute on growth: I treated growing my newsletter like a second job. I spent countless hours experimenting with different tactics and finding what worked - from guest posts to Reddit to sponsorships (see below).

• 🔥 Not being afraid to put yourself out there: I pitched myself to podcasts, spoke at conferences, and networked like hell. I knew that the more people I reached = the more subscribers I’d attract.

You can’t afford to sit back and wait for organic growth—you need to make it happen. Here’s how:

🪴 Tactic #1: Hijack other newsletters’ subscribers

What is the lowest-hanging fruit when you are starting a newsletter? People who already love newsletters! Same for everything else: Starting a podcast? Find people who listen to other podcasts. That’s always your most ripe audience.

I knew my target audience was already subscribed to other marketing / growth newsletters, so I focused on getting in front of them through:

1. ✍️ Guest posts: I pitched (and sometimes got invited) to write guest posts for my favorite newsletters, including

   Elena Verna
   ,
   Kyle Poyar
   and
   Aakash Gupta
   . Whenever I had an idea for an AAA article, I’d offer it to other newsletters instead of publishing it on my own. The credit is worth everything.

2. 💸 Sponsorships: I spent a few thousand dollars promoting MarketingIdeas.com in other newsletters. While the ROI wasn’t amazing (around $6-10 per subscriber), these were ultra-relevant subscribers who were a perfect fit for me.

3. 🧡 Becoming friends with other newsletter creators → getting recommendations: This is the real gold mine. I never expected anything in return, but I genuinely enjoyed connecting with like-minded people. I’m talking about legends like

   April Dunford
   ,
   Jaryd Hermann
   ,
   Anton Zaides
   ,
   Katt Risen
   ,
   Emily Kramer
   ,
   Bandan Jot Singh
   and more. We’d swap stories, brainstorm ideas, and cheer each other on LinkedIn. To my surprise — many of them started recommending my newsletter to their audiences. So far, I have generated 4,000+ subscribers from Substack recommendations. Thank you! 🫶

😻 Tactic #2: Launch on Product Hunt

Hands down, my highest ROI growth channel has been Product Hunt. I won the #1 Product of the Day, Week, and Month awards, which quickly led to 5,600 new subscribers almost overnight (+probably more misattributed).

I’ve shared my full Product Hunt launch strategy here, so I won’t repeat it. But trust me, if you’re not leveraging Product Hunt yet - you’re leaving serious growth on the table.

🤌 Tactic #3: Build a waitlist + shamelessly plug

In 2022, I sold the Viral Post Generator for a nice sum of money. The first thing I did was buy the domain name marketingideas.com for 5-figures (I’ll explain below why). The intention was to start a newsletter.

But before I even launched on Substack, I built a waitlist. I threw up a simple Wix landing page and collected emails:

People told me that this line made them sign up: “The sooner you join, the sooner you’ll get access.” Gotta love a bit of urgency!

I made it my mission to mention the MarketingIdeas.com waitlist whenever possible:

• 🎤 Guest speaking gigs

• 🎙️ Podcast interviews

• 📱 Social media posts

• 📝 Blog articles

• 🤝 Networking events

Almost 700 people signed up for the waitlist, which allowed me to have a small audience to begin with on Day 1 of this newsletter. It feels amazing when your first post gets some eyeballs :)

I continue with these shameless plugs to this day, whenever I can.

TL;DR — Don’t wait until everything’s ready to start promoting. Set up a waitlist and make some noise!

💖 Tactic #4: Hire Reddit ambassadors

One of my secret weapons has been using Reddit as a growth channel. But it’s not how you think.

Here’s how it works: I have a small group of MarketingIdeas.com superfans who are active on relevant subreddits like r/marketing, r/startups, and r/growth. I hire them as personal assistants on Upwork/Fiverr to act as my ‘Reddit Ambassadors’.

👉 Whenever they come across a discussion where one of my articles could add value, they’ll drop a link in the comments.

To be clear, this isn’t about spamming. These are real people who read my newsletter and are open to sharing it with others. I’m just giving them a little nudge (and some cash) to keep an eye out for opportunities to spread the word.

⭐️ Tactic #5: Activate your top 1% Substack fans

One of Substack’s most underrated features → The ability to send an email only to your most engaged subscribers (the 5-star subscribers) while making it look like a mass send.

I regularly hit up my biggest fans with special requests: "Upvote this post", "Connect with me on LinkedIn", "Fill out my survey", etc. I sometimes even specifically mention that this email is going out to the top X% of subscribers.

And you know what? They happily help because they feel like VIPs.

Never underestimate the power of making your inner circle feel special!

⛳️ Tactic #6: Make a *really good* first impression

One of my top pieces of marketing advice, especially for newsletters, is to map out your ‘random visitor’ experience and make it perfect.

Here’s what I mean:

Imagine you are a random person stumbling upon your newsletter for the first time. Step into their shoes and ask:

• What do they think at first glance?

• What’s easy to understand (and what’s not)?

• What will they click on?

• Can they easily figure out what to read next?

Putting yourself in the mindset of someone with zero prior knowledge about your work is an amazing exercise (not only for newsletters).

Your “welcome” page is usually the first thing strangers see

Here are my 4 non-negotiables for a great first-time experience:

1. 🌈 Have an ultra-clear ‘promise’ for your newsletter:

My promise is “The world’s most powerful marketing ideas, delivered every Friday” — It sets a clear expectation for what readers will get and how often they’ll get it.

Having an ultra-specific promise helps you ‘own’ a category in your readers’ minds. That’s why I spent 5 figures to buy the domain marketingideas.com. I knew I could become the go-to resource for marketing ideas. It’s my expertise and my passion. I’m constantly on the hunt for new, powerful tactics to share. And I dedicate a huge chunk of my time —often 30 hours per week— to writing the world’s best articles on these ideas. I’m the only one who can own this category.

I honestly think there’s no room anymore for new growth/marketing newsletters with no specific theme. The randomness weakens the promise. You don’t necessarily have to niche down — but you need to have a narrow scope. Just don’t be generic.

2. 🗺️ Pin a “Start Here” post to the top of your homepage:

Probably my #1 tip for improving your newsletter’s reader experience: Add a “Start Here” post to the top of your Substack homepage.

This post should include:

• A brief ‘About’ section

• Links to all your published articles (like a table of contents / index)

Countless readers have told me my “Start Here” post was THE thing that made them hit subscribe. It provides an instant overview of what your newsletter is all about.

When I shared this tip in a Substack Office Hours thread, it really blew up. Full articles were written about my “Start Here” hack (tnx

Karen Cherry

🙏). Several other successful newsletter writers, like

Sarah Allen

and

Kristi Keller

, quickly implemented it too:

3. 📊 Use a goal-oriented website menu:

Your newsletter menu should be more than a navigation tool—it should showcase the outcomes and benefits readers can expect. Use it to reinforce your promise.

4. 👋 Ask for a reply in your welcome email:

The subject line of my automatic welcome email is “Verify your signup”. The body includes a request to verify the signup by replying ‘growth’.

Do people really need to send me an email? No. 😏 But I get hundreds of such emails (responses with ‘growth’ as the only word in the email) every week. I can’t know for sure, but I have a strong suspicion that this double opt-in requirement makes my emails pop up in the primary inbox (and not in the ‘promotions’ tab) more often, and thus increases my open rates — which stand at about 45%.

🦸 Tactic #7: Get feedback from superstars

Lastly, you should know this: Your favorite authors, entrepreneurs, and speakers are much more accessible than you think. You just need to know where to look…

🤫 The secret → Many of them run raffles or contests where you can win a chance to pick their brain.

That’s exactly how I scored 1:1 chats with Morning Brew’s Alex Lieberman and AppSumo’s Noah Kagan.

Left: My FaceTime call with Alex Lieberman | Right: Noah Kagan’s recorded feedback about my newsletter

All you need to do is follow your favorite superstars on social media and wait for those golden “meet me” opportunities. When they have something to promote (like a new book) → they might hold such a contest.

🍒 The cherry on top: When you’ve got their attention (after you win), ask for honest feedback on your content. If they liked it - you should ask if you can quote their praise. Those endorsements are marketing GOLD.

For example, here’s what Alex Lieberman told me:

“The quality of this newsletter is really strong.” 🏅

BOOM! I’m not sure exactly how I’ll use this quote yet, but you can bet I’ll be name-dropping like crazy at my next marketing event 😉

And that’s my playbook!

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If this Substack growth guide was helpful, I’ve got one big favor to ask:

Every new subscriber means the WORLD to me, and word of mouth is what keeps this community growing. I appreciate your support more than you know. Oh, and if you’ve got any questions about building a newsletter, drop them in the comments. I’m an open book :)

See you next Friday ✌️

Tom

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P.S. I wonder who’s teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts this year 🧙