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The Long Game

Until last week, I despaired about ever seeing a return on this newsletter.

It was about one year ago that I decided to relaunch it with the goal of building a community for people who write at work. A simple question from my wife (who is also my co-founder) got me wondering: Couldn't it generate leads as well as readers?

Wouldn't writers and marketers benefit equally?

This led me to invest hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars before realizing it was a total fiscal failure.

My research started cheap enough. I signed up for 10 B2B newsletters and was surprised that most seemed to have no idea what they were doing. The headlines were cloying, the links uninspired, and some emails never arrived. I was intrigued.

Three months later, I'd subscribed to 100 newsletters and, instead of taking on more paying work, spent the equivalent of a part-time job producing a hulking 70-page report on all I had learned.

It wasn't cheap. I also paid a designer to beautify it in anticipation that I could use it to promote our newsletter.

Alas, my report was a pariah. Its insights improved our newsletter quality (a lot) but it was about writing a newsletter, not attracting subscribers. So our subscriber count, never high, didn't rise much.

And all my tweets, posts, and pitches to industry publications to write about the report mostly flopped. I began to feel, with some horror, that nobody cared about the report or its results and that I had wasted a significant amount of my -- our -- time.

I dove back into work. Time healed my psychic wounds. I learned to eschew labors of love. "Always test your messaging first," I counseled other writers on Quora.

By December, I'd forgotten about it. So I was shocked to find this chart in an article I stumbled across.

I nearly fell. That's my study! But they didn't cite me -- they cited MarketingProfs. The editor who I'd pitched at MarketingProfs had picked up my report and never told me.

My fragile spirit rose. I read the MarketingProfs post to be sure it was positive. It was. I wrote the editor and asked if they'd carry a guest article on the report. This time, they said yes.

When that article went live in March, traffic to our website doubled and we gained a bunch of subscribers.

And then, the unimaginable. Ann Handley, founder of MarketingProfs, best-selling author, and everybody's favorite keynote speaker, featured the study in the headline of her personal newsletter Total Annarchy.

The MarketingProfs PR push increased our newsletter subscribers by 22 percent.

Even better, somewhere in all that traffic, we also earned two leads (so far) worth a combined $45,000.

So what can I take away? That testing the market's appetite for your topic -- something I recommend every client do before investing in writing and design -- matters. But if you're so passionate about something that you'd rather research it than be paid, following your gut can pay off. You just have to stick with it.

I gave up prematurely because I thought I needed the whole of Twitterdom to love my report. But all I needed was one powerful ally.

Ann, it ends up (and I could have known this) has been speaking and writing about the power of newsletters for years. I happened to get my work into the right hands and was swept up in her slipstream.

So, data matters. Strategy matters. But if you think you've got something you are convinced is valuable and the world doesn't bite, spend your time looking for that superfan who thinks your work is neat -- Annd make friends.

Thanks, and welcome to all our new readers!

- Chris @ The Beat

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What We're Reading

Ann Handley's newsletter. Did I already plug Ann Handley's newsletter? Read Ann Handley's newsletter.

If you're tired of everyone and their mother trying to scale, get funding, and become a unicorn, Linsey Knerl has some reassuring words about "the nobility in making a living."

She went from laid off to 20-year success streak. Read Anna Goldsmith Stern's come-up story.

Are you often rushed to finish articles? Mmm? Jordan Teicher at Contently has advice for building a better content calendar.

A Grammar Tip

Don't say "in order to." Just say "to."

Same meaning, fewer words. While you're at it, nix other fillers such as "try to," "help to," and "make sure to."

Writing Jobs

Dream job alert:
Grow and Convert, one of the coolest marketing agencies we know (and we know many) needs a business writer with a marketing background.

Also,

Skillshare needs a senior copywriter
CyberTheory needs a content marketing strategist
The Trade Desk needs a freelance technology writer
Morning Brew needs a business of marketing writer
Fundera needs a content writer
theSkimm needs a finance writer

Freelancers, why not ask if they'd consider part-time? 🤙

Editor's Quote Of The Week

Give before you get

What's Next?

Stories about content failure, cold emailing success, and a behind the scenes look at how Susan Johnston Taylor, author of our interview series, does it.

Stay tuned!

Questions? Ideas? Tips?

Tweet @FindAWayMedia.

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