In partnership with: Outpost for Ghost publishers growing subscription revenue
Last week, I said that recommendation widgets are losing their edge.
And I believe that.
But I still recognize that one of the biggest reasons people don’t leave their platform is that they’re worried they’ll lose new reader referrals from those widgets.
Today, as our cross promo challenge continues, I give you a solid alternative to this widget. Best of all, it is completely platform agnostic. It’s even medium agnostic.
Only for our paid subscribers. Already a paid subscriber? Read on below!
P.S. I’m giving a talk later today FOR FREE on why Substack is bad for society, media and your business PLUS how to leave and where to go. Join us. Yes, there will be a recording.
This week’s cross promo method: A welcome email spotlight
Let’s say you’re bailing on a certain platform that became famous for juicing growth numbers and you’re worried about losing those sweet sweet reader referrals. This is your closest replacement (aside from jumping to another platform with a similar set up.)
A welcome email spotlight is when you suggest 1 or 2 other publications your new reader might also want to subscribe to in your welcome email. They don’t even have to be writers. It could be a podcast, a video network or anyone else you want to promote.
Your new reader is highly engaged at this moment when they join your list, so if you don’t need to plug many actions in your first welcome email OR if you want to lean into a longer partnership, promoting someone else here could make sense.
See it in action:
Daisy, the CEO of Dirt plugs a podcast in their welcome email, but it’s not her podcast. It’s a podcast she was featured on.
What works really well is that she’s only linking to two things in this email. The first link goes to a Baffler article and the second link goes to this podcast.
I would probably rewrite the rest of her welcome email if I was going to really make a run at this for Dirt. For example, why mention the paid subscription and not link to it? Also, why does nothing here link to Dirt?
But I digress because what is effective here for our cross promo purposes is that Daisy drew my attention to these two links. And on that note, I would only plug a maximum of 2 things that are not your things.
Pros:
- Fairly passive. You plug it in and forget about it for a while.
- High engagement rate at this moment (and more likely to get clicks than your weekly emails because your reader is checking you out when they sign up)
Cons:
- Takes up valuable real estate where you might want to promote something you’re doing
- Requires that you and your partner are growing at a similar pace (or else this trade could get uneven)
Tips:
- Aim to use 1 click magic links if that’s possible with their platform (it’s possible with a lot of them and it passes through your subscriber’s email to their list in one click)
- If you don’t use magic links, add a UTM or referral link (or make sure your platform does it) so you can track how many readers you signed up.
- Only choose 1 or 2 publications to feature here.
- Check with those publications to see if they will give you the same placement or a similar amount of traffic elsewhere.
- Set a time limit to check back in on this. I’d do one month to start and then that could increase if it works for both parties.
- If you plug your own links in this email, aim for a maximum total of 4 links where 2-3 of them are your and 1-2 of them are other people’s. More than that makes it less likely your reader’s gonna hit everything and there’s no need to overwhelm them at the start. Turn your welcome email into a sequence if you need more space.
Did you miss last week’s tip? Find all the cross promo methods in this post. I’m adding them as we continue with the challenge.
Take part in the Cross Promo Challenge
Liz and I are challenging you to place TWO promotions of any kind by June 30. Here’s how to do it:
- Choose 1 or 2 partners (From our network or on your own)
- Run 2 promotions of any kind (It really can be any kind of link, shout out or swap and you can run them both for the same partner or they can be different. Look out for more tips in this post. I’ll be adding them all month!)
- Submit your 2 promotions here to compete in the challenge!
Everyone who submits their promotions by June 30 will be entered to win one of three prizes:
🏆️ I’ll design a sticker for your publication
🏆️ A one hour design consult on your newsletter layout (yes, we can talk about the logo you made in Canva)
🏆️ A one hour 1:1 automation set up call
It should be easy and fun! Don’t overthink it.
Join our Cross Promo Network
See who’s already in the network ↗️ and join us! You can reach out to other journalists and writers in our community and I will also recommend some matches to you when I see good fits.
