Big newsletters vs. Niche newsletters for open-source
November 4, 2023
Nevo David
I have had the chance lately to use TL;DR, a newsletter with more than 300,000 registrants. This huge number converted to 303 unique clicks.
0.001% 🤔 it also cost $6000, but who counts? 🤣
You will probably say, “Newsletters don’t work,” but I can say it’s the same case with every type of marketing.
Micro-niche for the rescue
The internet is full of content. What you have seen now, you have seen thousands of times before. That’s why newsletters don’t work.
This is where GitHub20k shines.
I have a lot of experience with SaaS.
I have a lot of experience with Marketing.
I have a lot of experience with Tech Marketing.
But if I talked about those, I would be another person in a world of millions.
This is why I write about open-source marketing/growth.
On the one hand, I cut 90% of the audience since it’s a micro niche. I am the only one that talks about it. You can’t find this content anywhere else. That’s what makes it so unique, and people actually read it.
This is a message I get many times: I read your newsletter, then went to the blog and started to read one after another and implement them.
We have multiple DevRels in the company with a Twitter audience (together) of 120k followers.
They created a Zoom event for Hacktoberfest and promoted it on Twitter.
Seven people registered.
The senior DevRel started to freak out a little bit and asked me if I could help.
I said no problem. I sent two newsletters to Novu and HackSquad and got 250 people to register.
Later, they created another event, and we had a little blooper - I didn’t promote it. They canceled it. Nobody showed up.
Your product newsletter is vital for a few reasons:
It’s almost 1:1 with your audience. Every person that registered was added to your newsletter.
It’s hard to avoid your newsletter - when you use social media, your deliverability is not promised. If the algorithm doesn’t like you today, people will not see your post. With the newsletter, if you do it right, it will always go to the inbox.
Product newsletters usually grow faster than social media - most people that I talk to don’t have a significant social media activity (including me), but their registrations to the system are bigger.
(I passed the amount of followers in my newsletter compared to my Twitter followers).
Hook them
In one of my oldest blogs, I wrote about newsletters being dull. It’s true.
Your newsletter subject is the most important thing. If it’s boring, nobody will ever open it, even if everything inside is gold.
You have to think out of the box!
I like to use lowercase letters for my newsletter subjects
Conflict - open-source vs. closed-source.
Bizzare - I fell asleep on my keyboard, and it got me 500 stars.
Close to you - GitHub stars in Kiel, Germany, are usually higher.
I am still learning every day.
Do you need help?
I am happy to help any founder/maintainer to find their growth.
Get more stars
Get more contributors
Get more visibility
Get more customers
I might give you some “aha!” moments. Who knows 🙇🏻♂️
See you next week!e