Gunnar S. Holm is a Twitter creator and runs a newsletter, The NAN - Newsletter About Newsletters, where he interviews newsletter creators and shares their growth strategy.
But his newsletter growth strategy is perhaps one of the most intriguing ones we’ve come across! He grew from 0 to 11K+ followers in six months through Reddit. Yup, Reddit and a few paid ads! 🤩
Wondering how? Well, here’s a glimpse of our conversation with Gunnar. 👇🏻
Thousand Faces Club: Is The NAN your first newsletter, or do you have experience launching and scaling newsletters?
Gunnar: No, The NAN is just a fun thing I do to help other newsletter creators learn from each other. I grew my local newsletter from 0 to 10K using Reddit and paid ads.
Thousand Faces Club: How did you get your first 1,000 subscribers?
Gunnar: By posting valuable content on Reddit with a subscription link. Every week, I’d post about cool events happening in my city — and every week a lot of Redditors would see that post and subscribe. It doesn’t have to go viral. A post with 10 likes can generate 100s of subscribers.
Thousand Faces Club: What does your content strategy involve?
Gunnar: Pretty straightforward as the newsletter theme is very simple! I check social media for what’s happening the coming weekend and then curate a list of the 5 coolest things and share it with the readers.
Thousand Faces Club: You have a pretty interesting content distribution format! You've been using Reddit to gain new users. Most creators don't tap into Reddit for distribution — is there a reason you picked Reddit?
Gunnar: Yes. Spend some time on Reddit and you will quickly learn what goes viral in specific subReddits. When I was practicing copywriting, my posts would routinely go "micro-viral" with hundreds of likes. If you know what to say and how to say it, you will be awarded traction and users will see your post. You can even gain 10s of subscribers on a post with 0 likes(!).
Thousand Faces Club: Are you planning to monetize your newsletter?
Gunnar: Yes, it currently has an ARR of $6,000.
Thousand Faces Club: Three newsletters every creator should read?
Gunnar: Psychology of Marketing by Abhishek Shah, A Media Operator by Jacob Donnelly, and JK Molina offers great content.
Thousand Faces Club: Any advice for beginner newsletter creators?
Gunnar: Don't spend too much time figuring out what your newsletter should be about. Let the market decide. Create a newsletter, test the response on Reddit. If you dont get subscribers, rinse and repeat until you start getting traction.
Thousand Faces Club: What does 2023 look like?
Gunnar: Scaling one of my own newsletters to 150K+.
Check out The NAN here.
