Every Monday, I share insights and BTS from our community for newsletter operators. Detailed newsletter breakdowns on Thursdays.
Tea from my life
I am in Chennai for a couple of days. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to explore this beautiful city as much, but will meet a few friends <3
I had good cheeseballs on the weekend
Analysis in 150 words
Rainar, our community member, asked me if I knew of newsletters with killer welcome emails.
I will publish a swipe file with the best welcome emails soon.
For now… I have some rules of thumb I follow for all the welcome emails I write:
Immediate value. On your signup page, you include incentives to nudge your visitors to subscribe. I call this immediate value (checklist, ebook, swipefiles, etc.) Make sure you carefully place this resource around the information you want your audience to read.
Set expectation. Tell your readers what kind of content they can expect and when. Humans love reassurance.
Gain trust. Thousands of leaders talk about the same topics you write about. Show them how you’re an expert and why reading from you benefits them.
Best resources. Optimise value at each point of contact. In Caffeineletter, we have curated resources based on our readers’ expertise levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), so they can immediately pick and start consuming.
Don’t sell. Don’t go from hi to buy yet. It’s okay to mention you have upgrades if you’re a large newsletter, because scale can drive sales sometimes. For early-stage newsletters, I recommend give give give then ask. Or subtly mention in the footer.
Sneakpeek into the community
When should you think about newsletter monetisation:
Marketing resources shared in the community
How newsletters would look like in 2026
Hangouts
On the 17th, I hosted a private session with members to set goals for Q1 2026.
Speaking to most of the members, I realised we wouldn’t want to invest in paid growth yet. Most of us prefer to grow as fast as possible, organically.
So ofc, the sessions in January will be around growing newsletter subscribers organically.
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Have a great week!
Love,
Vikra.