Every month, I review 5-7 newsletters to measure growth and alignment with my/clients’ goals. If I have to templatize it and create a newsletter review system - it boils down to these seven questions.

You can also answer some of these questions before launching a newsletter.

I will start with the basics and get into the specific metrics I follow. Plus I’ll share examples from my work.

1/ What is your positioning today?

I like to revisit the basics from time to time.

It’s easy to lose track of our goals, why we do what we do, and who we do it for. So, on review day, I make sure to check where we are compared to where we set out to be and where we wish to get.

I answer simple questions like:

• How are our readers evolving? Is there a new shift in their lives because of tech or recent events?

• What problems did we solve last month? How was the feedback, and what can we double down on?

• How do readers recognize the brand? What do they think of you? Is it aligned with how we wish to portray ourselves?

• Who are our competitors? What are we doing differently? What can we learn from them?

• Where are we in the pyramid (top newsletters, new ones in the market, and everything in between)? How can we climb up?

2/ Are we building the right audience?

Basic but super important. I look back at the initial audience we wished to serve vs the audience we have today. It’s a great factor to indicate if we are building just an audience or the right audience.

Classic example of how this goes wrong when unchecked: Freelancers creating content to land leads, but end up building followers in a similar niche or services.

3/ Is our leverage still our leverage?

I would not advise starting a newsletter without leverage.

It differentiates you from the competition and gives readers a reason to care about your content. “Hundreds of people do the same thing as you; why should I trust you?”

Leverage comes in two tiers: Expert and Practitioner.

If you want to build a newsletter for entrepreneurs, you have expert leverage if you have built a successful company. Practitioner leverage is if you work at a VC firm, understand and evaluate businesses day in and day out, so you become knowledgeable enough to write about them.

An example of this in the YouTube world is Nikhil Kamath’s podcast (expert talking to experts) and Think School (practitioner sharing business and political case studies.)

From the newsletters I work with…

In Caffeineletter, we have a tier 2 leverage. Aravind brews coffee daily, keeps experimenting with manual brewing methods, explores coffee from multiple roasters, connects with Baristas, logs his work - so he has the practitioners’ leverage.

We would have had expert leverage if Aravind was a barista.

In terms of review, I check if my leverage is still my advantage. Should we upgrade? Is it relevant, etc.

4/ Where are we in the funnel?

Most newsletters I worked with are in the MoFu. This is primarily because of their placement in the audience spectrum.^[1]

Once we place newsletters in the MoFu, they will either become a business themselves (Morning Brew, Neuron, etc.) or a channel to a bigger business (GrowthX newsletter is free; but it nurtures and drives subscribers towards a premium paid community.)

From the newsletters I work with…

I work with an AI newsletter that is a media business in itself. We have distribution (100k) and monetize via ads.

Another newsletter in the health niche is free. We don’t monetize the newsletter, but we nurture the audience for our health programs. Social media followers → Newsletter Subscribers → Members who take up programs.

My point? You should constantly check where your publication is in the funnel and whether you need to broaden or narrow it to meet your goals.

5/ How do you measure success or progress at this stage?

One might think gaining subscribers is the only growth metric. It’s not true.^[2] We have different goals at different stages - and I like to measure success based on what I wish to accomplish in the next three months.

From our community newsletter…

I recently started a newsletter to help our community members gain visibility for their work and let people outside our community know about what’s happening in our Discord.

There are only two ways I measure success here:

1/ How much visibility are my community members getting?
2/ How many people are converting from readers to community members?

Am I gaining more subs, what are the opens, clicks, etc., all these become secondary.

From the newsletters I work with…

Similarly, for Caffeineletter, our current goal is to capture as many readers as possible. We are not worried about making money in the short term, and all our focus is on acquiring subscribers.

For the health newsletter, I measure success by the number of readers who take up the health program. The rate at which the newsletter grows is secondary.

Once you understand where your newsletter is in the funnel, figure out your North Star metric to measure success/progress.

6/ Define your three pillars and the plan of action

For a newsletter to succeed, you need three pillars intact: Content, Growth, and Monetization.

• Content: What your readers read

• Growth: How do you get readers

• Monetization: How do you make money? Directly or indirectly

In content review, I look at replies, data (opens, clicks), how people responded when we accounted topic on social media, what’s trending, etc. The idea is to see what’s working and do more of it.

In the growth review, I examine our marketing channels and what’s bringing more traffic. This typically includes multiple lead magnets, referral programs, social media, Google or Meta ads, etc., along with a distribution strategy.

Ideally, we want to build a machine - a channel that brings subscribers on regular intervals, even with minimal active work. 10-day social media campaign is not a machine. Lead magnets usually are. You create them once and only need to promote them multiple times.

For Caffeineletter, ads are our machine. Irrespective of what we do, we gain 10 subscribers daily. This allows us to focus on content, other marketing channels, tools, etc. I check the Facebook ads manager every two days for numbers and that’s it.

In monetization review, I see how much money we made and how. I will also see if we can increase revenue sources, create different tiers, experiment with pricing plans, etc.

7/ Compare

Once my review is done, I compare it with the previous month’s. Sometimes even with the last three months. It gives me a clear idea about the direction and momentum. Then I optimise.

That’s all I have. If you have any questions or opinions, feel free to reply to the email.

If you have found this essay useful, please share Cognition with relevant folks and ask them to subscribe. I don’t have a massive social following; all I can ask from you is to be my cheerleader.

Love,
Vikra.

Footnotes

[1] Most marketers know the concept of top of the funnel (ToFu), middle of the funnel (MoFu), and bottom of the funnel (BoFu) - so I didn’t mention it to respect your time. Just in case: they are different stages of the funnel a brand takes you through. You discover new brands on ToFu and become a premium/paid customer via BoFu content. You can read this article to geek out (thanks Gurleen for sharing.)

[2] I am not saying subscribers are not important. More subscribers create better opportunities. I am saying subscribers might be a default or vague goal, and you might find more specific metrics if you look at your newsletter closely.