Send & Grow by SparkLoop: Recent Episodes
SparkLoop
Uncover how the best media brands and solo operators are winning at newsletter growth. SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls takes you behind the scenes and shares the strategies, trends and tactics you need to know to build your email audience and revenue.
Featuring exclusive interviews with the smartest media experts and operators out there today. Including from the Hustle, Morning Brew, Workweek and more.
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Michael Houck of Houck's Newsletter, a newsletter for startup founders.
Michael has worked for world-renowned startups like Uber and AirBnB. Those experiences—along with building his own startup—have helped him build Houck's Newsletter to over 63k subscribers while quickly approaching $1M ARR. And it all started as a side hustle.
In this episode, Louis & Michael discuss…
- How Michael has grown his newsletter by 50k subscribers in a few months
- The key mindset shift more newsletter operators can benefit from
- All the ways Houck's Newsletter earns revenue (not just paid subscription!)
- The most important metrics Michael's focused on for revenue growth
- How Michael drives paid subscribers with free content
- ...and much more!
Other Links MentionedHouck's Newsletter
MegaphoneMichael on Twitter
Louis on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Matt Brown of Extra Points, a paid newsletter for the college sports industry.
Matt was laid off from working at Vox during the pandemic. He started the Extra Points newsletter as a business experiment. And it's paid off. With 16k subscribers, including 3k paid, Matt's leveraged his experience, business savvy, and network to build & sell a newsletter in under 3 years. After selling to D1 Ticker, Matt's remained as head publishing for Extra Points.
In this episode, Louis & Matt discuss…
- Starting a newsletter as a business
- Matt's philosophy for free vs. paid content
- How to leverage earned media for growth
- Using a video game as a lead magnet for paid subscriptions
- ...and much more!
Other Links MentionedExtra Points newsletter
Athletic Director Simulator 3000 (video game)
D1 Ticker Matt on Twitter
Louis on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Jon Elder of Amazon Insiders, a super niche newsletter set to hit $100k in revenue.
Jon is an ex-Top3000 Amazon Seller who grew his Amazon business to over $10M in sales—and then sold for 7 figures. Now he publishes Amazon Insiders — the fastest-growing newsletter for Amazon sellers.
In this episode, Louis & Jon discuss…
- The key strategies he used to go from 100 to 10k subscribers
- How Jon is leveraging his expertise to monetize to $100k
- His strategy for hitting his 100k subscriber goal
- What makes his newsletter stand out among the competition
- ...and much more!
Other Links MentionedAmazon Insiders newsletter
Jon's Consulting business (Black Label Advisor)Jon on Twitter
Louis on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Eric Lam of Exploding Ideas, a fast-growing newsletter about business start-up ideas on trending topics.
Eric is always looking for business ideas. So he started the Exploding Ideas newsletter where sends curated startup ideas in "million dollar niches" to all his subscribers. But for paying subscribers, Eric sends a second weekly edition with an even deeper dive (more information, tips & resources) for that week's business idea.
In this episode, Louis & Eric discuss…
- How Eric's newsletter has grown quickly since starting up 4 months ago
- His Reddit growth playbook: how to organically grow your newsletter with Reddit
- Eric's newsletter monetization funnel anyone can replicate
- ...and much more!
Other Links MentionedExploding IdeasEric on Twitter
Louis on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Ryan Carr of the Blakely Digital: an agency dedicated to helping newsletter operators grow their audience & revenue.
And Ryan knows a thing or two about newsletter growth. Ryan was the Growth Lead at The Hustle when they were acquired by Hubspot and now — with his agency — helps drive growth for newsletters like Bankless DAO and Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life, to name a few.
In this episode, Louis & Ryan discuss…
- 3 common traits of newsletters creating "high-quality content"
- The first—and most important—question Ryan asks new growth clients
- The best channels to test the waters with paid growth
- What's working right now for paid growth on Twitter
- ...and much more!
Other Links MentionedBlakely DigitalRyan on Twitter
Louis on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop content marketer Dylan Redekop sits down with Joe Pulizzi of The Tilt Media.
Joe is considered the "godfather" of content marketing, founding Content Marketing Institute in 2007 and selling it 9 years later. In addition to writing a number of content marketing books, he's founded The Tilt Media, a growing newsletter & education business, along with its own live event: the Creator Economy Expo. Joe has been in the media game for a long time and has a lot of lessons to share.
In this episode, Dylan & Joe discuss…
- How to make a newsletter model successful for your business
- How to leverage the "Subscriber Hierarchy"
- Why most operators should only focus on ONE platform
- 10 different ways to monetize a media business
- Why right now is the best time ever to build a content or media business
- and so much more!
Other Links Mentioned
- Joe Pulizzi on Twitter
- Joe Pulizzi on LinkedIn
- Dylan on Twitter
- Content Inc. Podcast
- This Old Marketing Podcast
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Ryan Sager & Jesse Watkins of Who Sponsors Stuff.
They are the co-founders of Who Sponsors Stuff—a database that tracks which brands & businesses are advertising in email newsletters and brings the data straight to you. Ryan and Jesse have a wealth of combined knowledge and success working in the newsletter ad space.
In this episode, Louis, Ryan, and Jesse discuss…
- The best ways to prospect for ideal newsletter sponsors
- What you should include in your rate card
- How to increase repeat advertisers
- What you should do if a campaign doesn't perform well
- and so much more!
Other Links Mentioned
- Who Sponsors Stuff
- Newsletter ad calculator
- Louis on Twitter
- Who Sponsors Stuff on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Katelyn Bourgoin of the Why We Buy newsletter.
Katelyn's newsletter is earning over $300k in annual revenue—and it's not even her full-time business. She founded Customer Campin 2019 where she helps businesses figure out what triggers customers to buy so they can market smarter.
In this episode, Louis & Katelyn discuss…
- How she leverages social media to grow & promote her newsletter
- How Katelyn created gamification inside her newsletter
- The lessons Katelyn learned from selling newsletter sponsorships
- Her #1 piece of monetization advice for new newsletter operators
Other Links MentionedKatelyn on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Mary Tobler, the brains behind the fun puzzles and games you find in the Morning Brew newsletter.
Publishers and newsletter operators alike are waking up to the value of having a “games” strategy and — like with most things newsletters — Morning Brew have been leading the way.
In today's episode, we discuss:
- how games and puzzles fit into the newsletter format
- why publishers are starting to prioritise games and puzzles in their newsletters
- (why) should you add games to your newsletter? And how to get started
You can find Mary on Twitter, and Louis is at @louisnicholls_.
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Brian Morrissey, creator of The Rebooting newsletter and podcast.
Before starting The Rebooting as an outlet to share commentary and insight into building sustainable media businesses, Brian was president and editor-in-chief at Digiday Media.
In today's episode, we discuss:
- transitioning from managing a large media brand to being a solo creator
- the value of consistency as a publisher
- how the newsletter industry and "creator economy" are likely to develop in the future
You can find Brian on Twitter, and Louis is at @louisnicholls_.
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Sophia Patten, Head of Events for Workweek.
Sophia plans and runs all kinds of different events both for the Workweek brand and their individual newsletter creators.
Events are a super hot-button topic for newsletter operators right now. With the potential to grow community, boost audience growth and add new revenue streams.
We discuss:
- when should you run your first event? And why?
- how to plan your first event
- tips for improving your events and translating it into business results
You can find Sophia on Twitter, and Louis is at @louisnicholls_.
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with author, podcaster and newsletter creator Arvid Kahl.
Arvid is in the process of setting up a referral program for his newsletter, The Bootstrapped Founder. And asked me if I could help him with his reward strategy.
We decided to record the whole conversation — to give you an inside look at what to think about when coming up with the perfect rewards for your own referral program.
You can find Arvid on Twitter, or at TheBootstrappedFounder.com
And Louis is at @louisnicholls_on Twitter.
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Katy Huff, ex-professional-newsletter-ad-slinger for The Hustle, turned cofounder of MadRev.
We jump straight into the details of how to sell more ads and sponsorships for your newsletter. Including:
- how important is is a media deck, really?
- how should you package your ad sales?
- what results should you be reporting to sponsors, and how?
- how did Katy approach ad sales for The Hustle?
... and much, much more.
You can find Katy over at MadRev.co and Louis at @louisnicholls_on Twitter
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Pat Trousdale, founder and operator of The Daily Upside.
We jump straight into the good stuff, including:
- how The Daily Upside grew to over 300k newsletter subscribers without any social media presence
- what growth and revenue channels are working for The Daily Upside today
- what newsletter metrics is Pat paying attention to
... and much, much more.
You can find Pat on Twitter at @pat_trousdale and Louis at @louisnicholls_
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Jacob Donnelly, GM of B2B at Morning Brew and creator of A Media Operator — a media business covering the business of media.
We jump straight into the good stuff, including:
- how should media brands think about monetizing their email audiences?
- what growth channels worked for the AMO newsletter?
- paid subscriptions vs advertising — which revenue stream wins?
... and much, much more.
You can find Jacob on Twitter at @JayCoDon and Louis at @louisnicholls_
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Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Emanuel Cinca, creator of the Stacked Marketernewsletter.
We jump straight into the good stuff, including:
- how to actually keep your email-list clean
- what audience growth channels are performing for Stacked Marketer right now
- what mistakes publishers make when trying to close sponsorship & advertising deals
... and much, much more.
You can find Manu on Twitter at @emanuelcinca and Louis at @louisnicholls_
Welcome back to another episode of the Send & Grow podcast. This week, SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls sits down with Becca Sherman, cofounder and COO of Workweek.
We jump straight into the good stuff, including:
- what's more important... individual personalities or brand?
- what audience growth channels are performing for Workweek right now?
- what newsletter metrics does Becca really care about?
... and much, much more.
You can find Becca on Twitter at @becsherm and Louis at @louisnicholls_
As a newsletter creator, how do you decide where to put your marketing dollars? And which growth channels will yield best results?
Jenny Rothenberg, Director of Growth at Morning Brew, joined the team as a growth manager a little over two years ago. She’s had a front-row seat as the newsletter grew to 2.5 million highly engaged subscribers, and she shared the engagement-focused approach to growth with SparkLoop cofounder Louis Nicholls.
Morning Brew has grown significantly from branching out into new channels to acquire subscribers, but it isn’t just about the numbers. The key is to keep your eye on quality over quantity.
“Even though they're signing up on the same landing page and they're getting sent the same newsletters, the variance of user quality is so strong across different channels,” Jenny says.
Though Morning Brew’s subscriber count is an impressive and important metric, that’s not actually the metric the company cares about.
What could be more important than subscriber numbers to the head of growth? Engagement.
Listen in to learn about Morning Brew’s approach to newsletter growth and how you can be strategic about growth — even when your budget is limited.