Steal this Ebook Idea to Boost Email Newsletter Subscribers
Top newsletter authors have taken an "old school" email marketing tactic and applied it to email newsletter growth.
Some of the most successful email newsletter authors employ a subscriber-growth, lead-magnet playbook that consistently delivers new readers each month.
This simple growth tactic has been around for years in the email marketing industry and consists of five repeatable steps.
- Create an ebook.
- Build a landing page.
- Advertise the ebook.
- Deliver the ebook when someone subscribes.
- Measure success and iterate.
Here are a few examples.
Sahil Bloom's Curiosity Chronicle
At the time of writing in July 2024, Sahil Bloom's Curiosity Chronicle newsletter had about 800,000 subscribers —and for a good reason, too. Bloom sends two superb editions each week stuffed full of actionable advice and modern wisdom.
Bloom runs the tried-and-true ebook, lead-magnet playbook like a pro. Let's examine it from the perspective of a prospective subscriber.
First, the would-be subscriber sees an ad on Facebook, Instagram, or Messenger.
Transform your productivity and well-being with my daily routines. Download your FREE guide now and start your journey to a more fulfilling life.
It's 100% free. Click 'download' below.
Clicking "download," as the ad encouraged, takes the prospective subscriber to an uncluttered landing page where the only possible action is to enter an email address and collect the promised ebook.
A confirmation page provides the link to download the ebook after a new subscriber has been successfully added to Bloom's ever-growing newsletter list.
Lastly, Bloom delivers on his promise. The 13-page ebook is concise but helpful. It explains each part of the routine and includes an application of each.
If you want to see this playbook in action, visit the Facebook Ad Library and look at the ads Bloom is currently running.
Eric Partaker's Peak Performance Insights
Here is another example of this same newsletter growth playbook from CEO coach Eric Partaker. As we did with Bloom, we will start with Partaker's Facebook Ad Library.
Claim your INSTANT ACCESS + FREE copy of my book, 'The 3 Alarms' and start living a life that truly matters.
Each of Partaker's ads link to a well-written landing page, which, in contrast to Bloom's conversion page, is a long-form funnel providing many reasons to exchange an email address for the ebook.
Partaker delivers the ebook via email and the new subscriber receives something of real value —a great 135-page book— in exchange for signing up for the newsletter.
Dr. Benjamin Hardy's Rapid Transformations
Our third example comes from Dr. Benjamin Hardy, who is an organizational psychologist and the author of several books. His Rapid Transformation newsletter is a great read.
Hardy is offering the first chapter of one of his books in his Meta ads.
Every 90 days, you can transform your life.
Sign up for my 'Rapid Transformation' newsletter, and join 250,000+ people receiving revolutionary psychological frameworks, tools, and weekly journal prompts for healing their past and rapidly realizing impossible goals.
As we have seen with the other examples of this ebook-lead-magnet playbook, the ads link to a landing page that corresponds directly with the promise from the advertisement.
Once the new subscriber has provided an email address, Hardy dutifully sends a link to the promised single-chapter ebook. As with the other examples shared in this article, the ebook is genuinely good, so real value is exchanged for the subscriber's commitment to the newsletter.
Run this Playbook
Nearly any email newsletter author can use this approach to acquire new subscribers. While the framework has been validated thousands of times in the email marketing industry, success is not automatic.
Create an ebook. Whatever you create needs to be helpful, informative, or entertaining. Reading it should feel worth the subscriber's time and the email address he shared, so do good work.
Also, be prepared to try a second or third ebook if the first attempt doesn't get traction. Don't run more than one ebook offer at a time, but be willing to try new ebooks successively until you have success.
Build a landing page. This page should be purpose-built for the ebook offer and optimized for conversion. I like MECLABS Institute's landing page formula, which suggests focusing on the visitor's motivation and the value the offer provides.
Advertise the ebook. I used the Meta Ads network for the examples in this article because its Ad Library makes locating the ads easy. But don't limit your campaign. Also, consider using custom audiences to improve ad targeting.
Deliver the ebook when someone subscribes. Close the loop and deliver what you promised. I like redirecting new subscribers directly to the download page rather than emailing them with a link. Some folks will enter a bogus email address to get your ebook, but those folks would not have been good long-term subscribers anyway.
Measure success and iterate. The most important metric to track is the investment needed to acquire a subscriber who stays on the list for at least two months and engages with at least a third of the newsletters sent.