3 builders who never spoke to each other

Get the first users by hand while posting publicly

Run private outreach and public posting at the same time: message your existing connections one at a time, text a few friends directly, and keep narrating progress in the open. The private half is what actually produces the first users while the public half compounds behind it.

The method

1. 01

   Message your existing connections one at a time asking them to subscribe, instead of relying on the broadcast post alone.

2. 02

   Do a second manual promotion push right before the first issue: personal texts and DMs one at a time, plus a small locally targeted spend on promoted posts.

3. 03

   Approach the first users personally while posting your progress publicly. The private outreach gets the users and the public posting compounds.

4. 04

   Seed the first issue by sharing the landing page on your social accounts and texting five friends directly

What it returned

• 1,000

  Personalised direct messages to their own connections were one of the tactics behind Office Party's first 1,000 subscribers.

• 50

  At least 50-100 individual texts and DMs plus a few hundred dollars of geo-targeted tweet promotion took the list from 74 to 260 before the first issue on March 30, 2021

• Viewst contacted its first potential users directly and in parallel began sharing updates on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram.

Sources

• How to grow an audience through curating contentNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · It's time to start! · 2018-12-03
• How we grew a local newsletter to 10,000 subscribersNathan Barry · nathanbarry.com · Sending our first issue · 2022-03-22
• Friday Feature: Office PartyColton Sakamoto · sparkloop.app · 🙋 How Office Party does it · undated
• Building a No-Code Ad Production & Design Tool to $50kVictoria Duben · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated