What did you do to increase the number of newsletter subscribers from zero to 150,000 people?

Delivering excellent digital service · digital goods information "AppSumo"Has acquired 145,773 new newsletter subscribers in 10 months since launching the service in 2012. How I arrived at about 150 thousand subscribers from scratch, the history was spoken on the blog.

Early Traction: How to go from zero to 150,000 email subscribers (Guest Post)
http://andrewchen.co/2014/08/14/early-traction-how-to-go-from-zero-to-150000-email-subscribers-guest-post/

For startup, it is one of the most difficult things to increase the number of users from a small place to a large number. As a tactic to acquire customers, you can advertise on Facebook, Google, YouTube, blogs, etc., and do Kickstarter campaigns. Many of these methods are costly and time-consuming, and there is no guarantee that acquired customers will generate profits. Regarding "What is the best thing to start with?", You need to choose an effective marketing activity from among available marketing activities. AppSumo'sNoah CaganAccording to him, after trying every method over the past four years,The effective way that we can recommend only for customer acquisition was "prize"And that.

◆ What is a prize?
AppSumo carries literal physical prizes and gifts of digital items and services as a way to thank those who subscribed to the newsletter. In addition, we invite friends on Facebook, Twitter, etc. and have a mechanism to receive additional prizes by sharing the link. This is a WordPress tool "KingSumo Giveaways"By sharing users with each other, the number of users who want prizes like viruses will increase.

As an example of a prize,Evernote premiumOne year's worth.


We are promoting user's share by establishing a share button and remaining number of shares until we receive premiums, plus a countdown timer.


According to the prize gift, AppSumo has a total of 5,282,88 new subscribers, net income of 862,665 dollars and 69 cents (approximately 88,800,000 yen), 442,022 dollars and 72 cents (about 45.4 million yen) in the past 4 years I was able to win.


In addition, the gross margin achieved by each new subscriber increased by 0.83%.


There is a big difference in the number of new subscribers you can earn depending on what you give as gifts, but the balance with the cost of the premium you prepare is also an important point. For example, when you gave 2 MacBook Air gifts, you earned 41,888 new subscribers, gross margin of 11,550 dollars 8 cents (roughly 1.18 million yen), gross margin per new subscriber is 0.24 It became%. Because it costs 2,400 dollars (about 246,000 yen) with 2 MacBook Air,ROI(Investment versus effect) is 4.81 times. Because Evernote premium is 4000 yen in one year, you can see that MacBook Air was an investment that is not commensurate with cost.


The gross margin per new subscriber was high was because of the entrepreneurial business magazineEntrepreneurIt is a gift for 1000 dollars a month (about 100,000 yen). It gained 3846 new subscribers, gross profit of 26,572, 90 cents (about 2.72 million yen), and the gross profit per person is 6.9 dollars (about 700 yen). The cost was $ 2,500 (about 256,000 yen), so the investment-versus effect was 10.62 times more than double the effect of MacBook Air.


◆ 7 Ways to Increase Newsletter Subscribers
...... That means that if we summarize "Seven methods" advocated by Mr. Keigan, it will be like this.

1:We are supporting or targeting companiesFacebook advertisementBuy traffic.
2:Look for partner companies that will sponsor when giving away prizes
3:Premium is iPad · Notebook ·NetflixEntrepreneur, such as Entrepreneur's premium products are more cost-effective as users who use the service will benefit from the premium related to their business.
Four:Message using A / B testImpact on prizes with
Five:For most prizes, new subscribers will stay at only 20% to 45%, so do not be afraid to cancel the registration of users for prizes purpose
6:Followers on Twitter are key to remarkably increasing prizes
7:There is a limit to the profit obtained by the prize, so do not do it frequently every week. Quarterly pace is recommended.