Growing The Pour Over to 400k subscribers with a fresh perspective.

The Pour Over is a 3x-weekly newsletter delivering the news to over 400,000 subscribers. 

The crazy thing is they only had 10k going into 2021—meaning they’ve gone from 10k to 400k subscribers in 2.5 years! 

Growth like this is worth a closer look: how has a 3x-per-week newsletter grown as fast as they have? Daily news media is already bustling with major players like Morning Brew & 1440, not to mention the likes of CNN, NY Times, Washington Post, and others.

In this Friday Feature, you’ll learn how The Pour Over has set itself apart from the media giants—and grown like wildfire (and how you can do the same) by…

1. Owning a niche perspective
2. Capture eyes AND ears with a Podcast
3. Incentivizing shares with a Referral program

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#1 - Owning a niche perspective

The Pour Over (TPO) team is really good at delivering and summarizing the biggest news stories in a digestible format. 

But plenty of newsletters are great at this — and 0.01% of them have grown to 400k+ subscribers. So what makes TPO special?

TPO founder Jason Woodruff told us on our podcast, “[I was] sick of not having news that I can relate to.” As a Christian, Jason found the news cycle too politically charged. 

So he created TPO as a solution to his problem: a politically-neutral newsletter delivering the news for Christians. 

And it’s this perspective that’s helped TPO carve out an engaged audience of 400k readers. 

🧐 Why it’s awesome

Defining your newsletter content to focus on a unique perspective within a niche helps in several ways…

→ The chance to differentiate. Be the go-to newsletter that the demographic sharing your perspective reads. Chances of becoming the go-to tech newsletter are slim. But you can become the go-to tech newsletter for…

• college students
• podcasters
• teachers
• minimalists
• etc…

→ Set your stake in the ground to find your readers. Your tech newsletter isn’t for “everyone” — and that’s good news. Your content should be more be focused and resonant with your demographic. It’s much easier and effective writing about tech for a specific persona (ie. teachers) than for “everyone” interested in tech. It’s also a lot easier to pitch “a tech newsletter for busy teachers” than “a tech newsletter”. 

→ Increased monetization opportunity. Because you know your audience is primarily teachers, selling ads & sponsorships becomes less of a riddle and more of a solution. Your tech newsletter for teachers is an easy sell for edu-tech companies, tutoring services, arts & crafts supplies, etc.

🙋 How The Pour Over does it

→ Owning an underserved sub-niche. TPO is focused on a niche audience that’s still big enough to benefit from (there are millions of Christians consuming the news). Not only are they providing the news to Christians, TPO goes a step further by holding a politically-neutral perspective.

‍→ Clarity with messaging & perspective. TPO shares a Christian perspective with their 3 main news stories in the newsletter. Each main story is followed by a brief contextual paragraph (“Eternal Perspective”) and biblical scripture. These sections reinforce who this newsletter is for, and what makes it different.

→ “Lean in” with advertisers. TPO has been able to better align ads & sponsorships thanks largely to their Christian focus. You’ll often find Christian non-profit organizations as sponsors, as well as Christian book publishers, and Medi-Share—a healthcare alternative for those can't afford insurance.

✏️Steal this for your newsletter

​How can you differentiate from the “others” in your niche? 

→ Identify an underserved sub-niche. Identify the specific demographic your newsletter aims to engage. The more unique and narrower, the better. Make sure this is a group you genuinely care about and understand. If you're writing for teachers, it helps to understand their challenges, interests, and aspirations. 

‍Action step: Create a list of different demographics that would be interested in your newsletter content. It can range from specific industries, professions, hobbies, or lifestyles.

‍→ Develop your unique perspective. TPO has their “Eternal Perspective” and biblical scriptures for each news story. It’s unique and it works. Add sections unique to your newsletter that reinforce its identity: 

• a recurring segment
• perspective or take
• feature that ties back to your demographic's interests.

‍Action Step: Align your newsletter with that perspective. Take inspiration from TPO and others going this, like…

•  Jacob Donnelly writes A Media Operator to niche media operators
• Louis Grenier writes Everyone Hates Marketers for marketers fed up with sleazy marketing examples
• The Gist covers sports from an equality perspective, giving equal coverage to both mens & womens sports news

→ Double down with ads. Tailor your monetization strategies to your audience. If you're writing for teachers, partner with education tech companies, tutoring services, or other relevant brands that would add value to your readers.

‍Action Step: Identify potential sponsors and advertisers that align with your audience's needs and interests. Approach them with a clear proposition of how advertising in your newsletter can benefit them. TIP: look at who’s advertising in other newsletters in your niche and reach out to those businesses.

‍

👉 Bonus: get ad prospecting & ad sales tips from the guys at Who Sponsors Stuff from our recent podcast chat →

‍

#2 - Incentivizing shares with a Referral program

​A referral program is a proven & effective growth strategy: readers earn “rewards” sharing your newsletter with their friends, family, and audience. 

Jason from TPO told us, “Our SparkLoop referral program drives the highest quality of subscribers at the lowest cost.”

🧐 Why it’s awesome

​→ Referral programs have a flywheel effect on growth. Subscribers refer your newsletter to their friends → their friends become subscribers → who refer their friends. This is compounded by the fact that referred subscribers are more likely to make referrals themselves.

→ Referral programs subscribers are higher quality. We’ve witnessed first-hand running thousands of referral programs at SparkLoop: referred subscribers have a 1.4x higher engagement than even organic subscribers — and lower unsubscribe rates.

‍→ Referral programs can be low-to-no cost. Based on results from the thousands of newsletters using SparkLoop, a weekly newsletter can expect a referral growth boost of at least 15-20% using free, digital rewards.

🙋 How The Pour Over does it

TPO is acquiring thousands of subscribers every week with their SparkLoop referral program. They do it with…

→ Desireable & attainable rewards. For TPO, classic rewards like these work really well. While that may not be the case for every newsletter, it’s proven tremendously successful for them. Most readers will be able to share TPO with 3-10 people (church community, family & friends) who’ll also enjoy TPO’s content. 

→ Monthly giveaways & time-limited referrals. TPO uses monthly giveaways and time-limited referral rewards to shake things up. These campaigns increase urgency to share. Their most successful strategy is with a Chick-fil-A gift card. It’s simple: make 2 referrals, get a $5 Chick-fil-a gift card.

✏️ Steal this for your newsletter

A referral program is essential for your newsletter if you… 

1. want to build a word-of-mouth flywheel
2. want to invest in and boost audience engagement
3. have a newsletter that's good enough to share

If that’s you, consider a SparkLoop referral program—but first, learn how to create the perfect referral program for 2023 →

​#3 - Capture eyes AND ears with a Podcast

A segment of your target audience may simply never read your newsletter. The content isn’t the issue—but rather how the content is delivered.

Some people just aren't 'newsletter people'.

Enter the newsletter podcast. TPO publishes a short, 5-7 minute audio version of each newsletter send. 

They’re not the only ones. Major media outlets like CNN & Washington Post are doing the same.

🧐 Why it’s awesome

→ It’s a “low lift”. Creating the written content is the heavy lift—and that’s done. All you need to do is hit record and publish.

→ Increases brand awareness & deepens relationship. Those who don’t read newsletters will “hear” your newsletter. Familiarity with your brand will deepen the listener’s relationship & trust with your brand, improving conversion rates later on.

→ Another monetization opportunity. As listenership and downloads increase, so do opportunities for ads & sponsorships, product, service, and affiliate sales.

🙋 How The Pour Over does it‍

The TPO team has refined its approach to podcasting so it’s as low-lift as possible:

1. Each “finished” edition of the TPO newsletter is sent to their podcast producer. 
2. The producer records the reading of the newsletter.
3. They edit & add post-production (music, etc).
4. Then they publish the podcast version of the newsletter simultaneously with their newsletter.

(Check out their podcast →)

✏️ Steal this for your newsletter

Keep it simple & cheap—to start! Once you’ve written your newsletter…

• Grab a mic and basic recording software
• Record your newsletter
• Publish it with podcast hosting

If the ROI makes sense, hire a podcast service (like TPO does) to keep it efficient.

Adding it up…

The Pour Over has figured it out. 

They’ve nailed their niche & demographic with politically-neutral news paired with a Christian perspective. They’ve gone beyond *just* a newsletter with their podcast offering, building loyalty, trust, and brand awareness. And they’ve gained thousands of engaged, high-quality subscribers with a referral program. 

They’ve built a solid framework that newsletter operators like you can replicate to reach the same heights. 

I’ll leave you with 3 things:

1. Check out The Pour Over if you haven’t already →
   
2. Our masterclass on creating the perfect newsletter referral program in 2023 →
3. ‍Question: what newsletter is doing something different and innovative we should feature next? Email me or DM us and let me know!