It’s Wednesday, November 20, and this week, Brad Wolverton, the former editor-in-chief of The Hustle, tells the story of how his team used subscriber interviews to build a better content and growth strategy.

Brad also writes Newsletter Examples — a newsletter about cool stuff you can try in your newsletter — and this week, we decided to guest post for each other’s newsletters. He wrote today’s article for Inbox Collective, and I wrote a piece for his readers about how Semafor uses owned and earned growth to build their audience.

And if you’re not on Brad’s list yet, go sign up!

—Dan (say 👋 via email or LinkedIn)

All of our newsletters this fall are presented by Beefree, which makes designing great emails and landing pages better and faster. Their drag-and-drop builder and mobile-friendly templates work seamlessly in all email clients, from Gmail to Outlook. With Beefree, you can save time and still create standout designs that drive results.

Get started for free, and upgrade as you grow.

Want To Grow Your Audience? Start By Talking To Them

Like a lot of newsletters, The Hustle has tried tons of strategies to get feedback from readers. They tried surveys, polls, and even created a private community for their most engaged readers.

But none of those tactics shaped their strategy the way 1:1 calls with readers did.

This week, Brad Wolverton — who spent 5+ years building out newsletter strategies at The Hustle and HubSpot — explains how his team learned how to harness the power of those conversations to gather deep insights and build a better newsletter. Here’s Brad’s story

A really good email design can make all the difference when you’re driving readers to buy your product or attend your event. But not every platform lets you create better and faster emails with easy-to-customize, mobile-friendly templates that drive clicks and conversions.

That’s where Beefree comes in. Whether you’re designing a single email to sell a product or an entire onboarding series, Beefree helps you create emails that look great and perform even better — in a fraction of the time. The average CTR after designing with Beefree? 24.96% — way above the industry average.

Plus, Beefree makes creating landing pages just as easy and fast, whether you’re collecting email addresses or selling tickets to an event.

The best part: You can get started with Beefree for free today and upgrade as you grow. Create an account now and start designing better, faster emails and landing pages.

*This content has been promoted by our partners*

From my reading list...

We asked more than a dozen newsletter operators how they named their newsletter — and why. Here’s what they told us. (Inbox Collective)

I want to do more writing in 2025 about SMS and messaging apps. Until then: Here's what Bloomberg, Yahoo, and Reach are doing on WhatsApp. (Digital Content Next)

If you’re doing cold outreach for sales or editorial reasons, here’s how to find someone’s email address in an ethical way. (ZeroBounce)

Keep an eye on this: Gmail is allegedly going to launch its own “hide my email” feature. (Android Authority)

💌 Did a friend forward you this newsletter? Sign up to get this every week in your inbox.

📬 Want to work with Inbox Collective? Here’s how I can help you.

✏️ Looking for a new job in the email space? I might be able to help.

🍕 Interested in attending Dine & Deliver, a dinner series presented by Omeda and Sparkloop? Apply here.

🎯 Want to reach 11,000+ people in the email space? Let’s talk.

Having trouble viewing this email? You can see an HTML version of this newsletter here.

No longer want to receive our newsletters? That’s OK! You can unsubscribe here.

Inbox Collective LLC

1776 Park Ave Ste 4

Box #125

Park City, UT 84060

Add us to your address book

Not a Newsletter - 📬 No. 57 | An underrated growth hack

Want To Grow Your Audience? Start By Talking To Them

From my reading list...

Older messages

📬 No. 56 | How to name your newsletter

Let’s talk landing pages

📬 No. 55 | AI tools for newsletters

📬 No. 54 | How to diagnose a drop in engagement

📬 No. 53 | Your newsletter questions, answered

You Might Also Like

Hit Games

Tumultuous year in politics – readers and editors pick favorite stories

🍿 ‘Squid Game’s Sophomore Slump

Our Favorite Beauty Stories of 2024

The Human Face Of The Corporate Takeover

Greetings from The Flyover

☕ The Golden Mug Awards

GeekWire Mid-Week Update

Thursday Briefing: Rebel factions try to unite in Syria

The best Wirecutter picks of 2024