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)

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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

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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)

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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

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