Yesterday we published a guest post by Sarah Noeckel about how she grew her Femstreet newsletter to 5,000 subscribers and built a thriving community for women in tech. Now, you can ask her how she did it. Jump in!
Definitely getting the first 500. My first 50 were close VC and founder friends but I didn't have the reach to get the snoball rolling. Growing from 1-2K was another big hurdle.
It's important to be where your audience is and in my case that was Twitter & attending offline events. I share content from female investors and founders so what really helped me was tagging everyone on social once I've sent out to the newsletter. Usually the authors I featured became my subscribers too.
What does your research and writing process look like? How do you do your own research to find the news you're going to tell your audience about this week?
Good question, Toby! This process has evolved over time and is now more streamlined. 1. People send me content (blog posts, fundraising announcements, events discount codes for products etc)
2. Twitter: I follow investors, founders & journalists with the Femstreet account and the algorithm now shows me the latest content around my topic. It's pretty powerful but there is a world outside twitter too
Hard one, Michael! I'd say its confidence - nobody is telling me what to do. I only have very few people that I can bounce off ideas with. I like it when people challenge me and question my next moves. People have high expectations but i also have a day job and can't do everything at the same time.
I'm (very) late to this discussion, but I'd love it if you could dig deeper into how you're succeeding with your Substack publication while you also work a day job. (I'm doing that too, and the juggle is a little crazy sometimes!)
It’s indeed not easy and crazy. I mainly work on it on Thursday, Friday night or Saturdays but then have to reply to a lot of emails on Sundays following the newsletter. I also travel a lot for work during the week. I am sure you know that it requires a lot of discipline and focus. While your friends might be out on a Friday night or watching Netflix at home, you have to work but that’s just how entrepreneurship works :)
Keep focussed on your main goals and really try to build something for your best users/readers, not everyone. This helps me to cut the noise and stay motivated.
I've heard some people say the newsletters don't necessarily convert that well. Obviously, you've built an entire company around yours. Could you give more insight into how subscribers have turned into paid customers (subscribers, attendees...etc)? Is it necessarily more difficult/easier compared to other mediums?
Hi Danavir, I actually haven't started a paid newsletter yet but will likely launch a paid version end of this year. I expect maybe that 10% convert. Let's see how that turns out and who my true fans are.
What surprised me the most was how many people actually joined and that 70-80% of the conversations are taking place in DMs, meaning people connect. Slack worked well for Femstreet because our audience uses it at work as well and it's part of their day to day. If that's not the case, then it's quite hard to keep engagement up. Femstreet Slack is quite self serving but it's hard to keep up. Ww now send out a weekly summary of community highlights which is quite powerful because people actually wait for it on a Friday afternoon.
Biggest pieces of advice for someone starting their own newsletter? What would you differently if you had to start all over again? I've been thinking about starting one in the ecommerce space.
Do a lot of research and find your sweet spot. Why should people subscribe to your e-commerce newsletter if there are already a bunch of other ones with big following? Also think about distribution early. I don’t think I was thinking big enough one year ago. I should have launched a referral programme a while back.
Referral programmes allow you to get some viral loops so you can acquire more subscribers faster. I could have used another tool for that or just come up with my own idea for people to share the newsletter on social more for something in return. I hope Substack is going to launch this feature here at some point.
Hi Sarah — I'd be interested to hear more about how you launched the slack group. Sounds like the idea came from surveying/talking with subscribers… Can you share some more detail on how you went about introducing the slack community to readers? Any recommendations or mistakes you learned from along the way? Also, how do you handle onboarding from Substack to Slack? Are you manually sending invites as new people sign up?
Yes, no subscriber asked me to launch it on Slack but people suggested FB groups, whatsapp or Telegram but I felt like none of these were the right Medium for Femstreet. Before International Womens Day this year, everyone asked me what my plans are for Femstreet for that day. I didn't have a plan as we celebrate women every day. However, as 90% of Femstreet readers are women, I decided to send out a very simple email to all subscribers saying "Suprise". 70% opened the newsletter and I received more than 300 requests in one day. I also created a bit of FOMO by having eligability requirements. Subscribers had to be highly engaged with a 60%+ opening rate to actually join Femstreet on Slack. We now have 700 members and I still have a waitlist of 150+ people. But yes, I am adding them manually every few weeks. I am even more selective than before and check everyones Linkedin profile.
That's a time you're investing in your community. I wish I had that time to think about how I could create a community like that. Maybe it's a future thing. Thanks for letting us know. Interesting view of how using your substack newsletter. Thanks for sharing.
Hi Sarah, so when you say that you "started talking to our subscribers" to improve the newsletter, are you referring to the meetups at the conferences and events? The Slack channel? I'm wondering what would be a good way to do this - was thinking of an online survey... Thanks!
I actually met 50-100 for 1:1 coffees, video calls (US subscribers) and at my first own offline events I also conduct a quarterly survey which is super helpful if you want to find out what you should focus on next. My first survey showed that people were interested in an online community to connect. Three months later, I launched the Femstreet Slack channel. Three months later, people loved it but also wanted more offline events. I decided to pick 1-2 things every quarter. I think a survey is a good start but makes sure you survey people frequently to capture changes.
So how do you do offline events? Do you rent a space? How far ahead of time to do invite people? How do you manage RSVPs? Is there a speech, a panel, just mingling? I'd be interested to know more.
Yes, I usually team up with other players in the market that want to have access to the Femstreet community or simply have a similar mission eg. Venture Capital funds, startups or startup hubs that own a venue. So far, I have never paid for a venue nor for food & drinks. I have done content heavy events with a panel, free workshops with experts and just drinks & networking. I usually sent out a paperlesspost invite to my subscribers and share it in the newsletter. Events take time but are soooo powerful.
I launched Femstreet in September 2017. I simply started the newsletter out of frustration, hoping to solve a personal problem. There was an increasing number of female founders and funders sharing learnings from their experiences in building businesses and investing, but no single well-curated source of knowledge from these amazing women. I wanted to shine light on them, and Femstreet was born. First, I created a website and then send out a first newsletter from Mailchimp to maybe 25 contacts. I thought if no one likes it after 6 month, i can just stop but i knew I had to give it time to grow.
As you scale your community - what are your thoughts on making sure you are staying true to the early followers while starting to think about broadening your audience?
Difficult question! I always try to be as authentic as possible and to build bcommunity for my best readers and not all readers. However, since Femstreet has grown into an international community, I have to be more careful about the content I share as it has to be relevant for a much larger audience. Local events are great to foster relationships. I have hosted close to 10 in London, SF & NYC this year. It's work in progress :)
What was more difficult - getting your first 50 subscribers or your first 500?
Definitely getting the first 500. My first 50 were close VC and founder friends but I didn't have the reach to get the snoball rolling. Growing from 1-2K was another big hurdle.
What methods did you use to get beyond those first 50?
It's important to be where your audience is and in my case that was Twitter & attending offline events. I share content from female investors and founders so what really helped me was tagging everyone on social once I've sent out to the newsletter. Usually the authors I featured became my subscribers too.
What does your research and writing process look like? How do you do your own research to find the news you're going to tell your audience about this week?
Good question, Toby! This process has evolved over time and is now more streamlined. 1. People send me content (blog posts, fundraising announcements, events discount codes for products etc)
2. Twitter: I follow investors, founders & journalists with the Femstreet account and the algorithm now shows me the latest content around my topic. It's pretty powerful but there is a world outside twitter too
3. Good old google alerts do a great job too
4. I read a lot on Medium, Hackernews...
Awesome. Thank you for the insight!
What is one bad habit you haven’t been able to kick which you feel could hold you back from achieving your goals?
Hard one, Michael! I'd say its confidence - nobody is telling me what to do. I only have very few people that I can bounce off ideas with. I like it when people challenge me and question my next moves. People have high expectations but i also have a day job and can't do everything at the same time.
I'm (very) late to this discussion, but I'd love it if you could dig deeper into how you're succeeding with your Substack publication while you also work a day job. (I'm doing that too, and the juggle is a little crazy sometimes!)
It’s indeed not easy and crazy. I mainly work on it on Thursday, Friday night or Saturdays but then have to reply to a lot of emails on Sundays following the newsletter. I also travel a lot for work during the week. I am sure you know that it requires a lot of discipline and focus. While your friends might be out on a Friday night or watching Netflix at home, you have to work but that’s just how entrepreneurship works :)
Keep focussed on your main goals and really try to build something for your best users/readers, not everyone. This helps me to cut the noise and stay motivated.
I've heard some people say the newsletters don't necessarily convert that well. Obviously, you've built an entire company around yours. Could you give more insight into how subscribers have turned into paid customers (subscribers, attendees...etc)? Is it necessarily more difficult/easier compared to other mediums?
Hi Danavir, I actually haven't started a paid newsletter yet but will likely launch a paid version end of this year. I expect maybe that 10% convert. Let's see how that turns out and who my true fans are.
What advice would you have for other newsletter writers considering starting a Slack community? has there been anything about that that surprised you?
What surprised me the most was how many people actually joined and that 70-80% of the conversations are taking place in DMs, meaning people connect. Slack worked well for Femstreet because our audience uses it at work as well and it's part of their day to day. If that's not the case, then it's quite hard to keep engagement up. Femstreet Slack is quite self serving but it's hard to keep up. Ww now send out a weekly summary of community highlights which is quite powerful because people actually wait for it on a Friday afternoon.
Biggest pieces of advice for someone starting their own newsletter? What would you differently if you had to start all over again? I've been thinking about starting one in the ecommerce space.
Do a lot of research and find your sweet spot. Why should people subscribe to your e-commerce newsletter if there are already a bunch of other ones with big following? Also think about distribution early. I don’t think I was thinking big enough one year ago. I should have launched a referral programme a while back.
What do you mean with the referral programme? I'm from the Netherlands and my English isn't well enough. I'm sorry...
Referral programmes allow you to get some viral loops so you can acquire more subscribers faster. I could have used another tool for that or just come up with my own idea for people to share the newsletter on social more for something in return. I hope Substack is going to launch this feature here at some point.
Hi Sarah — I'd be interested to hear more about how you launched the slack group. Sounds like the idea came from surveying/talking with subscribers… Can you share some more detail on how you went about introducing the slack community to readers? Any recommendations or mistakes you learned from along the way? Also, how do you handle onboarding from Substack to Slack? Are you manually sending invites as new people sign up?
Yes, no subscriber asked me to launch it on Slack but people suggested FB groups, whatsapp or Telegram but I felt like none of these were the right Medium for Femstreet. Before International Womens Day this year, everyone asked me what my plans are for Femstreet for that day. I didn't have a plan as we celebrate women every day. However, as 90% of Femstreet readers are women, I decided to send out a very simple email to all subscribers saying "Suprise". 70% opened the newsletter and I received more than 300 requests in one day. I also created a bit of FOMO by having eligability requirements. Subscribers had to be highly engaged with a 60%+ opening rate to actually join Femstreet on Slack. We now have 700 members and I still have a waitlist of 150+ people. But yes, I am adding them manually every few weeks. I am even more selective than before and check everyones Linkedin profile.
Thank you!
That's a time you're investing in your community. I wish I had that time to think about how I could create a community like that. Maybe it's a future thing. Thanks for letting us know. Interesting view of how using your substack newsletter. Thanks for sharing.
Glad it was helpful.
Hi Sarah, so when you say that you "started talking to our subscribers" to improve the newsletter, are you referring to the meetups at the conferences and events? The Slack channel? I'm wondering what would be a good way to do this - was thinking of an online survey... Thanks!
I actually met 50-100 for 1:1 coffees, video calls (US subscribers) and at my first own offline events I also conduct a quarterly survey which is super helpful if you want to find out what you should focus on next. My first survey showed that people were interested in an online community to connect. Three months later, I launched the Femstreet Slack channel. Three months later, people loved it but also wanted more offline events. I decided to pick 1-2 things every quarter. I think a survey is a good start but makes sure you survey people frequently to capture changes.
So how do you do offline events? Do you rent a space? How far ahead of time to do invite people? How do you manage RSVPs? Is there a speech, a panel, just mingling? I'd be interested to know more.
Yes, I usually team up with other players in the market that want to have access to the Femstreet community or simply have a similar mission eg. Venture Capital funds, startups or startup hubs that own a venue. So far, I have never paid for a venue nor for food & drinks. I have done content heavy events with a panel, free workshops with experts and just drinks & networking. I usually sent out a paperlesspost invite to my subscribers and share it in the newsletter. Events take time but are soooo powerful.
Thanks for your answers!
Thanks!
What inspired you to write and at what time in the do you decide what you use?
I launched Femstreet in September 2017. I simply started the newsletter out of frustration, hoping to solve a personal problem. There was an increasing number of female founders and funders sharing learnings from their experiences in building businesses and investing, but no single well-curated source of knowledge from these amazing women. I wanted to shine light on them, and Femstreet was born. First, I created a website and then send out a first newsletter from Mailchimp to maybe 25 contacts. I thought if no one likes it after 6 month, i can just stop but i knew I had to give it time to grow.
As you scale your community - what are your thoughts on making sure you are staying true to the early followers while starting to think about broadening your audience?
Difficult question! I always try to be as authentic as possible and to build bcommunity for my best readers and not all readers. However, since Femstreet has grown into an international community, I have to be more careful about the content I share as it has to be relevant for a much larger audience. Local events are great to foster relationships. I have hosted close to 10 in London, SF & NYC this year. It's work in progress :)
"The future is niche, but niche doesn't mean small." The most salient point for me in your guest post. Thank you Sarah.
Thanks. Congrats.