Decoding Email-Led Growth with The Hustle 📈

"Regardless of how often 'experts' say email is dead, our numbers show that it ain't." 
Sam Parr, Founder of The Hustle 
 

Hi there 👋,
 

Welcome to the anniversary edition of The Mailmodo Bulletin 🥳. Within a year, we're  a 10K+ family! Thanks to all of you who subscribed and made this possible. 🙌
 

Before sending out this edition, we rejoiced about our highs and discussed what could've been better. In the coming year, we'd love to know what's on your minds, so, hit the reply button, folks, we're all ears 🦻.
 

But more importantly, we want to talk about how emails can lay the foundation of million-dollar businesses - just like The Hustle.
 

The Hustle has built in the inbox - literally! 

When media companies like BuzzFeed and Business Insider focused on going viral and using clickbait, Sam Parr and team decided to stick to emails, built an engaged list, and started minting revenue within months.
 

This was back in 2015, and since then, The Hustle has grown exponentially. Recently, it broke the news headlines when HubSpot acquired it for an undisclosed price.
 

This month, we discuss what helped them build a massive business in the inbox and how you can apply these tactics to your growth plan. Let's dig in. 🕵️

A 3-step guide to building in the inbox - inspired by The Hustle via Mailmodo

1. Activate the "prospects-to-subscribers-to-ambassadors" funnel

The first subscribers of The Hustle's email lists were the speakers from The Hustle Con. In 2015, Sam was looking for a new business and then gave Hustle Con a try - it was supposed to be a TedTalk for entrepreneurs where each of them got a 15-minute slot to speak about their journey.

To promote this, Sam started an email newsletter that spoke of these speakers' entrepreneurial stories, and bam! all the speakers not only subscribed but also shared the newsletter in their network. 🤯

What triggered this positive response was a simple fact - the newsletter was about the subscribers. This motivated them to take an interest and spread the word about it! Ultimately, these first subscribers unknowingly became The Hustle's first ambassadors and gave it the initial traction. 💯

In fact, they went on to start a formal “The Hustle Ambassador Program” where the subscribers received access to a private online community, free swag, and tickets to The Hustle Con when they referred other people to the newsletter. 
 

Here's what you can learn from this 
 

• Make the emails about your subscribers. Feature them in your newsletters, or give them a shoutout - that way, they'll be keen on forwarding the email.
   
• Go big on collaborations. Pair with your partners or peers to cover relevant topics in your newsletters and leverage their reach to find new subscribers.
   
• Hack your existing channels to find your subscribers. Hosted a webinar? Curate an edition about it and ask the speakers to subscribe and share the content.
   

2. Find your voice 🔊

Be it growth tips or email marketing hacks, there're plenty of newsletters discussing every aspect of marketing already. What is missing is your unique experience and perspective. 🎯

Tbh, The Hustle doesn't do anything radically different from any of its contemporaries. Yet, they created a niche by simplifying business news, adding their perspective, and ditching jargons. Soon, this style became their identity. 
 

Recently, marketing experts like Dave Gerhardt and Justin Welsh have succeeded in building super-popular newsletters by following the same strategy. They discuss common topics like B2B marketing and solo entrepreneurship but share lessons from their experience to differentiate from rest of the content on the internet. 🤌

Speaking of differentiation, have you seen how Amanda Natividad makes her newsletter special? Check below 👇
 

Amanda shares what she learns about marketing and growth in “The Menu” - her newsletter. But the star of this email is her special recipe section (she's a trained chef)! 

What we learn from Amanda? The world is always willing to hear one more interesting perspective or a crazy idea ; all you need to do is present it well! 🤷‍♀️

3. Go back to the basics 🙃

The Hustle registers 2 times better metrics than the cross-industry average. In 2018, they had been consistently maintaining an open rate of 40% compared to the industry average of 22%.

This performance is not just because of their breakthrough ideas or interesting email copy. Sam Parr and the team have always been particular about getting deliverability right and following the best practices to optimize performance. 
 

Email Marketing Best Practices Recommended by Sam via freshworks

• You should send your email to your power users first. If Google sees that they’re opening then you will be placed in another user’s inbox.
   
• Make sure your IP is white-labeled and has a great reputation.
   
• Make sure your HTML is clean and the data doesn’t go over the allotted amount.
   
• Few pictures and extra CSS are better.
   
• Subject line testing isn’t always about what users will click on, but what subject lines get you into users’ inboxes.
  .  

✋ Intervention time ✋ 
If you want to build in inbox, you must understand email marketing fundamentals; which is why, Team Mailmodo has created a masterclass to help you learn them. Details below 👇 

🆕 EMAIL MASTERCLASS

Launching On September 1: A 90-minute email marketing masterclass with on-demand lessons & hands-on assignments. Learn how to 

👩‍🏫 Ensure better inbox placements 
😎 Boost Email ROI 

📝 Track and optimize performance 

Be an early applicant to get a full fee waiver along with Amazon Gift Cards!

Our Recommendation for Your Watchlist

Showtime 📺   

Chad S. White, Head of Research at Oracle Marketing Consulting, will discuss what goes behind launching a successful holiday campaign and how it can help you drive more revenue during the holidays on our next Growth Chat.

🚀 Mailmodo Shoutouts 🚀

1. Determine the right pricing for your product with Prisync

If you have an online store, competitors pricing analysis is both crucial and complicated. Prisync automates, accelerates, and optimizes this process so that you can offer your product at the best possible price and increase conversions. 
 

2. Conquer the omnichannel realm with Fynd
 

Running an omnichannel retail business requires you to operate at multiple levels all at once. With Fynd, however, you can manage your omnichannel inventory, orders, campaigns, and payments at a single platform. 

Result = Easier Life → Better Focus → Higher Returns 
 
We're thankful to both these companies who partnered with us on eCommerce email flows and shared their insights. 

With this, we come to the conclusion of this edition! See you next month with more email talk, interesting anecdotes, and fun recommendations! Ta-daaa! 👋

Mailmodo Technologies Inc.

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