Hey there 👋,

In last week’s issue I talked about how I don’t think newsletter businesses should have a welcome series showcasing their top content/stories.

Instead I use a single welcome email that links to an about page where people can choose to read about my backstory, and why each newsletter exists, such as at https://create.beehiiv.com/c/about.

So what to do with your top content if you’re not dripping it out?

Turning your top content into a tripwire

In my newsletter funnel post I mentioned the importance of having some kind of product offer on your thank you page (something you can set up in beehiiv that you can’t do in Substack) in terms of being able to spend on acquisition.

This is ideally your own digital product (so you make 100%) but I’ve had a lot of success promoting software offers as an affiliate on thank you pages, such as Clickfunnels.

I started pre-selling my first product The Newsletter Is The Business (TNITB) back in February and (as my only product at the time) had it on the thank you page of all three of my newsletters - this one as well as Digital Asset Investor (where newsletters is just one of many assets I’m discussing) and Acquire The Web (about content sites and aged domains).

Even though TNITB is converting at a solid 2.75% from traffic to sales (you can apply to be an affiliate here) it’s better to have targeted products for each newsletter.

It’s also better to have low priced products on thank you pages (my TNITB is now at the full $247) so that they convert more and you can make back your funnel acquisition spend quicker.

These low priced products, from ~$9 up to $49-$99 are called tripwires.

They are designed to get a new subscriber to immediately take action and purchase, and are typically followed by upsells.

I created a tripwire for my Acquire The Web newsletter on Monday of this week, called the Acquire The Web Manual, priced at $49:

I simply aggregated all my top content I’ve created from my newsletters and blog posts into various headings, as well as referencing the latest content from other people.

I’ve already had 4 sales - the dashboard says 8 as an existing customer asked for 50% off (!) and the other 4 were comps to people in my inner circle:

This was from 90 visits so it’s converting at a better 4.5% so far, although obviously a very low sample size.

If we assume the conversion rate stays at 4.5% then that means that 1 in every 22 people buys the tripwire (21 to 1).

I’m paying $5.50 for a subscriber on Swapstack, so it costs $121 for every $49 sale. I then need to make an additional $72 back from those 22 people.

I’ve been averaging $1 per subscriber through Sparkloop Upscribe so that would be $22 back leaving $50 remaining to break even. But I’m actually using beehiiv’s own recommendations feature at the moment to get as many people subscribing to my other two newsletters.

Let’s assume that:

• 50% of people subscribe to at least one other of my newsletters so those 22 people become 33 subscribers.

• My combined open rate is 50% (it’s actually over 70% for this newsletter) so that’s 17 opens.

• My newsletter sponsorship CPM averages $200.

So I get $200 for every 1000 subscribers, and for those 17 opens I get $3.50. As such it would take 20 sends (over 3 months) to break even on sponsorship alone, which is not great.

However I also promote a range of software tools as an affiliate, most of which have recurring commissions.

For example, I’ve sent 558 clicks through my newsletters to Content at Scale (you can become an affiliate here) which is earning me 4 figures a month:

I also feature my own products within every newsletter issue so if a new subscriber doesn’t purchase immediately on the thank you page, then some % will purchase after week 1,2,4,8 etc.

Funnels like this are hard to quantify, but I was confident my payback period was < 2 months previously, and now with tripwire products it’s likely < 1 month.

What tripwire products can you create from your existing content?

The Newsletter Platform Built for Growth

I’ve tried almost every newsletter platform, from Drip to ConvertKit to Substack (running 6 newsletters there at one point) to now beehiiv.

beehiiv was founded by some of the earliest employees of the Morning Brew, so they know what it takes to grow a newsletter from zero to millions.

You get built-in referral functionality, customization, and analytics where you can see the results of paid acquisition. I genuinely couldn’t do what I do without them.

Try beehiiv absolutely free with no credit card required

👍 Recommended Newsletters on beehiiv

🚀 Check out my newsletter product

Ok that’s it from me, I’ll be back in your inbox next Friday or sooner if you subscribe to my other newsletters on beehiiv above.

Cheers!

Richard Patey (@richardpatey)

Disclaimer: Nothing in this email is business advice and I am not a professional business adviser. I send weekly updates on the creator economy and what I'm doing personally - consider it informational and for entertainment purposes only. This newsletter is monetized through sponsorship, affiliate revenue and my own products.