Newsletter Pre-Sales Success
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Sam built a paid research newsletter called Trends that generated $60k in pre-sales before launch and grew to $400-500k monthly revenue within 18 months. The newsletter focused on breaking down interesting companies and identifying emerging trends.
Key Points:
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Initial Product Pitch:
- Used Jeff Bezos story about 2,300% internet growth as hook
- Offered lifetime access for $100 (regular price would be $300/year)
- Created simple 400-word Gumroad page explaining the concept
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Launch Strategy:
- Targeted 300 most engaged users from The Hustle's 1M email list
- Got on phone calls with first 100 customers to understand:
- Why they purchased
- What they were looking for
- Their expectations
- Built first report based on customer insights
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Growth Method:
- Added "coming soon" page after Hustle newsletter signup
- Linked to Gumroad pre-sale page
- Ran Facebook ads to Gumroad page
- Reached ~20,000 users by 18 months
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Results:
- $60,000 in pre-sales before launch
- Scaled to $400-500k monthly revenue by month 18
- Product was built around initial customer feedback from phone calls
Sam Parr
Host of MFM and fitness influencer
Sam Parr is a serial entrepreneur and business media pioneer.
In 2016, he founded The Hustle, a business news media company that started in his kitchen with just $12 and grew to eight figures in revenue.
Sam led the charge in making newsletters popular when few believed in their potential.
After four successful years, he sold The Hustle to HubSpot, a publicly traded company. Now operating as HubSpot Media, The Hustle reaches 3 million readers daily, employs a team of nearly 100, and has been the launchpad for dozens of its staff to found their own media companies and newsletters.
Sam remains the host of the popular business podcast, My First Million, and continues to start and sell companies. He also co-founded Hampton, a highly vetted community for entrepreneurs, founders, and CEOs, and teaches people to write better through his platform, Copy That.