How To Build and Grow a Successful Newsletter in 2025
Tactical tips, numbers, and templates inside
Dear GTM Strategist!
After a year and a half of being married to the idea that I should create content daily, we managed to achieve a notable milestone in growing our community: 65K LinkedIn + 20K newsletter subscribers.
And I first want to thank you and give you a GIANT kudos for learning with me. Without you, this would not be possible - I appreciate you to the moon 🙏 and I wholeheartedly wish you the same.
So, would it make sense for you to build your personal brand and attract new business opportunities by thinking and building in public?
Even the technical founders I mentor agree that all the AI advancements make content creation easier than ever. I have had my teams implement content systems in <7 days. Sure, it does take a month or so to get good at it - but “I do not know what or how to write” or “lacking time to do it” is not a valid excuse anymore.
What is a totally valid objection though is if your target audience is not on LinkedIn, does not read newsletters, or if your time has too high of opportunity cost that could produce better ROI elsewhere. But you either have time or money (ideally both) on your hands, so if you somehow sold on this idea of “building in personal brand”, I have a treat for you.
In this newsletter, I will:
Walk you through the evolution of my content creation
Share some stories and tactics that worked well for me, aka evolution
Present you tools that I use for my content creation - nothing fancy
Let you know why I do not want to make this newsletter paid
Give you a couple of hints about what is next
It will be semi-personal story-telling (feel free to skip if that ain’t your spiel), but I’ll make sure that you can still grab some good ideas, tactics, and frameworks that you can apply to your business - because I personally judge good content only through the lens of “what is in it for me” and I want you to have something tangible out of investing your time here.
I was never inspired to be an “influencer/content creator” - it all started as I was building demand for my GTM Strategist book launch
People say the hardest thing in business is to know your why, to find the motivation to get started, and stamina to continue. Well, in my case, that was easy. In 2023, I invested one year of my life into writing a book, went to isolation (maker mode), which was great for productivity, but terrible for marketing. 3 months before the launch, I had 100-something emails on my waitlist.
I panicked. I had a product and instead of raving fans, there were crickets. 🦗
So I went to turbo mode. Mission critical task was to build a 3K waitlist for the launch and started what I do to these days: 5-7 LinkedIn posts a week + one newsletter.
I did have something valuable - a writing habit. I could sit for hours and just get the work done, but every channel has its own laws and you cannot really brute force through it. You need reps to get good at it.
I made a commitment and the number of emails became one of my core weekly marketing KPIs. I have been following it religiously to this day.
Evolution and main drivers of growth of the newsletter lists
I got my first 500 subscribers by inviting my personal contacts to the email list. Then I started to include a call to action “subscribe to my newsletter” more frequently on LinkedIn, but that was the period of linear growth. I needed boosters ⚡
What worked well with my audience growth:
Collaborations with other creators 🤝: Working with mega content creators and my role models, such as Kyle Poyar, Paweł Huryn, Aakash Gupta, contributed thousands of subscribers to the community. 🙏 It is such a great way to introduce your work and mission to already thriving communities and I am forever grateful to them for giving me a chance. That was the beginning of not-so-linear growth :)
Substack recommendations loops 🔁: The only reason why I stick to Substack as an email platform is the recommendation engine with other content creators. It is a significant driver of signups (22.5% of the email base)
Lead magnets 🧲: My friend and GTM AI coach Jonathan M Kvarfordt, Head of GTM Growth at Momentum, said it best: “Make them so good that people would want to pay for it” - that is my mojo. Every time I invent a new framework, I’ll fuel its launch with a lead magnet campaign on LinkedIn.This tactic has diminishing returns at the moment and I do not want to overuse it because it does not attract the same quality of emails as content, but do not hate the player, hate the game. It still brings attention to the resource you want to promote.
I bet some of you might be thinking at this point: wow, so much effort, is it worth it?
Isn’t this newsletter free?
Yes, and I plan to keep it that way. This is me paying forward. When I started my career in growth back in 2012, I treated blog posts from Sean Ellis, Brian Balfour, Andrew Chen and other evergreeners like a bible. They shaped the way I think and grow, and I hope that some of my work will have a similar impact on the new generations of entrepreneurs, growth experts, product ninjas, and GTM strategists.
Huge thanks to supporters of the GTM Strategist media 🙏
I will not use the word sponsors, because we are not selling billboards; we intend to build partnerships with supporters of our media stream. When I had to decide between direct monetization (charging you a $7 subscription vs. media model), I opted for the media model because working with partners brings a lot of value to the ecosystem and I personally learn so much when interacting with their products and team members myself. They are an important part of our ecosystem.
So far, we have worked with 25+ partners on our content.
We have co-created content, developing assets and creating events with all of them, tackling GTM challenges, solving pressing business problems and getting our processes in order. I appreciate each and every one of the partners who supported our mission, but most of all, I would like to thank to our long-term partners:
Miro
Amplitude
Momentum
Ahrefs
Userpilot
Clay and
Tidio
You are amazing! Thank you so much for supporting GTM communities and investing in high-quality asset creation 🙏 and helping us to keep our content free with your valuable contribution and knowledge inputs.
Now it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get some work done, ain’t it?
How do I create content, and what can you learn from me and apply to your business?
Content creation process, templates, and frameworks
Grab your headphones, coffee, and enjoy the beats of classical music (I play Dvořák today - tune in 🎶) on a Sunday morning - we’ll get some work done ✍️
First, I will walk you through the main assets that not only I use, but I teach all my teams to follow a similar structure. This is what you need:
Strategic narrative - what is your unique point of view
Content pillars - what are your topics, what are you writing about
ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) - for whom you are writing, what problems do they have, what do they want
Content calendar - what if your publishing frequency and when you publish (with most of my teams, we start with 2-3 posts a week per founder and a biweekly newsletter), and so important
Design system - in the age of AI-assisted content, that can be a huge differentiator
System to define hooks and structure your posts (AI assistant) and
Analytics system - how do we measure results and create feedback loops?
Not vibing with this idea?
Let me help: Inbound is a powerful GTM Motion (predictable and scalable way to get customers). It does take 3-6 months to kick in - but guess what - as a pro, you are used to delayed gratification by now.
And since there are a lot of technical people reading this newsletter:
You do not have to sound like a wounded deer and whine in public to make it happen.
Personal branding does not mean sharing photos of your children or post-workout glow pics on LinkedIn. You don’t have to reveal any personal information, just lead with knowledge and stay laser-focused on adding value to your ICP.
I spend 1 day a week creating content for both - 5 LinkedIn posts and 1 newsletter. I have help with design, and my partner in life and business Anze Voje (add him on LinkedIn - maybe he will start posting 🤠), gracefully and patiently edits each version for you with love for good grammar, readability, and consciousness.
And that is it. It’s not rocket science.
I hope you enjoyed this one and grabbed an actionable idea or two that you can implement.
Let me know in the comments if you have some specific questions.
Thank you so much for reading this newsletter, supporting GTM Strategist, providing us feedback, and sharing it with your colleagues and teams. 🙏
If you want to support my work, here is how we can exchange value:
Get the best-selling GTM Strategist book + 20 frameworks (workshops) + online course.
Leverage the 100-step GTM Checklist with AI prompts tested on 800+ launches with templates (emails, launch plans, posts, landing pages), which will guide you from getting ready to launch to an impactful launch and scaling stage.
Guide your team to successfully choose ICP (target market), pricing, positioning & selection of best GTM Motion (channels, tactics) with GTM Masterclass - includes 6 hours of video content.
If you’re interested in content partnership with GTM Strategist, reach out to grow@majavoje.com.
Great content, thank you
Great article Maja!