Running paid ads for a new newsletter is a mistake. First, prove you can convert an existing organic audience (e.g., from social media). If your core followers won't subscribe, there's a content or messaging mismatch. Paid ads will only waste money by scaling a message that doesn't resonate.
Related Insights
Stop planning creative and media buys simultaneously. Instead, post creative organically first. Then, exclusively allocate media spend to amplify the content that has already demonstrated strong consumer engagement, forcing creative to be effective on its own merit before receiving paid support.
In the current "interest media" era, social platforms act as a free testing ground. Post content organically, identify what performs best with the algorithm, and only then invest media dollars to amplify those proven winners, eliminating expensive guesswork.
Don't waste money testing ad creative from scratch. First, post content organically across platforms. When a piece performs exceptionally well, use that as a clear signal to put paid advertising spend behind it. The algorithm and audience have already validated its appeal, de-risking your ad budget.
Don't guess which ads will work. Post content organically and let the platform's algorithm validate it. When a post gets unusually high engagement, you've found a winner. Turn that specific post into a targeted paid ad to de-risk your ad spend.
When launching a LinkedIn newsletter, the platform notifies all your followers. The best tactic is to wait for this initial wave of subscribers to join *before* sending your first issue. Publishing too quickly means most of your new audience will miss the inaugural email, wasting the launch's momentum.
A marketer lost $25,000 driving paid traffic to a new, untested funnel. The key lesson is to first validate any marketing or sales funnel with organic traffic to ensure it converts before investing significant ad spend, thus avoiding wasted budget.
A critical mistake is publishing your first newsletter immediately upon creation. The optimal tactic is to launch the newsletter, wait for the platform to send subscription notifications and for followers to subscribe, and then send the first issue. This ensures it reaches the largest possible audience, avoiding the 'zero sends' pitfall of premature publishing.
Don't build elaborate welcome sequences before you have subscribers. The priority is validating your idea and growing your list. This avoids building features for a non-existent audience. A simple three-sentence welcome email is sufficient for early stages.
Newsletters can be powerful list-builders, but only if promoted like a product. Instead of a simple 'join my newsletter' prompt, create a dedicated page that details the value, explains what subscribers will get, and even offers a preview of a past issue.
Before building landing pages or choosing an email platform, validate your newsletter concept by directly asking people to subscribe. If you can't get 10-20 people from your network to say yes, the idea might need refinement. This avoids building infrastructure for an unproven concept.