Thread by Chenell Basilio

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When I announced that sponsorships for the newsletter were sold out until May,

I got questions like:

• What network am I using? (I'm not)
• How am I doing cold outreach? (I'm not)
• How am I selling them? (I'm not?)

So here's what I am doing & how I set this up:
A few months ago, I heard an interview where @jayclouse was asking @jspector how he's been so successful at getting sponsors for his newsletter.

Josh said that before adding sponsors, he sent his audience a 1-question survey on how they would feel about him doing so.
@jayclouse @jspector Initially, he did this to help him get over the fear of annoying people by adding sponsors.

But it had the added benefit of him having a list of people who might be interested in sponsoring an issue.

So that's what I did:
@jayclouse @jspector In @ConvertKit you can set up "click triggers" where people get tagged a certain way if they click a link.

If they clicked "No ads", they were tagged with "No ads" tag on the back end.

And from there I could see who voted which way.

The results were a little wild:
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit The final tally:
• I'd be curious to see them: 102
• Possible sponsors: 14
• No to ads: 8

Now know that most people don't mind ads as a way to support creators.

And I also had 14 people who were interested in sponsoring an issue.

But my first sponsor didn't come from that:
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit It came from a Twitter DM.

An old friend saw that in my email and asked how much I was charging.

After a 3-minute conversation, I had my first sponsor - thanks @andyfieb!

That week, I added a PS line asking people to reply if they wanted to sponsor.

All I got was crickets...
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb But I had reached out to some of those 14 interested people and heard back.

Thankfully, the team at @WhoSponsorsHQ was interested in buying 3 issues.

They were my next sponsor.

And they unknowingly helped build in some scarcity:
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ Another one of Josh's great tidbits of info from that podcast episode:

If you think you can sell 70 tickets to your show, you're better off booking a 50-seat theatre to make sure it sells out and causes some buzz.

He translated that into the sponsorships:
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ Price them a little low so you can sell out every issue and people see it as a hot product.

Then you can gradually increase them as time goes on.

So I did.

But I knew I needed to put together a page where people could sign up and buy sponsorships without me being involved:
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ I cobbled together a combination of a Tally form, Thrivecart, and Stripe.

There are still manual parts to this process, and it's definitely not pretty, but it works.

And now people can click a link I have in every issue and buy a spot.

My last tip for getting more sponsors:
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ Write your own copy.

Don't just throw in the boring technical speak your sponsors send you - sorry guys!

This copy from a recent issue led to another person buying 3 slots.

They specifically mentioned it when they bought them.

And I had my highest CTR on a sponsor slot yet.
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ I'm not an expert at this stuff, but so far I've learned:

• Send a 1-question survey
• Build a self-service way people can buy
• Price low up front to create scarcity
• Writing good copy sells more sponsorships
@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ Enjoy tips like this?

1. Follow me @chenellco
2. Retweet the first tweet


@jayclouse @jspector @ConvertKit @andyfieb @WhoSponsorsHQ I also publish a weekly newsletter that goes much more in-depth on how top creators grow to 50k+ subscribers.

Sign up and I'll send you my latest deep dive now:
growthinreverse.com?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=threads&utm_campaign=17mar23
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