Build Your Newsletter from Scratch with X (Formerly Twitter)

Most creators I follow on X have newsletters. 

Let's talk numbers: 3,674 newsletters were on beehiiv in 2022. Fast forward to 2023 – that number soared to 26,345— sevenfold growth in just a year.

Building a community around yourself becomes seamless with newsletters, creating a space for shared experiences and stories. On the other hand, X acts as a dynamic forum for ongoing conversations, helping you engage with your audience in real-time and strengthening the sense of community.

Whether you're a solo entrepreneur, small business owner, or aspiring content creator, this guide is tailored to empower you at every step of the way. 

We’re covering:

• How to find your audience

• How to gain initial traction on X

• How to grow organically by leveraging X’s features

• How to redirect people on X to your newsletter

• How to kick off a paid growth content strategy for X

• How to leverage tools and resources you might need for this content strategy

Table of Contents

• Organic Growth Tactics

• Paid Growth

• Understanding X Ads

• Skill Building

• What Next?

• Resources

Discovering Your Audience

Before diving into building your newsletter, start by understanding what's trending on X. The key is to focus on the people who are in the same niche as yours. Getting in touch with them and getting seen, is a sure-shot path to growth. Here’s what to ask yourself before you begin:

X Analytics can guide you—see what content clicks with your audience. Engage in conversations to grasp their interests and needs. You're starting from zero—no worries if you lack a specific skill. 

The initial goal? Get noticed by your target audience. 

Don't just post—interact! When beginning, engaging in comments is key. Interacting with other creators, even from scratch, gives that initial boost. 

For instance, here’s what Sahil Bloom did before he even started sharing threads on X:

How can you get involved in the dialogue? Enhance discussions by:

• Introducing fresh perspectives

• Presenting an alternative narrative

• Demonstrating your expertise

Most importantly, make friends on the platform. You could ask them questions out of intrigue or just make them laugh.

Why X is great for growing newsletters:

• Understand the marketing funnel: your audience versus borrowed audience and optimize your call-to-actions (CTAs).

• Use bullet points and concise sentences that mirror your newsletter's style.

• Tease content on X, offering glimpses, and delve deeper into your newsletter for an immersive experience.

Knowing your audience is just the start. Growing your X community and newsletter requires more than tweeting and sharing long-form content. 

Here are 5 organic growth tactics to build your X community and also build your newsletter:

1. Content Curation

Handpick and share valuable, relevant content within your niche to engage and educate your audience effectively.  While curating content can seem easier than working on something from scratch, you need to learn how to strike a balance–find what vibes with your audience and share your personal takes.

• Share what your followers are craving. Think about their interests and what they're eager to learn.

• Craft a X list of ace sources for your audience's favorite topics. 

• Once you've got your curated content, schedule those tweets. Keep an eye on analytics to see what hits home.

Examples:

Nathan Baugh shares a collection of “sentences I wish I wrote” on X:

Same example for Dickie Bush and Jay Yang

Templates

The idea is simple – acknowledge the source where you got the information and add your own value point, which gives them another reason to check out your content.

• Just tuned into an incredible podcast diving into [topic] by [hosts]. Here’s my biggest takeaway [Insightful Point]. 

Check out the full podcast here [Podcast Link]. 

• Did you miss out on all the big news in the [topic] world this week? Here’s the scoop in under 2 minutes:

• I base my life-altering decisions on [influential figure]’s approach in shaping [their biggest project]: The [framework name] Framework.

Here’s how it can change your life...

2. Engaging Visuals 

TikTok’s rise makes it clear how images and videos capture our attention more than just texts. The question is: can you do it all with X and newsletters, too?

Yes! In fact, this could give you your own edge on the text-heavy platform.

Here are a few examples that cater to the habits of X users: 

Examples:

Zach Porab shares stories of great people who are obsessed with what they do – Arnold Schwarzenegger, Kanye West, Micheal Jordan. He even has a Pinterest board by the name of obsessioncore:

After the launch of Naval’s new venture, Airchat, he shares videos from his Airchat conversations on X and also the transcription.

Smart Nonsense reached 30,000 subscribers in less than 6 months of launching on beehiiv. Their edge? A daily comic newsletter. Did Steve Jobs take inspiration from Picasso?
How was YouTube invented? All of these are explained through 5 minutes of funny comics.

Templates

• Spotlight Snapshot: Share an engaging visual highlighting an exclusive snippet or a 'sneak peek' from your upcoming newsletter issue. Direct your followers to subscribe to the newsletter for more exclusive insights.

• Visual Storyboard: Create a visual storyboard series summarizing the main points or key takeaways from your recent newsletters. Each slide or image could highlight a different aspect, encouraging followers to dive deeper.

• Leverage videos: You can now upload 3-hour-long podcast videos on X, and yes it works!

  Break down complex information into videos and experiment with different video formats, enticing followers to subscribe for more in-depth details. Here’s an example:

3. Community Engagement

Engage authentically by joining conversations—reply to tweets or DM with genuine insights and shared interests. Collaborate on projects or co-host X Spaces to support each other's content and expand your audience reach.

Regularly share original content that provides value to your audience. It can be insights, tips, resources, or thought leadership pieces - leverage X spaces, X Lists, and X communities to understand your audience’s interests in real time.

Examples

Lists and Follow Threads: Create lists of like-minded creators for easy engagement. Follow relevant threads and contribute with valuable insights.

Be the life of the party: Actively participate in discussions and X chats and reply to comments to build relationships and establish credibility. Here’s how the My First Million podcast uses the X community to its advantage:

Templates

• Participation in X Chats

  Hey [Chat Hashtag] community! Excited to dive into today's discussion on [Topic]. I've found [Insight/Resource] particularly valuable this weekend. What were you up to this week? 

• Responding to a Trending Conversation

  Just stumbled upon the conversation about [Trending Topic]. Love the diverse perspectives here! My take is [Your Insight]. What are your thoughts, folks? Let's keep this insightful convo rolling! 

• Gratitude and Value Sharing

  Appreciate the insights shared by [@Influencer/Community Member] on [Topic]. Really resonated with [Specific Point]. Learning a lot from this amazing community! Here's a resource I found helpful too [Link]. Hope it adds value! 

4. Collaboration

The foundation of building a community is growing together. Collaborating with other peers can help you increase your impact.

Partner with influencers or peers for shoutouts or content swaps to reach a broader audience.

The right partner to collaborate with will have the following characteristics:

• They are passionate about their niche.

• Action and accountability are most important.

• Your target audience is the same.

Example

Ship 30 for 30 by Dickie Bush and Nicolas Cole is a community specifically for ghostwriters. They have a course, tutorials, and writing frameworks that give them an edge:

​Here’s your goldmine, for all things advertising on X.

To get a brief idea of how to start your paid growth journey, read here:

Tactics For $0/mo:

Focus on Manual Engagement

Interact with creators and your growing audience.

Double down on your best-performing Posts. Share deep dives of these A-stars in your newsletter.

Content Curation

To balance your content schedule, curate content that’s relevant to your audience.

Don’t forget to add some value from your end while sharing curated content.

Organic Growth Strategies

The key to understanding what clicks with people is to iterate with content types. Try out different writing styles, formats, and also images, and videos.

Invest time in learning graphics + video editing. Try out Canva and InVideo to get started for free.

Setting Up

• Access your X Ads account and click "Create campaign" selecting "Website traffic."

• Name the campaign, set a budget, and select the ad group details.

• Choose an ad group goal: link clicks, site visits, or conversions.

• Select bid type: auto bid (recommended), target cost, or maximum bid.

Creating X Ads

Select Campaign Objective: Choose "Website Clicks or Conversions" as your objective since you're aiming to drive traffic to your newsletter.

Define Audience: Target specific demographics—age, location, interests—that align with your newsletter's audience.

Set Budget and Schedule: Determine your daily or total budget and the duration of the ad campaign.

Types of X Ads

Promoted Posts: Promote your best-performing tweets to a wider audience. Optimize these tweets to encourage newsletter sign-ups.

Promoted Accounts: Increase followers by promoting your X account to users who will likely be interested in your content.

Customizing Ad Content

Compelling Ad Copy: Craft attention-grabbing and concise ad copy that highlights the value of subscribing to your newsletter.

Eye-Catching Visuals: Use compelling images or videos that resonate with your target audience to enhance the ad's impact.

Adding CTAs for Newsletter Growth

Include Clear CTAs: Ensure that your ad clearly communicates the call-to-action (CTA) to subscribe to your newsletter. Use concise and direct language.

Landing Page Optimization: Direct users to a dedicated landing page optimized for newsletter sign-ups. Make the subscription process easy and clear.

For $100/mo (Initial Paid Campaigns):

There are three main things you want to focus on to nail your first paid campaign:

• Great copy

• Great headline

• A relevant image/video.

Here are the other important things to keep in mind:

Adding Keywords

• Go to campaign setup > "Targeting" > "Keywords." Add around 25 relevant keywords for better reach.

• Use a mix of specific and broad keywords to maintain engagement while targeting a wider audience.

• Campaigns default to home timelines but can target profiles, post pages, and search results. 

Best Practices

• Avoid over-restricting with too few keywords.

• Understand how keywords capture various word variations.

• Hashtags are automatically included when targeting keywords.

Different Features

• Historical keyword targeting helps you target people based on past interactions.

• New Keywords Ads target real-time, relevant conversations and searches.

• Retarget users who have previously engaged with your tweets. Showcase your newsletter's value proposition and drive them towards subscription.

• Sponsor relevant X chats to insert subtle plugs for your newsletter, leveraging the engaged audience's attention.

For $200/mo (Expanded Reach):

Website Clicks Campaigns

Directly promote your newsletter sign-up page using Website Clicks Campaigns. A/B test various ad formats and CTAs to maximize conversions.

Bidding Strategy

• Autobid: Auto-optimizes bids for best results within budget

• Target cost: Sets bid for average cost per link click

• Maximum bid: More control over cost per action for experienced advertisers

Lead Generation Cards

Utilize X’s lead generation cards to capture emails directly within the platform. Offer an incentive (e.g., exclusive content) for newsletter sign-ups. 

The checklist is ready:

• Find your niche

• Target your audience

• Interact with other creators in the same niche

• Post content on X

• Have some visual content - videos/infographics

• Engage with your audience

• Cover deep dives on your newsletter

• Share snippets of your newsletter content

• CTA to your newsletter

• Leverage your newsletter to build a strong community! ⭐

Learn more about types of X ads, setting up your first ad, and much more here.

What Are the Skills You Need To Make the Most of Your X Account?

Learn How To Target Your Audience. 

Leveraging X analytics is your best bet to track your performance and tweet about topics that people love.

• Start a X Business profile and connect with your audience.

• Use hashtags and keywords in your bio for visibility.

• Include a call-to-action for email subscriptions on your profile.

• Create engaging Posts encouraging follows, reposts, and subscriptions.

Understand Key Metrics

• Post Impressions show how many times your tweets have been seen by users. Higher impressions mean more visibility.

• Engagement Rate is the percentage of people who interacted with your tweets (likes, reposts, clicks) compared to the number of impressions. Higher rates indicate engaging content.

• Follower Growth helps you track the number of new followers gained over a specific period.

Optimize Performance

• Check your most engaging tweets. Understand what makes them successful—content, timing, or format—and replicate those elements.

• Analyze when your audience is most active. Post content during peak hours for better visibility.

• Test different types of content—videos, images, polls—and track which ones perform best. Adapt your strategy based on the results.

Audience Insights

• Understand your audience's age, location, and interests. Tailor your content to resonate with their preferences.

• Track follower trends. Analyze periods of significant growth and identify content or campaigns that attract more followers.

Since Sahil Bloom wrote his first X thread in May 2020, he’s now closing in at 1million followers on the platform.

Zain Kahn grew his newsletter Superhuman to 250k subscribers in a span of 5 months.

The point I am trying to make is that both X and newsletters have infinite potential. Once you’ve built an audience from 0 to 1000, the road ahead only has more to offer.

Here’s what to do next:

• Refine your X strategy and double down on what’s working. Repurpose content.

• Branch out to other social media platforms. Leverage reels and shorts on Instagram and YouTube, respectively. LinkedIn is another good option.

• Build a community using your newsletter. As emails establish a sense of ownership when it comes to audience engagement and an algorithm-free experience.

With beehiiv, you can use the ad network, boosts, referral engine, and recommendations to keep growing your newsletter community.

Why Trust Me: 

I have been a writer for 6 years and part of the beehiiv content team for a year now. This has given me a deep understanding of email marketing and how it can be optimized. When I am not writing, you can find me scrolling through X. 

What are the best platforms and tools to kickstart and sustain your content creation journey? Here are our top choices:

X Analytics: X Analytics

To help you understand your content’s performance, X offers great insights that you can use to enhance your content strategy.

Scheduling Tools: TweetDeck

Building a content schedule will keep you accountable and your content process streamlined. With Tweetdeck, you can schedule your tweets.

Graphics and Video Editing: Canva, InVideo

As mentioned earlier, leveraging visuals can give you an amazing edge when it comes to content. Canva and InVideo are beginner-friendly platforms to help you start.

Learning X Ads: X Business

To deep dive into the X ads ocean, X Business has plenty of resources to help you kickstart your journey!

Influencer Marketing: Followerwonk

Want to find peers and build to a specific audience? With Followerwonk, you can also see who your followers follow.

Social Media Strategy: Hootsuite Blog

Hootsuite is a social media management tool that helps businesses connect and manage all of their social media accounts from a single dashboard.

Content Creation Courses: Coursera 

Want to learn more about content creation and strategy? With Coursera, you can find the best “social media content creation courses” to learn more about paid growth and community building.

Choosing beehiiv as your newsletter platform will not only help you setup a newsletter for growth but also offer deep insights on the traffic coming in from X and other sources – helping you understand what needs to be tweaked and what should be doubled down on 

This 90-day plan is your guide to building your newsletter community.