Case Study: Hitting 14,000 Subscribers 1 Month After Launch

When the California Gold Rush took over in the 1850s, around 300,000 people came with high hopes of striking it big. However, the vast majority left poor, while only a few struck gold.

The people who made the most money? The business people who served the prospectors: the local saloon bartender, the pickaxe dealer, and the boutique hotel owner.

Fast-forward to 2023, and we have another gold rush: Artificial Intelligence. But, while AI is the hottest topic right now, it’s likely here to stay. Advancements in AI technology like Chat GPT are rapidly changing the world around us, particularly when it comes to business.

And, one savvy businessman is capitalizing on the AI wave by taking his shot in the newsletter space: Marcus Ramsey. At the start of 2023, Ramsey—an eCommerce SEO expert—decided to plunge into the AI space and launch his first newsletter on beehiiv.

In just over a month, he’s grown his newsletter to over 14,000 subscribers and counting!

In this beehiiv case study, we interviewed Marcus Ramsey, founder and CEO of The Brink, to explore the reasons why he launched his newsletter on beehiiv and how he achieved this level of success early on.

In Ramsey’s view, “I mean, [beehiiv] has everything you need. You don't really have any other good alternatives, specifically for newsletters, in my opinion.

Case Study Highlights

The Brink: An Overview

The Brink Newsletter is a brand new newsletter focused on providing valuable artificial intelligence (AI) content and news to its audience of over 14,000 subscribers and growing.

The newsletter covers a wide range of topics, including everything regarding AI, business, tech, and more. In just three minutes every morning, subscribers can keep up with the latest news and tips in AI by reading Ramsey’s curated newsletter.

According to The Brink’s website, here’s how the newsletter “Helps you stay one step ahead of the robots:”

• “Daily AI News: Each weekday at 8:00 AM EST”

• “Exclusive Stories: Interviews & Insights From Insiders, Founders, and Investors”

• “Written By Humans: There's something about that human touch, right?”

The unique value of reading The Brink is summed up in this call to action: “Get Smart About AI, So You Don't Get Left Behind.”

The Brink Backstory

“My main job is doing search engine optimization for eCommerce companies. In the past, I used to run an eCommerce company that I sold. So, I have a lot of experience with eCommerce and SEO, and that's kind of my main job. My newsletter, at the moment, is a side hustle.”

When asked about how the idea for The Brink’s AI newsletter came to be, Ramsey responded, “I absolutely have a passion for artificial intelligence. I think everyone was very surprised about Chat GPT and how far it's actually come.”

“I've always been involved in marketing, and there's a lot of different software and tools that go along with it. So, when I heard about Chat, GPT (and what it could do), I was like, wow, this is just absolutely incredible. I'm always fascinated with technology, and I just want to stay in the loop, and [AI] was something I was interested in, so I thought other people might be interested in it as well.”

Similar to other successful beehiiv newsletters, like Inverse Cramer, Ramsey’s traffic strategy began with his Twitter account.

“I just focus all my time on Twitter pretty much. So, that's the biggest driver. I mean, I did a product hunt launch as well, and that did okay. But by far the biggest driver of traffic has been Twitter. So basically, I write daily. I have a story that I write about every day, which usually [starts] with a major, influential person on Twitter.”

“For example, Sam Altman—if he goes off and writes a tweet, and it's something that I'm gonna write about that day, I'll comment below his tweet saying like, ‘I'm writing about this on my daily newsletter’ and I'll link my newsletter. And, I actually get a lot of signups just through that. People who wanna hear a more detailed story of what's going on. So that's how I got a lot of subscribers.”

Another way Ramsey has attracted newsletter signups is by creating valuable lead magnets for his audience in exchange for their email address. “...also creating resources. So swipe files and things like that. These swipe files, they've gone kind of viral on Twitter.”

“I've had some tweets that get over 500,000 views, and basically I'll ask people to comment, and then I'll DM them the swipe file when they sign up. I make it clear on the landing page that they're also gonna get a newsletter. So about 55% of those people end up staying and being really good subscribers. The other 50%, they just kind of get the swipe file and don't really engage [with the newsletter], but I filter those people out.”

How The Brink Monetizes Its Newsletter

Ramsey launched The Brink just over a month ago so he hasn’t yet monetized the newsletter. However, things are moving quickly. With a rapidly growing newsletter (14,000+ subscribers) in just over 30 days in an exciting and expanding market (artificial intelligence), he’s already had potential advertisers reach out.

Ramsey shared, “I'm pretty close. I'm not monetizing at all right now. But I'm very close to that. My plan is to do sponsorships. I don't know if I'm ever gonna do a premium [paid newsletter], maybe we'll see in the future. But I think the easiest way to start generating revenue from the beginning is just through sponsorships. And I have had some people reach out to me already. So yeah, I think that's the way I'm gonna go.”

The Challenge That Ramsey Overcame to Catapult The Brink’s Newsletter Growth

For Ramsey and The Brink newsletter, his main challenge to overcome was finding a platform that offered a growth engine to allow him to scale his newsletter quickly from 0 to 100.

In addition to facing the challenge of growing in a seemingly saturated market like AI, once the challenge of growth was solved, Ramsey understood that it wasn’t just about how many subscribers he could get, but the quality of subscribers. He knew he needed a platform that offered advanced analytics to allow him to make data-driven decisions to improve subscriber engagement and nurture an active list.

Ramsey’s views are, “If this is going to be a real business in the future, and I'm actually gonna get real advertisers on board, I want to get them a real result. They're gonna be looking for those results. And so that's why I'm pruning my list; to have a quality newsletter list rather than just a quantity one.”

Challenge: Rapid Growth

Before starting The Brink, one of Ramsey’s primary goals was to ensure it took off quickly with his audience. For him, beehiiv offered a runway that allowed his newsletter to take flight in no time. That runway is the beehiiv Referral Program.

beehiiv’s Referral Program allows newsletter creators to leverage the power of their subscribers to fast-track their list growth. Built by the same team that built Morning Brew’s successful referral program, beehiiv’s referral program was enticing to Ramsey since it can be set up in no time.

Ramsey shared, “I think your referral program has helped me a lot in two ways. One is it actually works. So I've gotten a ton of subscribers from the referral program. And two, I didn't have to spend any time implementing it whatsoever or trying to get the tool to work or anything like that.”

Ramsey noted that setting up a user-friendly referral program that’s also cost-effective was important to him. He shared, “In order to implement a referral program [on other newsletter platforms], it's kind of expensive. There are other [referral programs] out there that are expensive and also kind of clunky. Yours is just built in automatically.”

Simple Setup (In Minutes)

With a simple setup, the beehiiv Referral Program can be ready in just a few minutes without the use of integrations, coding, third parties, or any other complicated steps. You simply add in your specific rewards and milestones, and your referral program is activated.

Customizable (Even For Beginners)

One of the many roadblocks to building a successful newsletter is trying to make it your own. This problem is especially magnified when you don’t have a technical background or don’t know how to code. However, with beehiiv’s Referral Program, you can easily customize the program to match your branding, so there’s no code needed. You can customize your program to match your newsletter’s aesthetic and branding with beehiiv’s fully customizable no-code editor.

All-In-One Program Management

The Referral Program is built right into the beehiiv platform. The all-in-one program allows you to easily manage your entire program in one easy-to-access space. Within the beehiiv email editor, you can simply drag and drop a referral section into your newsletter without having to exit your workflow.

Plus, beehiiv’s Referral Program shows you real-time results from your efforts. You can manage your reward fulfillment and your list growth with ease, allowing you to track new referrals, how many subscribers have brought in a referral, and more.

“Delivering the [reward] to people whenever they've made a referral—It's a digital product, but you guys just do that in a really easy way. I don't have to set up any automations or anything. It's just kind of just done. I like that a lot. That's definitely saved me a lot of time,” said Ramsey.

Results with beehiiv

Since launching on beehiiv, The Brink Newsletter has seen remarkable results. Ramsey was able to grow The Brink to over 14,000 subscribers in just over a month! In addition to his rapid subscriber growth, he’s also seeing great engagement.

The Brink is seeing open rates above 35% and click-through rates above 5%. To top it off, even though Ramsey hasn’t monetized his newsletter yet, he’s received multiple offers from potential sponsors to advertise in his newsletter.

Ramsey shared, “The results have been really great. I've been averaging between 35 to 50% open rates. It’s pretty good. Deliverability seems to be good. I have around a five to 7% unique, uh, click-through rate. So yeah, results seem good so far.”

Even though he managed to rapidly grow his list to over 14,000 subscribers in a month, Ramsey shared that not all subscribers are created equal. What’s more important than simply having a subscriber is having an active and engaged subscriber.

Ramsey shared, “It's easy to get caught up in those vanity metrics. I could tell you like, oh yeah, I've gotten 14,000 people. I'm already in one month at a 14,000-person newsletter. But I come from a marketing background from eCommerce. A lot of our marketing was based off of influencers. And we would pay influencers, and it’s very similar to newsletters.”

“So I know from the marketing side, people really want to drive traffic to their landing pages or website. And so if someone is signed up to your newsletter, but they're not engaging whatsoever and they're not clicking, they're not opening, then they're really not valuable to you whatsoever.”

Favorite beehiiv Features

beehiiv’s Analytics

One of the superior features of beehiiv, according to Ramsey, is its analytics. beehiiv’s 3D analytics allows users to see how every single email performs, so they can make informed decisions about their strategy. Ramsey also noted that beehiiv's segmentation is top-notch.

Something that stood out for Ramsey is how beehiiv allows you to easily track where subscribers came from.

According to Ramsey, “[beehiiv’s] analytics are very cool because they're very geared towards newsletters. You know, there are, there are other email service providers out there that provide analytics, but they don't give you detailed information like, ‘Where did this person come from?’ You know, you guys have like UTM tracking built in automatically, so I think that’s really cool and I like that a lot.”

beehiiv’s Email Editor

Coming from a marketing background, Ramsey had dabbled in other newsletter platforms, like Klaviyo and ConvertKit, but found that their editor was either too basic or too complicated.

“I do have experience with Klaviyo for eCommerce and ConvertKit. ConvertKit is very bare-bones when it comes to their [email] editor. beehiiv has a little bit of a better email editor than ConvertKit. So I like that a lot. It's also like [beehiiv’s] user interface. It’s a lot more streamlined than something like Klaviyo. Klaviyo is really advanced, and you can do a lot of things, but it's also very confusing.”

“beehiiv’s kind of in that perfect middle ground where it's not confusing, but you still have a lot of features that are relatively advanced. It offers really good features and it’s really affordable. I think it's just a great option. There's a reason why you guys are growing so quickly.”

beehiiv’s Competitive Pricing

beehiiv was created with creators in mind. While the platform offers advanced features for enterprise needs, it allows bootstrapping publishers to get a head start from square one with its competitive pricing.

Ramsey shared, “Initially the reason I chose [beehiiv] was, it had the features that I wanted: being able to make a good-looking newsletter without necessarily sacrificing anything. But it's also very affordable.

“This is a side project, and if you're launching something brand new and you have no revenue, it’s kind of difficult to pay for a really expensive tool. That was one of the main reasons I went with beehiiv. You guys have unlimited sending too, so other people try to cap you on that.”

Enjoying this case study? Learn how Ben Levy from Milk Road used beehiiv to scale his newsletter to over 250,000 subscribers and get acquired all within one year. Read the full case study here.

Summary

Looking forward, Ramsey’s plans for The Brink are twofold: continue to drive growth and begin monetizing on beehiiv.

“My goal would be to get to around 20,000 engaged subscribers. I'm running a daily newsletter, and I would like it to be successful. Right now it's just a side project, but eventually, I would like it to become my main focus. So that's the goal. Hopefully, I'll get there within a year,” Ramsey said.

Regarding the scaling potential with beehiiv as a new creator, Ramsey mentioned, “I think beehiiv stands out because it offers a lot—Advanced functionality. But it offers that at a really affordable price. And it also offers unlimited sending. [beehiiv] is kind of in that perfect middle ground of everything you need for a newsletter. It doesn't try to get you with these hidden fees or anything.”

Just over a month ago, Marcus Ramsey launched his very first newsletter on beehiiv with a mission to grow quickly and foster an engaged community on an easy-to-use platform. With 14,000 subscribers in just over 30 days, 55% of new subscribers becoming engaged, and 35%+ open rates, it’s safe to say that he’s done exactly that.

If you have an idea for a newsletter, or you have a newsletter but are looking for an intuitive platform that can help you reach your goals, then check out beehiiv today. Launch your newsletter in minutes with beehiiv.