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How Jordan Gillman Won a Trip to the Bahamas as a beehiiv Partner
Targeting & Consulting Tactics Jordan Gillman Used To Win Q2 Beach Club
TG
November 18th, 2024
What’s better than finding products you love?
Finding products you love and getting paid to recommend them.
And to top it off, nothing beats getting paid and winning trips around the world.
That’s what beehiiv’s partner program is all about.
One year ago, Jordan Gillman joined the partner program and began promoting the newsletter platform.
After 12 months of competing for the top spot, he finally won the competition.
Not only did he win, but he also broke the quarterly revenue record (by a long shot) with over $21,000 in referred revenue for Q2 2024.
His prize? An all-inclusive trip to the Bahamas with his wife.
So, how did Jordan win? He joined beehiiv’s Partner Program — one of the most rewarding partner programs online.
In the program, beehiiv partners earn a generous 50% commission for 12 months on all referred revenue. That means if you just refer three people per month to beehiiv, you could earn over $25,000 per year.
In the second quarter of 2024, Jordan Gillman competed in the beehiiv Beach Club and secured the top spot by referring the most users to beehiiv.
In this case study, we interviewed Jordan Gillman, founder of Hundred Percent, to break down how he was able to crack the number one spot on the beehiiv partners leaderboard and break the partner revenue record.
Keep reading to learn the exact strategies he used to refer his audience to beehiiv by leveraging high-value targeting, consulting, and networking.
Dive in to learn how you can create new revenue streams with beehiiv and get your chance at a tropical vacation for two.
beehiiv’s Partner Program
Before we dive into the strategies Gillman used to win, let’s do a quick overview of the beehiiv partner program to get you up to speed.
With beehiiv, you get access to one of the most lucrative partner programs online:
Stacked Commissions: Earn 50% on all referred revenue (for 12 months).
Limitless Earnings: No cap on commissions (earn as much as you want).
Increasing Returns: Tap into compounding revenue (beehiiv is growing fast).
Recurring Revenue: It’s easy to create passive income streams with beehiiv.
If you’re an agency, creator, consultant, or newsletter operator, the beehiiv Partner Program is a lucrative opportunity to generate recurring income by simply recommending the tool you already use and love.
And, when you refer someone with your partner link, they get a better deal than if they sign up directly through the site.
In addition to your 50% commission for a year, your referred users will get a 30-day, free trial (and 20% off their paid plan for 3 months).
It’s a win-win for both of you — and it’s just another reason why it’s the best partner program online.
2024 Q2 Beach Club Giveaway Winner: Jordan Gillman
Beach Club Winners Recap:
2023 Q3 Waleed N (Aruba)
Now, Jordan Gillman is heading to the Bahamas to celebrate as the winner of the 2024 Q2 Beach Club. He closed out the quarter with $3,454.37 in net new sales.
What makes this so special and what did Gillman do to secure the top spot and win the vacation?
We asked Gillman about his unique strategy to find out more.
Before we dive into the specific tactics and strategies Gillman used to win the top spot in the Beach Club Q2 2024 competition, let’s dive into his backstory.
Gillman’s Brief Backstory: AOL, theSkimm, Hundred Percent
Jordan Gillman is a sales and marketing expert with over 15 years of experience scaling revenue for small, medium, and enterprise media companies.
In 2013, he joined AOL to lead their national sales. In 2016, he joined theSkimm as VP of advertising sales, a media and membership company with over 7 million members.
The primary source of revenue for theSkimm is advertising, and some of Gillman’s partnerships included eBay, Casper, Vanguard, T-Mobile, AT&T, and Microsoft.
In 2019, Jordan decided to depart and start his own consulting and advising practice, Hundred Percent, to help media companies grow their revenue infrastructure.
theSkimm: Why Gillman Went All in On Email
With Gillman’s strong sales background, what made him so gung-ho on email?
He explained, “I’ve spent my career in advertising sales for AOL, and most recently theSkimm.”
theSkimm media company is primarily led by its daily newsletter which is read by millions every day. So, Gillman got a firsthand look at the power of a media business.
Gillman learned the ins and outs of what it takes to grow and monetize a successful newsletter, especially as a revenue machine.
Launching Hundred Percent
So, Gillman decided to start his own consulting advisory to help publishers and creators establish themselves online, grow their audience, and monetize.
He shared, “It’s where I help publishers and creators develop their audience growth and development strategies as well as their monetization strategies. And then I work with them to implement those strategies.”
He explained, “A big portion of this practice is thinking through where their audience is currently, what is their main channel of communication, where does their primary audience live, and what does monetization look like for their channels in terms of ads.”
Gillman’s goal is to help publishers and creators create an email newsletter as the core of their media business.
And, if they already have a newsletter, he’ll help them make the transition to optimize their newsletter and position it for success.
He shared, “If they’re an existing publisher that has email already a part of their business, helping them understand what 2.0 looks like with a company like beehiiv.”
Next, he’s got three core questions to tackle:
“Does the product (newsletter) need to be improved upon or is the product perfect?”
“If the product is perfect, how do we get more people to know about it?”
“Once more people know about it, how do we monetize it?”
Enjoying this case study? Learn how Omid G of Marketer Milk won the 2024 Q1 beehiiv Beach Club and landed a trip to Maui.
Leveraging His Network to Help Publishers Monetize
Gillman’s background in sales hasn’t gone unnoticed in his success with Hundred Percent. He’s been able to leverage his sales expertise and his connections in Hundred Percent.
He shared, “Outside the beehiiv Ad Network, I have relationships with a lot of brands. I’m able to help bring in sponsors across [my clients’] ecosystem. I’ll help them integrate new revenue opportunities with affiliate marketing. I’ll build out a general commerce strategy, whether that’s with an affiliate platform, a retail partner like Amazon, or help them build out their own product.”
Gillman believes most businesses need to shift the way they think of their audience. While most businesses see them as “users”, they need to start treating them like “members.”
He shared, “Own your audience. Move your relationship from users to members. That’s what I’ve been pitching for the past 8 years.”
Gillman shared, “My career in advertising helped me see firsthand the power of email. It was one of the reasons I was interested in joining theSkimm and then leaving to consult with creators and publishers helping them to make the migration from users to members.”
He continued, “With that experience, I got to see firsthand the challenges of a user base business. You have a shallow relationship with your audience and you also don’t really know who they are. If you’re a web-based publisher that’s reliant on web traffic, you look at your users as “unique users” and your time spent with them is limited.”
Gillman explained that the same principles apply to creators who built their businesses on social media. But, instead of “users”, they’re “followers.”
He shared, “Email is the opportunity of owning the relationship with the audience and showing them on a recurring basis that you’re going to be spending an amount of time with them (i.e. daily, weekly). Because you own that channel of communication you’re able to stay connected with them.”
Email analytics is better than ever, thanks to platforms like beehiiv.
Gillman shared, “You’re able to evaluate if there are any drop-offs [in engagement]. With that knowledge, the monetization potential is incredible because the relationship with that member is much different than a relationship with a user or follower is.”
He continued, “I’ve seen the data firsthand. Not to mention, I know advertisers' number one key performance indicator (KPI) outside of sales is clicks. And, email is an amazing click-generating tool (if you’re able to build out that valuable membership and audience base).”
While most brands tend to think of email as just another piece of their business, Gillman believes it should be the central point from which everything flows.
He shared, “If you publish a newsletter, nine out of ten times, it’s an afterthought. For a newsletter to be effective, it has to be the central point that connects everything you do. You need to really see how email is a centralizing force for your business and not just this new revenue stream.”
Why beehiiv?
We asked Gillman to share his favorite beehiiv features with us—And he had plenty to say.
He recalled, “Once I got connected with Tyler Denk, I was like, “Well this is the best tool. Outside of it being built by an engineer who came from a publisher (Morning Brew), there are also tools that are in line with what every publisher struggles with audience growth and development, monetization, and usability that makes something look beautiful.”
Here are his three favorite features (and what he highlights when pitching new referrals on using beehiiv):
Ad Network: The Easiest Way to Monetize
Gillman shared, “I come from an ad sales background. The fact that the Ad Network is built into the product — it’s an easy way to help out publishers who are struggling with monetization. It’s an immediate path to start making money.”
Gillman expressed how there’s nothing else like it on the market.
He shared, “The competitors in the email space with monetization are really few and far between. There are programmatic offerings that are not what I would recommend to anyone. The thing that excites me most about beehiiv is the power of the Ad Network and how much growth there will be in it.”
In terms of return on investment (ROI), Gillman explained how it’s a no-brainer for publishers to switch over to beehiiv.
He shared, “If you have a paid beehiiv plan and you’re making that back 10x on just ad revenue, that’s the easiest selling point.”
Gillman’s second favorite feature behind easy monetization is the suite of list growth features.
He shared, “The second thing is audience growth and development. At theSkimm, our email referral system was a big generator of growth. Having 1,000 raving fans within your community can be a very powerful tool to help you grow. Even if they’re not helping you grow, it’s worthwhile creating a program that supports them being loyal members.”
Thankfully, beehiiv comes with its own integrated referral program to help publishers grow organically.
Gillman shared, “The email referral program built in is a huge value add. The Boost product, in addition to essentially an affiliate program to help incentivize your users to share, was a huge proposition.”
Seamless Usability & Analytics
Gillman explained how beehiiv is user-friendly and provides digestible insights on data.
He shared, “The usability of it is great. The metrics piece is also a way to make it easier to understand what is happening on a performance basis and how to optimize.”
Gillman shared how beehiiv is the all-in-one any publisher needs to succeed.
“I see beehiiv as the best one-stop-shop for all of your email needs versus signing up for an email service provider (ESP) and having to work with five other partners to handle all of these other variables.”
Partner Advice #1: Develop Trust & Set Expectations
Gillman admits that his background in sales gives him an advantage in being a beehiiv partner. Thankfully, he was happy to share insights from his background that beehiiv partners can use to generate more referrals.
His advice?
It all begins with trust.
He shared, “You have to build trust. You have to look at the value that the product (beehiiv) serves the partner from their business perspective. In most instances, they’re a media partner. They’re creating some type of content. They’re engaging with their audience on a particular platform.”
Gillman shared how it’s important that media companies, publishers, and creators understand the risks of not relying on email.
He explained, “You have to help them understand the challenges with that in the long term. You not owning the relationship with your customer means if there’s an algorithmic change from something that occurs on the platform, you’re setting yourself up for a future challenge.”
Gillman shared how once publishers can see that they don’t truly own their audience, email is a simple solution, especially on beehiiv.
“Once you build trust around that general understanding, email becomes a utility for that. There are a lot of alternatives that you can build a membership product around. Email is a very cheap opportunity that’s also engrained inside the habit of utility. Everyone checks their inbox multiple times a day. It’s meeting people where they are.”
Publishers Should Focus on the Product First
He shared how beehiiv partners should sell beehiiv as a long-term strategy, not a short-term game.
He recalled, “I just saw Austin from the Morning Brew reference that over the course of Morning Brew’s inception, it just hit the $250 million mark. I think a lot of times people see the big picture opportunity and forget the million steps that help them get there.”
Gillman explained how helping people get their newsletter product right is step one to helping them succeed.
To help publishers improve their newsletters, he likes to ask a few questions:
How many times per week are you sending?
What’s the quality of that engagement?
Are you optimizing?
What are you doing to optimize?
Are you surveying your audience to see what you can do to make it better?
He explained how it might take an entire year to get the quality of the newsletter up to speed.
Once The Product Is Right, beehiiv Will Handle the Rest
After helping publishers master the quality and value of the newsletter itself, it’s time to shift the focus into growth and monetization.
He shared, “Once a great product exists, beehiiv helps you put gas on the fire — with Boosts and with the Ad Network.”
“beehiiv is a platform that’s built for today’s ecosystem — where Tyler and team realized there were many intermediaries and tools that were being “Frankensteined” together. Now there’s a one-stop-shop that makes all of your email necessities handled within one platform.”
Partner Advice #2: Handle Objections
Getting more people onto beehiiv as a partner isn’t just about hyping up features and benefits. It’s also about helping them overcome fears they may have about jumping in.
Gillman shared how one of the main fears publishers have is migrating to a new platform and the implications of that.
He shared, “When dealing with a client who’s moving off of a platform, you have to be willing to hold their hand, and help them understand what walking looks like before you start running on beehiiv.”
He recalled, “We just moved over a partner who has over one million subscribers. There’s a lot of risk associated with switching ESPs. You can highlight that beehiiv has migrated countless publishers off other ESPs onto beehiiv.”
Partner Advice #3: Target the Right Clients
If you want to make more money in any industry, one of the best ways is to simply serve people who have more money.
In Gillman’s case, he targets larger media companies who have larger budgets, which inevitably means the costs of launching or optimizing a newsletter strategy aren’t seen as major roadblocks for these publishers like they are with smaller publishers.
His core focus is on publishers with tens of thousands of subscribers.
He shared, “They have a newsletter subscriber base of at least 50,000, if not more — that’s who I’m speaking to primarily. Outside of that, it’s newsletter publishers who have built a 500,000+ subscriber base and haven’t figured out how to monetize, increase open rate, etc.”
Final Thoughts on beehiiv
Gillman explained how no other email platform compares to beehiiv when it comes to serving publishers and creators.
He shared, “I’m very confident that if you’re working with Substack or Mailchimp or Constant Contact, or whoever — if you have an existing newsletter, working on beehiiv will naturally put you in a better place to win in a quicker way.”
Most publishers struggle to manage analytics, deliverability, growth, monetization, and email tactics due to limited resources and staff.
Gillman explained, “With beehiiv, I am confident it can resolve a lot of challenges within a single point. There’s a lot of opportunity to come on and have some strong growth.”
What Are You Most Excited About With Beach Club Getaway?
We asked Gillman about his upcoming trip to the Bahamas and what he was looking forward to the most.
He shared happily, “My wife and I haven’t had a real honeymoon. We got married almost two years ago. I think this might be our real honeymoon. We just moved out to the west coast so it’s been a hectic few years but I feel like this will be the celebration we’ve been waiting for.”
To follow along with Jordan Gillman, you can find him on LinkedIn.
Earn Passively With beehiiv’s Partner Program
beehiiv’s Partner Program is a lucrative way you can earn passive income by sharing the newsletter platform you already love.
At beehiiv, we made it our aim to make this the best (and most generous) affiliate program available, giving you 50% of all revenue from referrals for an entire year.
Plus, what’s even better…
We don’t cap you on your earnings like the other guys.
Whether you refer 5 users or 500 users, you’ll still receive a 50% commission, no matter what.
Your income potential is limitless.
The average beehiiv user pays $117 per month. This means if you get 20 people to sign up, you’ll earn $14,040 in a year!
Once you sign up to beehiiv, you’re automatically signed up for the partner program. All you have to do is share your unique partner link with your audience.
Then, once they sign up using your link, you’ll get 50% of that revenue for 12 months straight.
The beehiiv Partner Program is easy to join. Simply click the button below and you’ll be set up (and ready to earn) in just a few minutes.
The Next Beach Club Destination: Cabo (Q4 2024)
Ready for the beach?
Well, the next winner of beehiiv’s Q4 Beach Club is heading to Cabo for one week with a friend.
It’s a new quarter, and we’re only halfway done. That means you still have an opportunity to win an all-expenses-paid vacation to a tropical paradise.
The Bahamas may be behind us, but Cabo is coming your way soon.
Check out the video below to see where the next winner is heading (it could be you).
The contest ends on December 31, so join now for a shot at the Cabo getaway.
We’ll catch ya on the beach! 🤙
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