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How to Nurture Your Newsletter Subscribers (ft. Head of Growth at beehiiv)
Recap from beehiiv Creator Growth Summit | March '25
If you’ve ever felt like you’re shouting into the void every time you hit “send” on your newsletter, you’re not alone. Building an email list is one thing — keeping those subscribers engaged, loyal, and ready to act is a whole different game.
That’s where audience nurturing comes in. In a recent session at the Creator Summit, beehiiv’s Head of Growth, EJ White, shared his playbook for nurturing subscribers into superfans.
Whether you’re running a media empire, building a niche newsletter, or growing a content-driven business, these insights can transform your email list into a high-retention, high-conversion engine.
Table of Contents
Top 6 Key Timestamps (From the Webinar)
Getting started 👇
00:00 - Introducing EJ
01:14 - What we'll be covering
Introduction to audience nurture strategies 🤝🏼
02:14 - What is audience nurturing and why is it important?
07:23 - The email growth flywheel
5 tactics to nurture your audience 📚
09:20 - Leverage segmentation
15:32 - Run a referral program
20:58 - Incorporate interactive elements
25:45 - Automate email journeys
29:32 - Use analytics & collect feedback
33:49 - Next steps
Q&A 🙋🏻♂️
34:43 - Examples of model newsletters
36:45 - Differentiation of newsletters and marketing emails
Top 6 Takeaways & Next Steps
1. Nurturing Builds Trust and Loyalty (Long Before the Sale)
Next Step: Map out your audience’s journey — from first subscribe to long-term engagement. Focus on consistently delivering value, not just promotion.
2. Personalization is Essential — Start with Segmentation
Next Step: Use your welcome survey, polls, and behavioral data to segment your list based on interests, engagement levels, and preferences.
3. Referral Programs Turn Subscribers into Brand Advocates
Next Step: Launch a referral program with tiered rewards (swag, exclusive content, shoutouts) that align with your audience’s values.
4. Make Your Emails Interactive (Because Readers Love to Click)
Next Step: Add a poll, quiz, or feedback prompt to every newsletter to boost clicks and signal engagement to inbox providers.
5. Automate the Welcome Experience for New Subscribers
Next Step: Build a 3-5 email welcome series that introduces your brand, highlights top content, and teaches subscribers how to get the most value from your emails.
6. Track Key Metrics & Continuously Ask for Feedback
Next Step: Set up regular performance reviews (weekly or monthly) to check open rates, click rates, and feedback — then adjust accordingly.
Key Resources & Tools Mentioned
• HubSpot (Referenced for nurturing best practices)
• Matt McGarry Growth Resources (Referral Program expert)
• Morning Brew (Example of sophisticated automation)
• The Hustle (Case study in nurturing into monetization)
• Big Desk Energy (Example newsletter with stellar referral program)
Closing Note and Final Thoughts
Audience nurturing isn’t a trendy growth hack — it’s a proven strategy used by the best newsletters and email-first businesses in the game.
Whether you’re building your list from scratch or scaling to tens of thousands of subscribers, the core principles are the same: deliver consistent value, personalize your content, make engagement easy (and fun), and treat every email as a chance to strengthen the relationship.
As EJ put it, nurturing isn’t just about selling — it’s about showing up, building trust, and earning the right to make the offer when the time is right. If you follow these tactics, you’ll build a newsletter that doesn’t just grow — it thrives.
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