Newsletter Operator

How Adam Ryan Grew WorkWeek To $1M+ Per Month and 500k+ Subscribers, Are Newsletter Recommendations a Ponzi Scheme? B2B vs. B2C Newsletters, How To Sell Ads If You Have a Small Audience, Paid Subscriber Acquisition, B2B Lead Gen, and More

Matt McGarry and Ryan Carr

Adam Ryan is the co-founder and CEO of WorkWeek, a B2B media company with 10+ newsletter publications and communities across various industries like healthcare, marketing, sales, HR, e-commerce, and fintech. 

Episode topics & Timestamps

00:00 How WorkWeek started

05:04 Audience indicators and your ideal customer profile (ICP)

07:32 Slow, strategic growth trumps rushing into big projects.

10:19 Different business growth approaches have varying scalability and repeatability. Lifestyle businesses may benefit from an agency model, but for larger, scalable ventures, ongoing growth and compounding the business are crucial.

14:40 Approach to product development, growth metrics

17:32 Thoughts on newsletter recommendation networks

22:13 The email inbox is more sensitive 

24:46 Paid ads 

26:47 Maximizing existing audience potential 

31:17 Acquiring newsletter subscribers and the potential trade-offs involved.

35:05 Focus on quality over quantity for newsletter subscribers. 

36:34 Organic growth and subscriber engagement 

40:14 Traditional media

43:35 Higher ad revenue, lower churn, better LTV

47:45 Prioritize audience, seek feedback, and consider time constraints.

50:24 How B2B lead generation works

Links Mentioned 

WorkWeek.com

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Follow Matt McGarry @JMatthewMcGarry and Ryan Carr @ryan_boat on Twitter.

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