ItoM #1Sponsorship Management for Newsletters
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Hey there 👋
Consider yourself a trailblazer — you are receiving the very first issue of Ideas To Makers!
This week’s idea is a sponsorship management platform for newsletters. Why? ‘cause you are in a newsletter right now! So are loads of other people. It’s kind of a gold rush out there. And just like any other gold rush, this one needs picks and shovels too.
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🌰 In a NutshellA lot of newsletters out there are sponsorship supported. Yet, they have to do DIY sponsorship inventory management. Like Dense Discovery, a very popular newsletter (25K subscribers), that’s relying on a Google Spreadsheet. You thinking, what I’m thinking? Yop — where there’s a Google Spreadsheet there’s a business opportunity. So let’s dive in!
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🗺 The Market
High-quality newsletters are a growing trend Although newsletters have been around for a long time, in 2020 they are more popular than ever. So much so that new ones are popping up every day. After all, you’re reading one right now 😃.Why is this happening now?- Top writers from famous publications are going solo and starting their own newsletters. Mark Stenberg from NiemanLab is talking about The rise of the journalist-influencer.
- Quarantines around the world have spurred creators in all niches to start newsletters: Substack now has 20K+ creators on its platform
- Substack’s CEO Chris Best is reporting that “readership and writership has doubled there in the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic.”
- 2020 saw the first newsletter exit: Morning Brew (2.5M subscribers and $20M in revenue / $6M in profit / 60 employees sold to Insider Inc. in October of this year.
A lot of newsletters are sponsorship supported
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What’s interesting to me is #2 on @web’s list - ones that are supported not by automated ad bots, but by selected sponsors. This will be the market we are going after. Today these creators can either:- Use a marketplace to find sponsors
- Most of these marketplaces come with some sort of inventory management, however, you are stuck with what they have on offer. Now, this might be great for you if you happen to be in the right niche (usually tech, media, lifestyle), but if you’re not, it’s unlikely you’ll find a sponsor.
- These platforms include:
- DIY
- you can create some sort of sponsorship inventory management similar to what DD is doing
- or... this is where our idea comes into play
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🎯 The opportunityBuild a simple sponsorship inventory tool that would allow newsletter owners to create their own submission forms and generate a public page with available inventory time slots. The tool would also take care of payments.Benefits- Creators can add custom sponsorship formats that fit their newsletter
- Available inventory is shareable via public URL
- You handle all the payments for your creators
Business model options- Charge a flat monthly fee
- Charge a percentage of each transaction (probably requires a larger user base)
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🧐 Validation
Indie Letters creator, Falak Sher has created a Google Spreadsheet info product similar to what I'm proposing out of frustration from running sponsorships on his own newsletter. Other newsletter creators have their own versions of an online form or a contact email and duct-taped payment solutions. Here are a few:For those that are interested in building this, I would recommend the following validation process:- Find newsletters that are sponsorship supported. Use one of the platforms mentioned above (I’ve used LetterWell) or a newsletter directory like Newsletter Stack or Inbox Stash to find them.
- Reach out to them and ask them one simple question: What is the most frustrating thing about how they manage their newsletter sponsorships and why.
- If they answer, you can take it to the next level and ask for a quick 15-minute call. (Set up a Calendly to make it easy for them to find a time slot.)
- On the call keep digging on the why to uncover those golden nuggets of validation
Here's an email template you can use:Hi, My name is Ondrej. I saw your newsletter is sponsorship supported and I was wondering if you could answer one quick question. It would really help me validate an idea I'm working on. Q: What is the most frustrating thing about how you manage your newsletter sponsorships today and why? Thank you! Ondrej Ps. sorry for the cold email, hope you find a minute or two to get back to me, maybe I can help improve how you run sponsorships in your newsletter :)
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PRO ✍️ Mockups you can copy
5 detailed mockups so you can start building today:- Inventory management
This is where users can add sponsorship formats - Adding a new sponsorship format
Users can create a custom submission form using the form builder - Create and edit available time slots
- Viewing Requests
See all pending and approved sponsorship requests - Payment Dashboard
View how much you’ve earned on sponsorships
🔒Unlock
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PRO 👩💻 Available domains
3 available domains you can register today.🔒Unlock
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PRO 🚀 Distribution channels
7 distribution channels tailored to this product🔒Unlock
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PRO 🎛 Take it to the next level
3 more ideas for additional features to take this product to the next level.🔒Unlock
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PRO 🔗 Learn more about the newsletter space
11 links to quality content talking about the business of newsletters, how we got here, and where we are headed.🔒Unlock
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