Back to Reviews

How to grow your B2B newsletter

Visit Source
Newsletter•Kyle Poyar•Feb 11, 2026
B2BNewsletter

The basics

  • Pick a name that’s short and memorable.
  • Check that the domain is available.
  • Choose a “from” name for your emails.

    • Many newsletters default to the name of the publication. I prefer to use my own name as the sender. In my experience this increases open rates and creates a stronger, more personal connection with readers.

  • Create a minimum viable visual identity.

    • Having a consistent visual identity makes the newsletter far more memorable, whether a reader is getting it forwarded to them, seeing it on LinkedIn, or landing on the website.

    Pro tip: always include your newsletter logo or domain somewhere in your visuals.

  • Write a one-sentence logline for your newsletter.

    • The logline is your promise to readers. It’s about them, not you.

    Some examples for inspiration:

  • Growth Unhinged: Revealing the playbooks and hidden tactics behind today’s best startups.
  • Lenny’s Newsletter: Deeply researched no-nonsense product, growth, and career advice.
  • Mostly Metrics: A newsletter for current and aspiring CFOs.

    • Writing your newsletter

  • Find stories that people care about.

    • A good place for inspiration is to jot down topics that you’ve been asked about multiple times.

    A topic would come up from my conversations with portfolio companies. I’d test the broader appetite by posting about it on LinkedIn. Only if there was solid engagement would I go a step further and turn the LinkedIn post into a full newsletter article.

  • Niche down, even more than you think.

    • The best way to stand out is to find a hyper-specific niche, ideally one that’s underserved.

  • Maintain a consistent publishing cadence.
  • Sending at the same time (probably) doesn’t matter.
  • Tactical and specific beats high-level.

    • Readers respond best when a domain expert gets tactical at the thing they’re great at. My top performing posts have tangible examples (with screenshots), step-by-step instructions, sample AI prompts, or practical frameworks for solving a problem. If a reader can immediately apply something they just read about, that’s a win.

  • Use AI as a brainstorming partner.
  • Ask AI to become your research assistant.

    • Growth loops

  • Set the tone with your welcome email.

    • This is your chance to start a conversation with readers when they’re the most interested in your newsletter.

  • Promote your posts on other platforms like LinkedIn.

    • LinkedIn is by far the best promotional channel for Growth Unhinged. 38% of new subscribers say they first heard about Growth Unhinged from LinkedIn, which is 6x more than the share who said ChatGPT or another LLM (6%).

    Some other tips for LinkedIn distribution:

  • Reply to commenters!
  • Original graphics go a long way.
  • Don't worry so much about dropping a link in your LinkedIn post.
  • You can repurpose your greatest hits.
  • Create a LinkedIn company page for your newsletter.
  • Feature your newsletter in your social media profiles.

    • I upgraded to LinkedIn Premium almost entirely for a single feature: the custom button.

    Even if you don’t pay for LinkedIn Premium, consider the following:

  • Add your newsletter to the Experience section of your profile (do this after you’ve created a LinkedIn company page).
  • Drop a newsletter link in the Featured section of your profile.
  • Mention your newsletter in the About section of your profile.
  • Highlight your newsletter in the LinkedIn header image.
  • Turn on recommendations and reach out to others in your niche.
  • Do the SEO basics.
  • Pitch guest posts to other newsletters.

    • This gets your name and your newsletter in front of your ICP: people who love reading newsletters. It also gives you goodwill when pitching a Recommendation swap or co-promotion with another writer. 11% of new readers say they first heard about Growth Unhinged from another newsletter.

  • Set up a simple referral program.

    • Newsletters are inherently shareable and a referral program can amplify this behavior. When I started my referral program, I really didn’t have much to offer as a reward. After all, I wrote Growth Unhinged for 4.5 years without having paid subscriptions or ad partners. Referrals still brought in about 600 new subscribers in the first 12 months, or 3% of the total growth. Not bad!

    Now that I’ve gone paid I’ve revamped my program with new rewards including a one-year gift subscription for 25 referrals. This doesn’t need to cost anything and helps you grow on autopilot.

    See what this looks like for a reader here 👇

    Invite your friends and earn rewards

    Advanced plays

  • Start an onboarding survey for new readers.

    • My three questions:

  • Which best describes your role right now? (Helps me attract advertisers)
  • What are you most hoping Growth Unhinged helps you with? (Helps me prioritize my content calendar)
  • Where did you first hear about Growth Unhinged? (Helps me grow the newsletter)
  • Build your first automated email flows.

    • Your newsletter platform can effectively become a lightweight replacement for your marketing automation platform. I’m starting to experiment with trigger-based email flows, for example promo offers for new readers who are highly engaged or special announcements for premium subscribers.

    Some other automated flows on my backlog:

  • Paid subscription downgrade retention flow
  • Re-engagement automation flow after 90 days of inactivity
  • Customized welcome emails tied to responses from the onboarding survey
  • Optimize your deliverability rates.

    • I’m now seeing 96.3% deliverability and open rates approaching 50%. I did it by (a) limiting my first two newsletter sends only to engaged readers and (b) starting to send my newsletter from my own domain. The latter move helps to strengthen my reputation with email providers and keeps my links consistent with the brand. Eagle-eyed readers will start to see this change as it’s rolled out to a higher share of subscribers.

  • Quantify your subscriber LTV.

    • My rough LTV math considers two factors: advertising (expected ad revenue per subscriber) and paid subscriptions (free-to-paid conversion rate, paid subscriber retention).

  • Test paid Boosts.

    • My first paid experiment is via Boosts where other writers recommend the newsletter to their readers and I pay per verified subscriber. My cost-per-acquisition with Boosts is $3.

    What’s nice about Boosts: I get to review and approve writers who qualify, I can set strict criteria about which subscribers I’ll pay for (currently only in select countries), and the subscribers are thoroughly verified before I’m charged. If Boosts continue to perform, I’ll increase my ad budget and then add third-party paid channels like Meta ads.