Hello friends, Welcome to a new edition of Growth Croissant, a guidebook on growing consumer subscription businesses. Keeping your existing subscribers around longer is usually the best way to increase how much money you make on a per-subscriber basis over time (i.e., customer lifetime value; “CLV”). By extension, the stuff you do to improve retention usually makes your product better, making it more compelling to potential customers. So improving retention is massively important, but how do we do it?
Thanks for sharing these insights, Reid. Does substack provide analytics on free trials? I have noticed several new subscribers start with a free trial, but don’t have any visibility on how many are converting to full paid after the 7-day trial period ends.
I loved this, Reid. It’s also making me think of my newsletter as episodic, and potentially bingeable, in a way I hadn’t before. I think I’m going to put together suggested reading lists for moods the way Netflix does. (Or did at one point? Idk. I don’t watch it anymore, except for Hilda and Dragon Prince with my kids.) I’ve got so much content and it’s not really discoverable in a fun way. I think I need to make everything more legible. Thank you!!!
A lot of good stuff here! Went a bit off the rails comparing Hulu (streaming) with Newsletter reader journeys. Without segmentation and basic sequencing, it does make onboarding efficacy a tricky thing. I think what Newsletter creators lack is basic A/B testing skills to think like a product of growth marketer. That needs to be dumbed down for them in terms of guides.
Thanks for sharing these insights, Reid. Does substack provide analytics on free trials? I have noticed several new subscribers start with a free trial, but don’t have any visibility on how many are converting to full paid after the 7-day trial period ends.
Thank you, as always, and keep 'em coming! :)
I loved this, Reid. It’s also making me think of my newsletter as episodic, and potentially bingeable, in a way I hadn’t before. I think I’m going to put together suggested reading lists for moods the way Netflix does. (Or did at one point? Idk. I don’t watch it anymore, except for Hilda and Dragon Prince with my kids.) I’ve got so much content and it’s not really discoverable in a fun way. I think I need to make everything more legible. Thank you!!!
A lot of good stuff here! Went a bit off the rails comparing Hulu (streaming) with Newsletter reader journeys. Without segmentation and basic sequencing, it does make onboarding efficacy a tricky thing. I think what Newsletter creators lack is basic A/B testing skills to think like a product of growth marketer. That needs to be dumbed down for them in terms of guides.
This is both clever and insightful this is. Thank you