The worst mistake you can make is building an audience without having any way to reach it again.

You might be the top post on Hacker News today, but unless you can build some sort of connection with your newly-gained audience you’ll be back to obscurity tomorrow.

The most reliable way to build this connection is also the simplest: email.

It’s no coincidence if Product Hunt includes an email sign up field right on its homepage. In fact, the newsletter sign-up button is by far the most prominent call to action (Product Hunt doesn’t even have a regular “sign up” button).

Product Hunt puts the newsletter front and center.

This is also why Telescope includes an email newsletter package out of the box. That package automatically takes your site’s top content, and generates a daily or weekly digest from it.

The automated newsletter [has been] a big winner, with pretty good open and click through rates.

Ryan Gum, Closing Call

Note that Telescope integrates with MailChimp. So while you can of course use Telescope’s generated email newsletters, you’re by no means limited to them. You can take advantage of all of MailChimp’s features to send any kind of emails to your community’s list.

Bootstrappers.io often sends special announcements to its list.

For example, Bootstrappers.io sends its list custom email announcements for upcoming AMAs.

And once someone is signed up to your list, it can be a great idea to send them a pre-scheduled content sequence.

Emails could include your community guidelines, a “best of” guide pointing to a few classic posts, or even just a short welcome message.

Remember that new members won’t have the habit of regularly visiting your site yet, so you’ll have to go and find your users where they live: their inbox!

Homework

  • Set up a weekly digest newsletter for your community.
  • Set up an autoresponder sequence that introduces your site to new members.