Building a brand with Chris Berry of BrandStreet
About this episode: This week we have Chris Berry, who is one of the co-founders of BrandStreet. A community for brand builders. Ari Lewis, who was on episode 11, is also one of the co-founders. In this episode, Chris answers why branding is important for newsletters, how does a newsletter go about building a brand, when you know when you've started to build a successful brand, and much more. Episode Sponsor: EmailOctopus Newsletter Crew Membership (20% discount): Join here Newsletter Crew Membership Benefits: Click here Substack vs. Revue: https://newslettercrew.com/substack-vs-revue/ If you're interested in hooking up your newsletter to the best growth engine then you'll be interested in Newsletter Crews own referral program software. We're currently onboarding newsletters so if you're interested then send an email to [email protected]. Put your newsletter growth on auto Show Notes & Insights: When you're building a brand for your newsletter it's important to find what your niche is. What makes your newsletter unique. Your brand will help convey to potential subscribers what exactly they will get when they subscribe. Building a brand starts with your authentic voice. Your branding should be consistent across your newsletter, landing page, Twitter, Instagram, etc. These are all avenues to convey your brand. Branding provides one of the best moats for your newsletter. Someone can copy the content but they can't copy your brand. Voice is just one aspect of your newsletter's brand. The visuals of the newsletter is another important aspect. This could mean the use or absence of GIFS, emojis, pictures, the color scheme etc, the layout, etc. All of it plays into your branding. Subscriber amount and open rates are one of the metrics on if your brand is developing well. But the most interesting thing is when it comes to brands is the feedback you receive from your subscribers. Do they feel passionate about your newsletter? Building a brand is as much metrics as it is an art. When running a newsletter you're always sending. Receiving feedback and responses from your subscribers is just as important. When you're beginning your newsletter, brand can be replaced with professionalism. That doesn't mean it needs to look perfect, but you should put in time into it. There are some basic things you can put into that conveys professionalism. The most iconic brands are backed up by individual people. For many solo newsletter writers, your brand is your newsletter and your newsletter is your brand. Substack makes it really easy to start a newsletter. One problem is with the visual branding. A Substack newsletter looks the same as every other Substack newsletter. It's hard to visual design and brand your newsletter with Substack. For everyone on Substack, you need to audit yourself and see if you can live with their limitations. Is having the same feel as everyone else OK with you and your newsletter's brand? Paid subscriptions, sponsorship, and an acquisition channel for your services are all valid and great avenues to earn an amazing living on the internet. But all of these have different models and scale for success. Highlighting and shouting out other people in your newsletter is a proven method to grow your newsletter and it's brand. First, it incentivizes others to share your newsletter since they want to show everyone they were mentioned. Second, it helps increase open rates since subscribers want to see if they were mentioned. The more people you're able to publish into it, the better. Newsletter + Guest Info: Chris Berry: https://twitter.com/ChrisBerryOH BrandStreet: https://www.brandstreet.co/