TL:DR

• Think long-term– Treat newsletters as self-contained publications that build lasting readership rather than traffic funnels. Offer value in every edition so readers keep opening and sharing.
  
  
• Quality > quantity in subscribers – A highly relevant and engaged audience of the right decision makers is more valuable than a large but passive list. Don’t be afraid to go deep into your expertise.
  
  
• Add value before selling – Readers accept newsletters as marketing tools, but you must first deliver useful content. Once trust is earned, promotion and monetisation (e.g. free/paid models) become viable.

A newsletter can be a powerful thing – especially in a media landscape where Substack can get more traffic than the Wall Street Journal and CBS. Executed correctly, newsletters give you or your business a chance to bypass all the noise on the internet, landing directly in readers’ inboxes. But that exclusive access comes with a condition: you have to send readers something they actually want to read. With the unsubscribe button legally bound to appear in every email, it’s a high-stakes act.  

We have helped a lot of tech, media and investment firms build and run successful newsletters, including Finimize for Business, Moonfire, and YouLend to name just a few. We also launched our own newsletter, Balance Sheet, which we grew to thousands of subscribers before selling it last year. 

Here are a few simple rules we advise clients to build their newsletters around. 

Long-term readership is more valuable than clicks

See your newsletter as a self-contained publication to build a long-term audience, not a tool to drive short-term website traffic or leads. The goal isn’t to get readers to open, or even finish reading it, but to keep opening and start sharing. For example, with Finimize for Business’ monthly newsletter – aimed at financial marketers and content creators – we work with them to curate a unique piece of content that’s only available in the newsletter. 

Readers know a company newsletter is a marketing tool, but if it’s giving them something valuable – advice, news, education – they will consider that a fair exchange.

Likewise, think about how you use links. The best newsletters are complete on their own, while also offering the option to go further. Links should add to the conversation you’re having with the reader, not replace it. Think: a news article, a video, more in-depth analysis. Don’t treat your newsletter as a traffic funnel.

Build subscriber quality by getting into the weeds

As Francesco Ricciuti of Runa Capital told Sifted’s Steph Bailey for her July 2025 piece on The Substackification of VC, the great thing about a newsletter is you don’t need tons of readers, just the right few: “I have a couple 100 people reading [his newsletter] and subscribing on Substack, so it's really tiny. But for every post I put out, I have two or three founders reaching out.”

A long list of subscribers is no bad thing, but you want to be sure you’re appealing to senior decision makers in your industry. Over 50% of people cite irrelevant content as their primary reason for unsubscribing from a newsletter – so don’t be afraid to go niche. In a world where high-level AI summaries are upending the entire way we search for information, that’s how you build a group of interested, dedicated readers.

“No jargon” is a great rule of thumb for most writing, but if you’re an expert writing for other experts, don’t hold back. Look at newsletters like CJ Gustafson’s Mostly Metrics – almost 70,000 subscribers and entirely incomprehensible to most readers.

An example: working with European VC firm Moonfire on their April 2025 Pulse newsletter, we surveyed founders from their portfolio on how AI is changing product development and engineering workflows, and what API-based LLMs they were using or planning to use. That’s pretty niche, but it is information that isn’t widely available elsewhere. And, if you’re trying to demonstrate relevance and expertise to investors and founders, you have to speak to them on their level.

Get personal 

We always advise clients to add a specific author to each edition of a company newsletter. It adds authority, helps build personal brands and we always see higher engagement. 

We often encourage different senior members of the teams to launch their own personal newsletters too – a growing trend which has proved remarkably successful in building the brands of writers and their firms, especially among investors. Theory Venture’s Tomasz Tunguz’s newsletter, for example, has over 150,000 subscribers. When you’re competing with other VCs, that sort of authority opens doors and showcases expertise. 

Earn the right to sell stuff

There’s nothing wrong with a bit of self-promotion, but it should always be a newsletter’s secondary function. This takes discipline, but up to 70% of readers unsubscribe because they are sent too many promotional newsletters, so stay strong - and be ready to fend off other people in your organisation that see your burgeoning audience as a shortcut to drive clicks.

And newsletters can be a revenue stream themselves. Most of the leading Substacks are a free/paid split: free posts to build audience and (typically more in-depth) pieces behind a paywall.

Given the direction of travel, and Substack’s mission to become “a new economic engine for culture” – though with an annual revenue of $45m there’s a long way to go – perhaps we’ll see businesses, or individuals within businesses, start to treat newsletters as monetisable products in their own right, not just a marketing channel.

Ready to start building your audience? 

We’ve helped companies create and build successful publications for all manner of audiences, supporting everything from ideation and branding, to production, distribution, performance analysis and more. 

Get in touch if you’d like help building a successful newsletter of your own.