How a Suburban Newsletter Gets From 3,400 to 10,000

This is part two of my conversation with Alex Robertson, co-founder of Mount Juliet Buzz in Tennessee. You can find part one here. This half is about growth and money: how they got to 3,400 subscribers with almost no ad spend, the video show they're thinking about, and how to sell sponsorships that feel scarce.

The directory everyone wants and nobody has built

Alex's team has had a plan for six months and hasn't done it yet. They want a preferred vendor list: two businesses per industry, each paying $50 to $100 a month. In Alex's words, the angle is "these are the two most trusted plumbers in Mount Juliet, we've vetted them."

That could be two or three grand a month of mailbox money. The sticking point is vetting. How do you make sure they're the two best, and not just the two willing to pay?

I had a different take. Most directories skip the vetting and just sell the top spots, like a Google ad. You can scrape Google to build the whole thing, email each business to say they're listed, and offer the top spot for $50 a month. With only two slots per category, it's fair to ask whether anyone will pay or share it. I spent a week looking at building one myself and walked away from it. Neither of us has solved it.

Boosted posts first, then referral contests

Alex says they've never really run Facebook ads. To get started, they made a post and boosted it, which is the scaled-back option where you can't build a target audience. That got them to about 150 or 200 subscribers. After that it was referrals only.

The referral contest is the part worth copying. They partner with a local business: refer three people to the newsletter and you're entered to win a prize. They've run four or five, and Alex says it works. Now they want to reach 10,000 by the end of the year, and he knows paid Facebook ads are the next step. They don't want to spend serious money until they can do it the right way.

Instagram has been all organic. They shoot a one-minute video at a local business, say the barbecue shop, and cut it together. Many of those businesses share it back. A local Instagram page with around 11,000 followers offered to sell to them for about $20,000. They passed, figuring they'd be near that number by the end of the year. I told Alex I'd have said maybe at $500, since you can't tell how many of those followers are real.

A faux talk show with three hosts

Right now the newsletter goes out once a week, on Tuesday mornings. Alex's idea is a five-minute talk show for Thursdays where the three of them run through the newsletter. What's your favorite event this week? Where are you taking the kids? Was this section easy or hard to write?

I loved it, with two pieces of advice. Keep it under five minutes. And don't make it about the newsletter or how much work it took. Talk like residents who see what's happening in Mount Juliet and react to it. A morning talk show, basically.

The point, as Alex put it, is to become defensible if AI ever comes for the local newsletter. Readers should say they love Alex, John and Amber, not that they like some newsletter.

My one caution is about how to send it. Alex's first plan was a three-sentence email that is just the YouTube thumbnail. I think maybe 10%, at best 20%, of readers would watch a video like that. The other 80% would get an email with no value in it. I'd put a video section near the bottom of every issue instead.

Twice a week without writing twice as much

Alex's group sends just one newsletter a week. I think that's a missed chance. Once a week is a habit, but it doesn't burn the brand into people's heads, and it caps ad revenue.

The fix isn't more content. It's splitting what they already write. Alex's team has a volunteer spotlight, a news section and a picture of the week from a reader. Tuesday could be events-heavy and Friday could be news and everything else. Another option is Monday and Thursday.

Alex's worry was that Mount Juliet doesn't have enough going on for two issues. I told him he's splitting, not adding. It also solves a problem I have with my own newsletter: Beehiiv warns you before you send when an issue has too many graphics or is too long. As a reader, I'd rather read one or two minutes twice a week than five minutes once.

What to buy or build if you're thinking bigger

Alex and his partners have even joked about buying a skate rink. They aren't serious, and I'm not stressed about it either, but I did give him a filter. Pick a business that AI won't change, which means something physical. Pick something people need often. Real estate is high value but it happens once every seven years, so people can't hire you often even if they like you.

Lawn care is my example. Everybody needs it, and most operators are hard to reach. I'm working with a lawn care owner on a local newsletter for that reason. Alex's affiliate arrangement is different: the owner of his Facebook group is a big insurance player with a commercial insurance department. Alex is grateful for the first affiliate deal, but his typical reader is a woman in her 40s or 50s, so he doubts many closings come from it.

Don't sell pay per lead

My advice on that kind of deal: avoid pay per lead. The value of a newsletter for roofing, insurance or real estate is brand awareness. A reader who sees the same roofer ten times and then has a roof problem will Google them or call them, and the sale will never trace back to you.

For businesses that can do the first job cheap, a trackable offer works:

• Pest control. The first visit free, since the customer stays for years.
• Cleaning. Half off the first clean.
• Christmas lights. Mention Mount Juliet Buzz and get 25% off.

Twelve sponsors, locked in for a year

Alex finished with an idea he'd seen from Gunner Holmes on X. Holmes got 12 businesses to pay $500 a month each. That's $6,000 a month, and those are the only 12 businesses that can advertise for 12 months. It stops you chasing the next sponsor, and it makes everyone else feel they need to get in. Alex's question was how to justify $500 a month.

Here's my take. It's viable, but you have to go after the big budgets, and those owners are hard to reach. At 3,000 or 4,000 subscribers, it's not worth that much to them yet. So pitch exclusivity. Tell them you'll sign eight sponsors, one per industry, and take the money and grow to 15,000 by year end. At renewal, raise the price by no more than 20%. Next year, when the whole town is talking about you, their competitor can't get in.

Go after high lifetime value businesses first:

• Roofers, HVAC and custom home builders. One deal pays back many times what they spend with you.
• Med spas. Local newsletter readers skew women 35 to 60, which is a med spa's client.
• Insurance, orthopedics and chiropractors. Other big spenders, and you can pitch each one an industry lock.

Be proactive, because the people who come to you inbound are usually the ones you'd rather not chase.