How I organized a subscribers meet up in New York from Istanbul
and why you should do it too
Newsletter Circle is the newsletter for newsletter creators.
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Why you should organize a subscribers meetup “offline”
I started building a second career from scratch in my thirties, thanks to the existence of the online world.
After a decade in marketing at a global corporate company, I left behind a promising career to take a new path. But my career was not the only one I left behind. I also left the office I go to every day, my colleagues I see every day, company gatherings, and happy hours.
I switched from an offline world to a 100% online one and started a newsletter. It was just me and my laptop, alone.
I learned everything I know through online channels.
I made hundreds of connections through social media and emails.
I built a network with fellow newsletter creators and industry professionals. I connected with my subscribers through Zoom calls. I even made friends online.
The newsletter I started with almost zero know-how and connections just delivered to 2,300 subscribers.
I owe the online world a lot. It gave me a new life. Such a drastic change wouldn’t not be possible for me otherwise.
As newsletter creators, we all owe to the opportunities that online platforms provide. It’s mind-blowing that we can build global newsletter businesses, regardless of where we live.
But that doesn’t mean that we don’t need offline gatherings anymore. On the contrary, we need them badly, more than ever. Those rare offline meetings are even more precious in a world dominated by online interactions.
Because we are human, the people we write to are human and humans need real connections. That’s just simple.
My New York trip validated how strong this basic need is for me and everyone in the industry.
When you think about it, most of the attendees of The Newsletter Conference were already connected online. So, why did they come all the way from different cities and even countries for a one-day event? Because they wanted to make real offline connections and be in the same room with like-minded people. It feels so good.
I also arranged one-on-one meetings with more than ten people in New York. Meeting in person is completely different from a Zoom call. Online calls often feel structured with a set agenda, and you wrap up once those items are covered. But the atmosphere is entirely different when you're in a café, surrounded by other people, with the background hum of conversations. You feel more relaxed and conversations flow more spontaneously. The level of connection is much more profound and powerful.
Hence, it’s a no-brainer to me that you should also use the power of offline gatherings to connect and build solid relationships with your subscribers.
If you have the chance, do it!
In addition to our basic need for social interactions in person, here are 5 other reasons why it’s a good idea to organize a subscribers meetup:
Differentiation → Organizing a subscriber gathering requires time and effort, so it’s not preferred by many creators. Doing the undone is always memorable.
True fans → “Do things that don’t scale.” is the best way to build high-quality relationships and create true fans. Even if just a few people show up, you’ll build a different level of connection with them.
Community spirit → An offline meetup will not only help you connect with your readers, but it’s also a great way for them to connect with each other. Your content is of common interest to them, and an offline gathering is a powerful way to create a community spirit that might also turn into an official community in the future.
Motivation → It is the biggest motivation for you as creators to meet who follow your work. Running a newsletter requires patience and consistency, as well as dealing with imposter syndrome continuously. Talking to your subscribers will help you keep going.
Opportunity to gather feedback → In-person gatherings allow more in-depth conversations. You can get their comments on your existing content & products, elaborate on their key pain points, and ask for opinions on your new ideas. You can even brainstorm together.
How I organized a mini Newsletter Circle subscribers meetup in New York
80% of Newsletter Circle subscribers are from the US. So, I wanted to take the opportunity to be in New York for The Conference to meet a few readers from New York.
It was a super small gathering; we were 5 people in total.
But, believe me, it doesn’t matter how many people came. For me, it was surreal to come together even one subscriber physically.
I felt immensely privileged and honored since they spared some time to be there with me.
We met in a bar in Manhattan and spent a few hours together chatting about newsletters and life overall.
It was also super useful for me to understand what it takes to organize an offline gathering.
One of the most difficult yet important steps is distributing the event.
Based on my learnings, here are the steps to follow to announce the event and make people come:
Announce the meet-up in your newsletter.
Ask for a reply or add a poll to see who is most interested in coming.
Post on social media
Make a list of subscribers that you will invite through personal reach-out. There will be many people who don’t reply to the newsletter poll but would love to come. This is the way to gain their attention.
Find people living in or close to the meetup location. In my case, I looked for people living in New York.
Start with your super readers, who are following your work closely. I started with a segment that had an over 80% open rate and had at least one link clicked in the last month.
Upload this list to Apollo to find their location through LinkedIn. Finalize your list for reach-out accordingly.
Send personalized e-mails one by one to invite them to the event. For bigger events, you might leverage outbound campaigns.
Connect them on LinkedIn and send a message about the meetup. This is just in case if they missed your e-mail.
Send follow-up e-mails & messages.
Announce the meetup again with the final details in your newsletter and on social media.
Key Learnings
Even from this mini meetup, I have many learnings based on what I did well and what I could do better:
Start small → It doesn’t have to be a huge gathering. You’ll learn and enjoy a lot in any case. You can make it bigger in time.
Make a detailed plan → Even if it is a small gathering, reaching out to people takes time. So make sure that you kick off the process at least one month ago. Plan your to-dos with deadlines in advance.
Book calendars → Send an invitation to book a slot in the calendars of participants. They might forget otherwise.
Create an online chat group → Do this a week before the meetup and add everyone. Research which platform is preferred in the meetup location. I planned to create the group via WhatsApp until I released iMessage as a more preferred option in the U.S.
Choose a convenient time → After-work hours on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday would be better options. People are busy with work on Monday and they might want to allocate weekends to friends & family.
Choose a central location → Critical because people can easily come from different parts of the city. Get recommendations from a local friend, as I did, if you have the chance.
Plan together → If you gather a small group of people, ask them to vote for time and location through polls on your chat group.
Pre-engagement → After creating the chat group, ask the participants to introduce themselves and share their newsletters/works/social media accounts so that you can start initial engagement within the group even before the meeting.
As a final note, there will also be people who won’t show up at the last minute, so assume that 80% of the confirmed list will be there. In my case, three people had to cancel on the event day.
Shoutout to the participants of the meetup
And, of course, a huge thank you to those who showed up and spent the evening with me. I enjoyed it a lot, I’m so lucky to meet you in person and really hope to come together again in the future!
Dan Barry writes Revenews, a newsletter about monetization and runs an agency that helps you monetize your newsletter through ads. He has solid experience in that area. We’ve been friends since the beginning of our newsletter journeys.
Laura Haley is the founder of Travel Content Writing. She writes and strategizes travel content while living a digital nomad life in parallel, so she knows what she talks about! She also runs a podcast for travel content creators.
Megan DeMatteo is an independent journalist who writes about personal finance, web3, travel and lifestyle. She has written for so many notable publications like Marie Claire, CoinDesk, CNBC, Insider. You’ll get how talented she is if you read her newsletter The Unimaginably Good Life.
Max Palmer is chief of staff for Michael Houck’s newsletter. He’s a master of cold email techniques and follow-ups. You’ll find so many helpful stuff about outbound sales on his Twitter. He’s also building Nutmeg Soccer, a soccer newsletter on the side.
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That’s all for today. Thanks for reading.
See you next week.
Ciler
📌 P.S. I’ve switched from Substack over to Beehiiv (here). But don’t worry; you don’t need to do anything; I will manually add you to my Beehiiv list if you subscribe here. This is just for you to know :)
And don’t worry; you will receive the new issues only from “cilerdemiralp.beehiiv.com”, no duplications.