What is it?
Here's an under-the-radar growth strategy used by top newsletters like Morning Brew.
If you want to grow an audience of students, you can partner up with scholarship platforms (like Bold and Scholarships360) to get in front of their userbase.
Here's how it works:
- The scholarship platform creates a scholarship in your brand's name
- Eligible students can apply with one click (you get their email address)
- To be considered for the sponsorship, the students are "strongly encourage" to open and read your newsletter
- You only pay a fixed fee per subscriber you receive
It's an easy way to grow your newsletter audience quickly. But beware... those students are subscribing to receive a scholarship, not because they want to read your newsletter. So churn will be very high, and engagement exceptionally low.
The Good and the Bad
- cheap CPAs
- very high-volume
- zero work
- low subscriber quality
- terrible engagement
- can lead to deliverability issues
Examples of how to crush it
Morning Brew
Morning Brew created a scholarship" of $1000 in partnership with Bold.org. They explained that by applying, students would automatically be subscribed to Morning Brew's free daily email.
To be considered, applicants had to demonstrate engagement with Morning Brew by reading it daily, and finalists were even interviewed about how they used Morning Brew’s insights in their lives/careers.
This approach allowed Morning Brew to reach a large student audience rapidly, and incentivize them to engage with the newsletter itself.
Girlboss
Girlboss, a newsletter providing career advice, life tips and inspiration for women, run a similar scholarship program to acquire new subscribers.
As with the Morning Brew, the Girlboss applicants need to actively read the newsletter, share it with friends, and engage with the content proactively.
Goodnewsletter
The Goodnewsletter is a newsletter aiming to spread hope and inspiration through uplifting stories and content.
They also offer a $1000 scholarship - on the condition that by applying, students will automatically subscribe to their newsletter
It's a similar story here to qualify for the grant, with applicants needing to read the newsletter daily and share it with friends. That's the formula!
