How Matt Paulson Bootstrapped MarketBeat To $40M/Year and 4.3M Newsletter Subscribers

Summary

Matt Paulson, founder of MarketBeat, shares insights on his financial media business with 4.3 million subscribers. He discusses the importance of email marketing, the challenges of optimizing for the right metrics, and the strategy of balancing advertising with affiliate offers. Paulson emphasizes the value of understanding the ROI of leads and subscribers, and suggests that focusing on sales should be the primary goal for newsletter operators. He also offers advice on pricing strategies for subscriptions and the benefits of diversifying revenue streams.

Takeaways

• 📈 Matt Paulson runs a financial media business called Market Beat with 4.3 million subscribers and a revenue of about 30 million last year.
• 💰 Market Beat's revenue is primarily from advertising, accounting for 90% of their income, with the remaining 10% from subscriptions.
• 📧 Matt emphasizes the importance of optimizing email lists for sales rather than just list size, open rates, or clicks.
• 🔍 Matt's business has grown steadily by focusing on slow and steady growth, achieving 30% annual growth over a decade.
• 📅 Market Beat has been on the Inc. 5000 list for eight consecutive years, reflecting its consistent performance.
• 🚀 Matt has doubled down on ad spend to grow the email list, spending about $1.2 million in January alone.
• 📊 The company's open rate is around 21% without fake opens and 40% with them included, suggesting that reported open rates should be halved for a more accurate measure.
• 📝 Matt shares that they have about 13,000 subscribers for their premium Market Beat Access subscription, with the list price around $400 but often sold at a discount.
• 📈 Matt's advice for newsletter operators is to focus on the quality of the audience and the relevance of the content to maximize revenue.
• 📖 Matt has written a book on email marketing titled 'Email Marketing Demystified', available on Amazon and his website.

Q & A

What is Matt Paulson's business and how did he start it?

Matt Paulson runs a financial media business called MarketBeat, which he started before the modern category of newsletters. He began with a large email component and has grown it steadily since 2010.

How many subscribers does MarketBeat have as of the interview?

As of the interview, MarketBeat has 4.3 million subscribers across seven or eight different brands.

What was MarketBeat's revenue last year and what is projected for the current year?

MarketBeat did about 30 million in revenue last year and is projected to do about 40 million in the current year.

How much did MarketBeat spend on ads in January to grow their email list?

MarketBeat spent about 1.2 million dollars on ads in January to grow their email list.

What are the open rates for MarketBeat's newsletters?

The true open rate, excluding automated opens like Apple and Google, is around 21%. When including the fake ones, it's about 40%.

What is the average cost per lead for MarketBeat's ad spend?

The average lead cost varies, but it's approximately three dollars, depending on the source of the lead.

How does MarketBeat's revenue breakdown in terms of advertising and subscriptions?

Most of MarketBeat's revenue comes from advertising, which accounted for 90% of their 29 million in revenue last year. Subscriptions made up about 10%.

What is the strategy behind MarketBeat's triggered campaign system?

The triggered campaign system sends an ad email to subscribers who open a newsletter, with the content sorted based on performance. This allows MarketBeat to optimize for the best-performing offers in real-time.

How does Matt Paulson view the current state of newsletter monetization and what are his concerns?

Matt Paulson believes that many new newsletter operators are optimizing for the wrong metrics like list size, open rates, and clicks. He emphasizes that the only metric that should matter is sales.

What advice does Matt Paulson have for newsletter operators looking to grow their lists?

Matt suggests focusing on the quality of the list by targeting specific demographics and interests. He also recommends testing affiliate offers to see if they generate transactions, which is a better indicator of the list's value.