Impact Newsletter Subscriber Growth
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Impact is a weekly English-language newsletter published by French media company Les Glorieuses, covering politics, culture, and current events from a feminist perspective. Alongside its French-language sister newsletter, Les Glorieuses, Impact brings audiences the latest in women's rights worldwide, from up-to-the-minute coverage of abortion rights and pay disparities to celebrations of historic feminist icons. The newsletter publishes every Monday and was building a loyal audience across multiple platforms heading into 2024.
When the engagement began in July 2023, Impact had just crossed 5,000 subscribers on Substack and was looking to broaden its reach and deepen engagement with a diverse audience passionate about feminism and gender equality.
Impact needed to grow its subscriber base meaningfully without losing the editorial voice and mission at the heart of the publication. Growth had to come from audiences genuinely interested in feminism, diversity, and equity, not vanity metrics, and it had to happen on a disciplined budget.
The publication also faced a platform question. Its audience lived primarily on Substack, but there were readers on other platforms who preferred different formats and entry points. Reaching them meant testing new channels while keeping the core Substack audience growing.
Impact needed to grow its subscriber base meaningfully without losing the editorial voice and mission at the heart of the publication. Growth had to come from audiences genuinely interested in feminism, diversity, and equity, not vanity metrics, and it had to happen on a disciplined budget.
The publication also faced a platform question. Its audience lived primarily on Substack, but there were readers on other platforms who preferred different formats and entry points. Reaching them meant testing new channels while keeping the core Substack audience growing.
Scaling subscriptions without compromising Impact's feminist editorial mission and voice
Reaching audiences beyond Substack who preferred other platforms and formats
Driving measurable growth while staying under a disciplined budget
Tailoring creative across Facebook and LinkedIn, two platforms with very different dominant demographics
Grounded in competitor analysis and mission.
We began with a thorough competitor analysis and built our strategy on a clear understanding of Impact's mission. That foundation let us develop a calendar of timely paid and organic content on both Facebook and LinkedIn, targeted to groups likely to be interested in feminism and diversity in the context of current events.
Agile, audience-responsive promotion.
Rather than setting a plan and walking away, we treated real-time performance data as a steering tool. When design choices intended to reach a younger audience underperformed on Facebook ads, dominated by an older demographic, we adjusted the creative to fit that audience and saw stronger results. When €100 spent on LinkedIn lead generation reached only limited audiences, we pivoted quickly from a lead focus to impressions and links to the Substack newsletter, which immediately performed better and contributed to audience growth.
Expanding to a new platform.
To reach readers who preferred a different experience, we launched a LinkedIn version of the newsletter, growing both newsletter subscribers and LinkedIn followers on that channel while increasing overall visibility.
We built and managed Facebook ad campaigns targeting Gen-Z and Millennial audiences interested in women's rights worldwide, alongside a steady cadence of organic content across platforms. High-performing organic LinkedIn posts included calls to action on feminist and social justice issues and appearances from members of the organization at thought leadership events.
The campaign also taught us where to lean in and where to step back. The organic Women's World Cup campaign started slowly but ultimately performed strongly, while paid ads on the same topic underperformed. Our response was to pull paid World Cup ads, redirect spend to stronger-performing efforts, and document the factors behind the weak performance to inform ongoing strategy. Running multiple ad campaigns in parallel kept overall results strong even when a single creative direction slowed.
Social media engagement stayed high across all platforms throughout the campaign, continuing to drive subscriptions and foster community and debate
This engagement worked because growth and mission were never treated as competing goals. By grounding every decision in Impact's feminist editorial values and pairing that with disciplined, data-responsive promotion, we nearly doubled the Substack subscriber base, extended Impact's reach onto a new platform, and stayed under budget.
"Adriana and her team led a transformation of the audience development strategy of the Impact newsletter. They were quick to pivot to new approaches, innovative with their suggestions and consistently performed under budget. We are delighted with the results!"
Megan Clement, Editor of Impact
The campaign's real strength was its agility. Reading performance signals in real time and adjusting creative, copy, and even broader goals as needed let us respond to the audience's tastes and sensitivities rather than forcing a fixed plan. That responsiveness built more than short-term numbers. It established a solid foundation for Impact's continued growth into 2024.
