Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / How Newsletters Use Reader Surveys to Drive Content
Transcript
- Lucas: There's this moment every newsletter operator hits — somewhere around month six or seven — where you realize you're basically writing in a vacuum. You have open rates, you have click rates, but you don't actually know if what you're writing matters to anyone. Luna: Right, you're guessing. And for a while, guessing works. But eventually the churn starts creeping up and you wonder why. Lucas: Exactly. So a growing number of newsletter operators are doing something pretty simple about it: they're asking. Running reader surveys. Not the bloated, 40-question corporate kind — I'm talking focused, five-to-seven question surveys that take under two minutes to complete. Luna: And the results can be surprisingly actionable. I was looking at Morning Brew's approach recently. They run an annual reader survey — it's famously thorough — and one of the biggest outcomes was the launch of their 'Money with Katie' newsletter. Lucas: That's a great example. The survey revealed that a significant chunk of their audience wanted more personal finance content, not just business news. And Katie Gatti Tassin, who was already a contributor, became the face of a whole new vertical. That spin-off now has hundreds of thousands of subscribers. It all started with a survey question. Luna: It's not just the big players either. I talked to an indie newsletter in the B2B SaaS space, about 8,000 subscribers, and they ran a simple Google Form survey. They asked three questions: what topics do you want more of, what do you want less of, and what's your biggest professional challenge right now. Lucas: And what did they learn? Luna: They found out that their highest-engaged segment — about 30 percent of readers — actually hated the weekly deep-dive format. They wanted shorter, more tactical tips. So the newsletter shifted to a hybrid model: one deep dive per month, four shorter posts. Churn dropped 22 percent in the next quarter. Lucas: Twenty-two percent is massive. And it's the kind of insight you just can't get from open rates alone. Open rates tell you subject line performance, not content resonance. Luna: Right. So the obvious question is — how do you design a survey that actually gets results? Because a bad survey is worse than no survey. Lucas: Absolutely. First rule: keep it short. Five questions max. People are doing this on their phone between meetings. Second: mix quantitative and qualitative. You want the multiple-choice questions for clean data, but the open-ended 'what's your biggest challenge?' is where the gold is. Luna: And timing matters too. Don't send it the day after a big product launch or on a Monday morning. Mid-week, mid-morning tends to get the best response rates. Also, consider embedding the first question in the email itself — like a one-click poll — so people start engaging before they even hit the survey link. Lucas: That's a clever friction-reducer. I've seen newsletters do a simple 'which of these topics interests you most?' with clickable options right in the email. Then the survey link is for the follow-up questions. It effectively doubles the completion rate. Luna: And what about incentives? I know some people are opposed to offering anything, but a small token can really lift response rates. Lucas: I think it depends. If your newsletter is already delivering value, a lot of readers will participate just because they want to help shape it. But a modest incentive — like a chance to win a $25 gift card, or early access to a paid post — can bump response from 3 percent to 8 or 9 percent. Just be transparent about how you'll use the data. Luna: Yeah, that trust piece is critical. I've seen newsletters lose credibility when they run a survey and then nothing changes. Readers notice. So you have to be prepared to act on the feedback — or at least communicate why you're not acting on certain requests. Lucas: That's a really important point. If you survey and then ignore the results, you've actually made things worse. You've taught your readers that their voice doesn't matter. So the commitment is: we will read every response, we will share a summary of what we learned, and we will implement at least one change based on the feedback. Luna: And that change doesn't have to be huge. Even something like rotating the day you send, or adding a recurring segment that readers asked for. The act of closing the loop is what builds loyalty. Lucas: One thing I want to flag — there's a temptation to over-survey. I've seen newsletters that send a survey every quarter, and by the third one, response rates tank. I'd recommend once, maybe twice a year max. And always tie it to a specific purpose — like planning the next quarter's editorial calendar. Luna: Agreed. And on the analysis side, don't overcomplicate it. For the open-ended responses, you don't need fancy sentiment analysis tools. Just read through them and look for patterns. If the same word or theme appears in ten different answers, that's your signal. Lucas: Exactly. And one more tactical tip: when you share the results with your audience — which you should — make it a standalone post or a dedicated section in the newsletter. Show them the charts, quote a few of their responses, and say 'here's what we're changing because you told us.' That alone can be a powerful retention tool. Luna: Yeah, it makes them feel like co-creators. And that's the whole point, right? A newsletter isn't a monologue, it's a dialogue. Surveys are just a formal way of keeping that conversation going. Lucas: Honestly, if this conversation has given you a concrete idea you might actually use — maybe you're thinking about running your first survey, or redesigning an existing one — and if it was worth a coffee to you, there's a link at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, just a way to keep this show ad-free and independent. Luna: Yeah, it really does help. And we appreciate every single person who's thrown in a couple bucks over the years. It's what keeps us going. Lucas: Alright, back to surveys. One more thing I want to mention is the ethical line. When you ask readers what they want, you might get requests that don't align with your expertise or your values. How do you handle that? Luna: That's a great question. I think the key is to remember you're the editor, not a vending machine. You can acknowledge the request without feeling obligated to fulfill it. Something like 'we hear you, but that's not our lane, and here's a resource we trust instead.' Lucas: Right. And there's a difference between serving your audience and pandering to them. The best newsletters have a point of view. Surveys can inform that point of view, but they shouldn't replace it. Otherwise you end up with bland, generic content that tries to please everyone and satisfies no one. Luna: Well said. So to recap: run a short, focused survey once or twice a year. Mix multiple-choice and open-ended questions. Offer a small incentive if you can. Close the loop by sharing results and making at least one change. And always keep your editorial voice intact. Lucas: That's the playbook. And if you're a solo operator, this is one of the highest-leverage things you can do. A few hours of survey design and analysis can fundamentally reshape your content strategy for the better. Luna: And save you from burning out writing things nobody asked for. I think that's the hidden benefit — it's actually a burnout prevention tool. Lucas: I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right. When you know your readers are waiting for a specific piece of content, the writing comes easier. You're not guessing anymore. Luna: So, next episode we're going to talk about something that came up in a survey we ran — surprise, we practice what we preach — and that's the role of AI in newsletter writing. The feedback was… intense. Lucas: I'm both excited and a little nervous about that one. See you next time.