Latest / The Newsletter Podcast with Fexingo: Substack, Beehiiv, and Email Newsletter Business / How One Newsletter Uses Sticky Notes to Retain Readers
Transcript
- Lucas: So, Luna, I want to talk about a newsletter that has less than a thousand subscribers, but it's doing something that most bigger publications would never dare to try. Luna: Okay, now I'm curious. What's the trick? Lucas: It's a newsletter about urban farming called City Sprouts, run by a writer named Maya Chen. She's been publishing for about two years, and in the last six months she cut her monthly churn by 38 percent. Not by improving the content, not by sending more emails, but by mailing a physical sticky note to each paid subscriber every month. Luna: A sticky note? Like the yellow square you put on your monitor? Lucas: Exactly. A 3M Post-it, handwritten with a short message like 'Thanks for reading' or a specific comment about something the subscriber mentioned. She writes maybe two sentences, sticks it on a postcard, and mails it globally. The whole thing costs her about two dollars per subscriber per month, including postage. Luna: And that's enough to cut churn by almost 40 percent? That seems almost too good to be true. Lucas: It's not a controlled experiment, sure. But she also tried discount codes and re-engagement emails before this, and neither moved the needle. The sticky note is the only variable that changed in the last two quarters. She saw the churn drop from about 8 percent a month to just under 5 percent. Luna: I love the tactile angle. But the first thing that comes to mind is scale. How does she keep this up when she's got a thousand subscribers and a full-time job? Lucas: That's the part I find fascinating. She's deliberately capped her paid subscriber count at five hundred. She has a waitlist for new paid members. She says the sticky note only works if she can write something personal, and she can't do that for ten thousand people. So she's chosen to stay small and charge a premium. Luna: So she's basically trading growth for retention. Which, honestly, is a smart trade for a niche topic like urban farming. The audience is passionate but not infinite. Lucas: Exactly. And the interesting part is, she raised her annual plan price by 20 percent at the same time she started the sticky notes, and annual plan uptake went up 12 percent. The personal touch made people more willing to commit for a year. Luna: There's a psychological thing here, right? A physical object in a digital world feels like a gift, not a transaction. It's like the opposite of a discount code. Lucas: Yeah, and there's research on this. In one study from the Journal of Consumer Psychology, people valued a handwritten thank-you note far more than a digital one, even when the message was identical. The effort signal matters. Luna: But what about the environmental angle? Mailing paper every month for a newsletter about urban farming might feel a bit hypocritical. Lucas: Maya actually addressed that. She uses recycled paper and plant-based ink, and she bundles two months' notes into one envelope to cut shipping. She also offers a digital-only tier for people who opt out, but very few actually take it. Luna: So what's the lesson for a writer who can't afford a two-dollar per subscriber cost, or who just doesn't want to deal with the hassle of mail? Lucas: The principle is deliberate friction. In a world where every subscription is frictionless, adding an unexpected, personal touch can stand out more than another email. You don't have to mail a sticky note. You could record a voice memo, send a personalized video, or even just write a longer, more specific welcome email that references something the reader shared. Luna: But those are digital, and you could argue they're less surprising. The sticky note works because it's physical and rare. It's like getting a letter in the mail versus an email. Lucas: Sure, but the core is the personalization. She collects a bit of info from each subscriber when they join, like what they're growing or their biggest challenge. Then she references that in the note. So it's not just a generic 'thanks'—it's 'I remember you said your basil kept wilting, how's that going?' Luna: That's the kind of thing that makes a reader feel seen. And when you feel seen, you're less likely to cancel. It's like a relationship, not a transaction. Lucas: And she's using the note not just for retention but as a research tool. She asks a question on the note, like 'What topic should I cover next?' and she gets a reply rate of about 60 percent. That's huge for a newsletter. It feeds her content calendar with real reader questions. Luna: So the sticky note is doing double duty: it's a retention tactic and a content generator. That's a pretty elegant loop. Lucas: It also creates a sense of community. Some subscribers have started sharing photos of the notes on social media, tagging her. That's free marketing, and it's authentic. People are literally showing off the fact that they get a handwritten note from her. Luna: I can see that. It's like a badge of honor. But I keep coming back to the scale issue. What happens when she decides to grow beyond five hundred? Does she have to drop the sticky notes? Lucas: Her plan is to keep the sticky notes for the highest tier and create a lower-priced tier without them. So she's segmenting her audience based on the level of personal touch they're willing to pay for. That's a smart way to scale the revenue without scaling the labor. Luna: So she's essentially selling a premium human connection. And in a market where everyone is using AI to automate everything, that's a differentiator. Lucas: Right. Look, I'm not saying every newsletter should start mailing sticky notes tomorrow. The cost per subscriber might be too high for a low-price subscription. But the lesson is to think about what you can do that a bigger competitor can't replicate. A huge media company can't send personalized sticky notes to every subscriber. A solo writer can. Luna: And that's a real moat, actually. It's not a technical moat, it's a human one. The more automated everything gets, the more we crave something human. Lucas: Exactly. And there's a practical side for anyone listening. If you're on Substack or Beehiiv, you can test this with a small group. Pick your ten most loyal readers and send them a note. See what happens. You don't have to commit to the whole list. Luna: And then measure the impact on renewal rates or their engagement over the next month. That's a low-risk experiment. Lucas: Yeah, and if it works, you can scale it gradually. But also, think about the emotional return. Maya told me that writing those notes is the best part of her week. It reminds her why she started the newsletter in the first place. So it's not just a business tactic—it's a burn-out prevention tool. Luna: That's a nice way to end the episode. But before we go, I have to say, this whole conversation reminds me of why we do what we do. It's about connecting with people, not just broadcasting to them. Lucas: And that's actually a good segue to something we've been meaning to mention. This show is ad-free, and that's only possible because of listeners who choose to support us directly. If these conversations have sparked an idea you've applied, or you just want to keep the podcast going, you can support us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a small gesture that keeps the lights on. Luna: Yeah, and we truly appreciate the ones who do. It lets us keep making episodes that dig into the details, like this one. Lucas: But back to the sticky note. There's one more thing I found intriguing. Maya said she's never had a subscriber cancel within the first month after receiving a note. Not once. She's tracked every cancellation since she started the ritual, and the pattern holds. Luna: That's a strong signal. It suggests the note creates a kind of grace period, like the reader feels a personal obligation to give it a chance. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the kind of insight you can't get from A/B testing subject lines. It's about building a relationship, not optimizing a metric. Luna: So for anyone listening, the takeaway is: look for the human moment in your newsletter. It might not be a sticky note, but it's something that makes your reader feel like they're not just a number. Lucas: And if you do try it, let us know. We'd love to hear how it goes. That's it for this episode, thanks for listening.