a Year after I joined Wise Publishing in 2020, I was handed oversight of our email list. At the time, the list sat at around 110,000 users. Annual revenue from that list was barely two thousand dollars. To put that in perspective, only about 200 people had ever paid for the $10 per year subscription. The list was seen more as an afterthought than as a real revenue engine.
My mission was clear: turn the email list into a growth driver for the business. Competitors like Morning Brew, 1440, and The Hustle were expanding rapidly. They proved that email was still one of the most powerful channels in digital publishing. I believed we could compete and carve out our own audience at scale.
I created a three-phase strategy:
- Phase 1: Grow
- Phase 2: Monetize
- Phase 3: Integrate.
By the end, the list had ballooned to nearly one million subscribers, and what started as a neglected channel became a core line of revenue for Wise Publishing.
Phase 1: Growth
The first challenge was size. With 110,000 users, the list was too small to be meaningfully contribute to company profits. We needed critical mass.
Most of our early growth came through display arbitrage. The model was simple: users who arrived through paid traffic could access an ad-free version of our content by signing up for the newsletter. In the early days this worked beautifully. We were adding 10,000 to 20,000 new users per month. The math seemed to make sense too. Even at break-even acquisition costs, we expected to make money back once we began monetizing those users.
To diversify our growth, we also leaned into contests through a platform called DojoMojo. The system allowed multiple brands to pool resources and run joint giveaways. Each brand contributed cash or prizes, typically between $500 and $1,000, and committed to driving a minimum number of signups. At the end, every brand received a copy of the new email addresses.
This tactic delivered users at a cost per acquisition of about 27 cents. Over time, we saw roughly half of those users unsubscribe, effectively raising the CPA to 54 cents. Accounting for the fact that only one-third fit our target demographic, the “true” CPA was closer to 81 cents. Still, that was a bargain compared to most paid media channels.
By the end of the first year, the list had grown from 110,000 to more than 400,000. On paper it was a huge win. In reality, some cracks were starting to show. Many of the subscribers acquired through display arbitrage turned out to be bots. We would not discover the full extent of that problem until Phase 2.
Phase 2: Monetization and Reality Check
With a list of 400,000, we now had the volume to generate revenue. The next step was building a dedicated sales capability. I proposed hiring an email salesperson who would temporarily sit on the marketing team rather than the revenue team. The reason was strategic. I wanted close collaboration between the salesperson and my email manager so we could quickly test formats, pricing, and positioning without being slowed down by legacy processes.
I also forecasted revenue growth in a way that set expectations. I told leadership to expect two months of no revenue, followed by gradual gains. That proved accurate. Month two delivered $2,000. Month three delivered $4,000. From there, the line of business scaled like clockwork.
In our first year of monetization, the email channel generated just under $300,000. That made our three-person email team (plus me overseeing) slightly profitable. It also validated the decision to keep the function agile and semi-independent.
The sales playbook was simple but effective. We combined one-to-one outreach with automated drip campaigns using Klenty and Hunter.io. By doing both, we reached a broad audience of potential advertisers while still creating a personalized feel.
But this is where the bot problem revealed itself. While open rates were sometimes above 40 percent, advertiser conversion rates were under one percent. That gap was too large to be explained by misalignment. We tested with multiple categories of advertisers and saw the same pattern. The conclusion was unavoidable: many of our display arbitrage subscribers were not real people.
This forced us to get smarter about growth quality. Contests and organic growth became more important. We also began to experiment with push notifications, which were built from fresh traffic and produced far higher engagement.
Phase 3: Integration and Expansion
Once we had proven revenue, the email channel needed to scale beyond my team. We moved the email sales role to the revenue team, which allowed them to sell email as part of larger media packages. Instead of having a standalone media kit, email was added as a standard line item next to display, sponsorships, affiliate deals, and news placements.
We also rebranded email under the broader umbrella of “owned media,” which included both email and push notifications. This rebranding helped internally by positioning the channel as a core asset rather than a side project. It also helped externally because advertisers increasingly valued owned channels where publishers had a direct relationship with their audience.
Push notifications proved to be especially valuable because they were not contaminated by bot signups. Every subscriber came directly from real user traffic. Engagement rates reflected that. This gave us a stronger second leg to stand on as we built out owned media.
Obstacles Along the Way
The biggest obstacle was internal investment. While the email channel was profitable, profits were often reallocated to other business lines. That made it difficult to reinvest and compound our growth. In hindsight, I would have fought harder to keep a dedicated reinvestment budget. With that, the channel could have scaled even faster and produced higher quality users.
Another obstacle was the challenge of shifting mindsets. At the start, email was seen as a tiny subscription product worth $2,000 a year. Convincing leadership that it could become a six-figure revenue line required constant proof points and consistent forecasting.
Keys to Growth
Looking back, three factors made the difference:
- Aggressive list growth. Even though display arbitrage brought bot issues, it gave us the volume to get started. Without a large base, advertisers would not have taken us seriously.
- Dedicated sales resource. Hiring an email salesperson who worked hand in hand with marketing allowed us to build momentum quickly and avoid silos.
- Integration into broader revenue strategy. Moving email into the revenue team and positioning it as owned media unlocked much larger deals and budgets.
Why the Management Approach Mattered
The structure of this growth plan mattered just as much as the tactics. By dividing the journey into three phases, I gave the team clarity and focus. Research supports this type of structured leadership. According to Gallup, managers who set clear expectations and phased goals are 70 percent more likely to have engaged employees. Engaged employees, in turn, drive 21 percent higher profitability for their organizations.
The decision to embed sales within marketing in Phase 2 is another example. Deloitte research shows that cross-functional collaboration increases innovation and reduces time to market by up to 30 percent. By eliminating silos during the crucial testing period, we accelerated both revenue and learning.
Finally, the willingness to rebrand and integrate into owned media was a leadership decision. McKinsey has found that companies with leaders who actively reframe internal narratives and position new initiatives strategically are 2.5 times more likely to sustain growth.
Conclusion
In the end, the MoneyWise email list grew from 110,000 subscribers generating $2,000 per year to nearly one million subscribers generating close to $300,000 in its first year of monetization. It became a profitable and scalable line of business that expanded our product set and strengthened our advertiser relationships.
There were missteps, especially with display arbitrage, but even those taught valuable lessons about data quality and long-term growth. The biggest thing I would do differently is protect and reinvest profits back into the channel rather than allowing them to be siphoned off.
What started as a neglected email list became a meaningful revenue driver and helped Wise Publishing compete in a market dominated by Morning Brew and other newsletter giants. For me, the project reinforced a core lesson: leadership is about structure, clarity, and follow-through. With the right plan and the discipline to execute it, even an overlooked channel can become one of the most valuable assets in the business.
Contributors
- Shane Murphy – Email Manager
- Bronwyn Anderson – Email Specialist
- Awais Junaid – Sales Specialist
Kris Bruynson 
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