📧 Email Marketing February 10, 2025 7 min read

How We Grew a Newsletter from 0 to 1,000 Subscribers in 30 Days

When we started GloryAI's newsletter, we had zero subscribers and zero budget. Here's exactly how we hit 1,000 subscribers in 30 days using HugeMails, a simple lead magnet, and a viral loop.

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Maria Ionescu

Content & SEO at GloryAI

Newsletter Growth

What you'll learn

⚡ Powered by HugeMails

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📊 The tl;dr

30 days • 1,027 subscribers • 42% open rate • €0 spent on ads • All using HugeMails free tier

1. The lead magnet: make it useful, make it fast

Most startups overcomplicate lead magnets. They spend weeks building interactive tools or 50-page ebooks. We didn't.

Our lead magnet was a 5-page PDF checklist: "10 AI Tools Every Marketer Needs". It took 2 hours to make in Canva. Each tool had 1-2 sentences and a direct link.

✅ Why it worked:

  • Immediate value – no fluff
  • Easy to consume – 5 pages, not 50
  • Actionable – direct links to tools
  • Fast to create – launched in 2 hours

2. The landing page: one goal, one CTA

We didn't build a custom landing page. We used a simple form on our blog with:

  • Headline: "Get the free AI tools checklist"
  • Subheadline: "10 tools tested by founders"
  • Email field only (no name)
  • Button: "Send me the PDF"

Conversion rate: 23% (visitor to subscriber). The key? No distractions. No navigation. No "learn more". Just email and button.

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3. Why we chose HugeMails

We tested 5 email platforms. Most had free tiers but limited features. HugeMails gave us:

10,000 free emails/month

Enough for 1k subscribers

GDPR compliant

Servers in Europe

99.5% deliverability

No spam folder

API & automations

For the viral loop

Setup took 15 minutes. We connected our domain, imported the form, and created a welcome email. That's it.

4. The welcome sequence: deliver value immediately

Email 1 (immediate): "Here's your AI tools checklist" – PDF attached, 2 sentences.
Email 2 (+1 day): "How we use ChatGPT for SEO" – useful content, no pitch.
Email 3 (+3 days): "The viral loop (and how you can help)" – the ask.

📈 Open rates:

Email 1: 68% • Email 2: 54% • Email 3: 47%

5. The viral loop: subscribers bring subscribers

This was the game-changer. We added a simple referral widget: "Share this checklist and unlock 3 bonus AI tools".

When a subscriber shared on Twitter/LinkedIn, they got an extra PDF. We used HugeMails' API to track shares and automatically send the bonus.

📊 Results:

  • 30% of subscribers shared
  • Average 2.3 referrals per share
  • 342 subscribers came from referrals

6. The numbers (30 days)

1,027 Subscribers
42% Open rate
33% Referral rate

Total cost: €0. HugeMails free tier covered all 45k+ emails.

🚀 You can do this too

No budget, no team, no technical skills. Just a useful PDF, a simple form, and HugeMails. We proved it works. Now it's your turn.

Start your newsletter with HugeMails →