LISTEN: Research, Branding and Membership w/ Emma Gilchrist from The Narwhal
Emma Gilchrist, the co-founder of The Narwhal, walks through key learnings about running a small membership-focused media outlet, including user research, the importance of branding, her publication's marketing funnel and how they approach measurement and analytics.
Show Transcript
1:50 - Why Emma started The Narwhal
3:05 - Why and how to do member research
6:56 - The importance of branding and positioning
9:30 - How to engage with younger audiences
11:55 - Membership without a paywall
16:26 - Consistency in membership value
19:45 - The Narwhal’s marketing funnel
24:15 - The importance of email marketing
26:16 - Why their newsletter isn't about traffic
28:03 - Analytics and data
29:25 - Reducing churn
32:46 - The benefits of physical products for membership
36:34 - How The Narwhal uses Facebook advertising
38:35 - Why you need metrics before advertising
40:18 - How they use analytics
42:40 - Their craziest and most impactful A/B tests
43:26 - Tools they use for A/B testing
44:10 - Team structure for a startup news outlet
46:30 - How the team has changed over time
48:18 - When is it time to hire
50:15 - Processes for hiring
52:30 - One thing new outlets should do