Promising prospects, trailblazing women in media & copy resource of the week

Hey, hi, howdy, and welcome to Issue #28 of The Subhead, a bi-weekly newsletter about copywriting, marketing & media, and a look at some of the women who make it great.

In today’s edition:

✨ This week in freelancing

✨ Trailblazing Women in Media: Betches

✨ Copy Resource of the Week: Email copy tutorials

✨ Just for Fun

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This week in freelancing

I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always keep in touch with past clients & promising prospects as diligently as I should. I know the prevailing wisdom is that you should check in with folks that fit that description at least once per quarter.

Despite believing this to be necessary and true, the discomfort I feel doing it (because it often feels like “pestering” to me), has kept me from making it a regular practice.

Then last year, I finally got over myself and started following up with good prospects, if not quarterly, then at least on a semi-regular basis.

And lo and behold, it works!

This week, because of that semi-regular “pestering,” I onboarded a new client I’d been in touch with 5-6 times over the last 1.5 years, who I’ll be doing several months of healthcare writing work for.

So, keep in touch with those promising prospects, kids. 😊

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Trailblazing Women in Media: Betches

Betches Media is a female-founded multi-media and entertainment lifestyle brand, meant to provide “a space for all women to get real about life – funny, honest, and unfiltered.” Founded in 2011 by Cornell University roommates and sorority sisters, Sami Sage, Aleen Dreksler, and Jordana Abraham, Betches was originally launched as an anonymous humor blog.

One of the earliest digitally native media and entertainment companies founded and led by women, by 2021 the site had transformed into a multi-platform media company for millennial women reaching an audience of 43 million, according to its founders. Now based in New York City with 63 employees, entertainment and humor is at the core of Betches’ content strategy, with social media as its main growth platform.

I was deep into the research and still unclear about the business model, when I came across this in a lengthy New York Times profile of the company:

“Instagram, where brands will pay tens of thousands of dollars for a post, remains the main cash cow for the company, which has also created popular offshoot accounts like @BetchesMoms, @BravoByBetches, @WhensHappyHr and is expanding a Gen Z-focused account called @SendHelp. The company also has a growing TikTok account, with 1.2 million followers. Ads are mixed in with regular posts.”

The brand includes news, entertainment, relationship and lifestyle verticals, with content spanning articles, newsletters, podcasts and more.

In the fall of 2023, the founders sold the brand to publicly traded British media company LBG Media for $24 million, but plan to stick around and make Betches “the leading global platform for women’s content and culture,” according to co-founder Aleen Dreksler.

(As for the meaning of “betches,” the founders say it refers to women who want to be strong, confident, and unconcerned about what others say about them.)

Good business lesson / golden nugget for anyone with even a tiny media property (such as a newsletter, for example): 

Betches excels at placing their demographic focus on young women combined with a category focus on relatable humor, which puts them in an enviable position when it comes to getting brand advertisers.

I’ve talked about the importance of differentiation multiple times in this newsletter, and having a clear audience, along with a distinctive voice, attitude and personality is a compelling way to set yourself apart. And that is something not many digital media companies have managed to do as well as Betches, according to the research I did for this mini-profile.

Learn more about Betches Media at the inline links above, or check out the articles and resources here:

See Betches LinkedIn profile here, and their website here.

The ‘Betches’ Got Rich. So What’s Next?

The women’s media company, which started as a raunchy college blog, is a rare financial success story — and on the White House’s radar. Now, it’s wrestling with how to grow up alongside its readers.

How the Betches founders turned a blog into a multi-platform media company for young audiences

Betches Case Study (on Muckrack.com)

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Copy Resource of the Week: Free email copy tutorials

I’ve paid darn good money to take Copyhackers’ excellent copywriting courses over the years, which I consider the gold standard of copywriting training.

Much of their free content is just as valuable, especially if you’re a business owner who wants to improve your copy skills rather than a copywriter for hire, like moi.

And as we can all probably agree, one of the best skills you can learn as a business owner, solo operator, or other person who wants to promote something, is the skill of writing compelling email copy.

These video tutorials by Copyhackers will show you how. There are accompanying transcripts as well, if you’d rather read than watch videos.

Email tutorials include:

· How to write a lead-nurturing email

· How to write a welcome email

· How to write a cold email

· How to write anticipation-building emails

· How to write the last email in your sales email sequence

· How to improve your email open rates

And more …

Discover how to level up your email copy game here.

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Just for Fun

How much do I love this story? So very much.

A new start after 60: it took 70 years to find my inner artist. At 82, I’m in my studio every day

Former nurse Norma Geddes took a 10-day stained-glass course on a whim and found her passion. Now she exhibits widely, and her work sells out.

How great is that?!

The way Geddes talks about her new-found passion and all it has brought into her life is a bona fide joy to read. Highly recommend.

“It might have taken 70 years to find the artist in me, but I have an amazing path to follow now,” she says.

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That’s it for this week, my friend.

As always, thanks for reading, I appreciate you!

Be well. Stay curious. See you again in two weeks, on November 3.

Warmly,

Kimberly

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