Newsletter Persona Strategy: Why Top Publishers Write for One Person

Remember that Newsletter Marketing Summit I mentioned last week? 

There was another game-changing insight I haven't been able to stop thinking about. It's a content approach from Alex Lieberman (Morning Brew's founder) that few publishers actually implement:

Writing for an audience of one.

This approach – also championed by Sam Parr of The Hustle – transforms how you create content for your newsletter. And it might be the simplest way to make your writing more engaging, valuable, and sponsor-friendly.

Here's the concept: Instead of writing for your broad audience or even your ideal customer profile, you write for a specific, detailed persona.

For example, if you're currently writing for 'executives at startups,' try defining a specific person: 

“Justin Smith, COO of a Series A SaaS startup who's been in the industry for 8 years and is struggling to scale his team past 25 people without proper systems.”

This hyper-specific approach offers three immediate benefits:

First, it makes writing easier. You're no longer writing for an abstract audience – you're writing to help Justin. You know his challenges, his language, his goals. It feels more like writing to a colleague than creating content for strangers.

Second, it makes your writing better. Specificity breeds clarity. When you write for Justin, you naturally eliminate jargon, avoid vague advice, and focus on practical solutions to concrete problems.

Third, it makes your content more valuable. By defining the exact "job to be done" for your persona (like providing Justin with team-scaling frameworks), you ensure every issue delivers something genuinely useful.

There's a bonus benefit too: This clarity helps in conversations with potential sponsors. 

When you can tell brands exactly who you're writing for – down to specific pain points and motivations – they immediately understand if your audience aligns with their target market.

If you haven't defined your audience of one yet, try it for your next newsletter. 

Pick a name, create a detailed backstory, and write directly to them. You might be surprised how much sharper your writing becomes.

See you next week, 

Craig

P.S. Speaking of sponsorships – clearly defining your audience persona helps attract the right sponsors. Wellput connects publishers who know their readers with brands seeking those exact audiences. 

Once you’ve taken action on today’s advice, reach out to our team at Wellput. We’ll plug you in to sponsors that will be a good fit.