How TLDR Newsletter's Lean Team Scaled 8x with Minimal Cost

TLDR is a collective of tech newsletters with an extensive reach.

The TLDR ecosystem comprises more than 4.5 million subscribers and no fewer than eight specialist news channels covering specialisms including: crypto, UX/UI design, and more.

But it did not always look like that or work easily, according to TLDR CEO Dan Ni, who recalls the business' early administrative struggles when TLDR employed a team of two and was about to launch its second newsletter.

The problem with Google Sheets

Every TLDR newsletter is supported by multiple sponsors - making it crucial for TLDR to manage and track customer relationships.

It was a complete nightmare.

"At the time we were using separate Google Sheets to help us coordinate activities with each individual sponsors." He adds: "It was a complete nightmare."

With so much back and forth with sponsors, Dan and his colleague spent a significant amount of time each week working on the shared documents.

As the business was set to launch its second newsletter the following month, its founder wondered if there was an easier way to manage and grow its sponsorship opportunities.

Why TLDR chose Sponsy

In May 2022 TLDR first learned about Sponsy.

We took a look at other solutions, Sponsy seemed to be the best designed for our use case.

Sponsy is a SaaS streamlining ad operations for media companies. Designed to help small teams scale easily, Sponsy is suitable for managing a range of publications: from newsletters to podcasts and social media.

With its powerful capabilities, Sponsy simplifies every step of the way for publishers, from booking ads right through to go-live.

“We took a look at other solutions,” recalls Dan. “Sponsy seemed to be the best designed for our use case! We are huge fans!”

Effortless migration

It was actually super easy since we were doing a new Google Sheet for each sponsor.

Once TLDR decided on Sponsy, they were able to start using it quite quickly, according to Dan.

“It was actually super easy since we were doing a new Google Sheet for each sponsor,” he recalls.

Since going live with Sponsy on that day in June 2022 TLDR has not looked back.

Time-saving features

Over the past year, Dan and his colleagues at TLDR have gotten to grips with Sponsy's capabilities.

When asked about his favourite features, Dan struggles to choose just one.

"I think we're using pretty much everything" he responds enthusiastically.

Working with Sponsy's features - designed to help media companies to grow - has let TLDR do just that by streamlining day-to-day processes.

Customer portal

It's easily saved tens of hours per week - probably replacing an entire virtual assistant's amount of work for us.

With 250 clients (and rising) on their books, Dan cannot imagine how this would have been possible with Google Sheets (and 250 individual documents to navigate).

Dan is particularly impressed with the way Sponsy's customer portal has transformed his interactions with advertisers.

During TLDR's initial migration, advertisers told Dan how much they loved the new ad flow via the customer portal.

He adds: "The customer portal is super slick and fits in with our workflow really nicely."

The Customer Portal serves as the central point for client communications at TLDR. As well as providing a place to collect and curate assets, it provides TLDR with a simple way for its clients to engage with and approve sponsorship content. (without an email needing to be created...)

Dan adds: “It’s so much easier now. We just send each sponsor a Sponsy link and with that they can edit anything in their portal, click accept and it’s done.”

On its own, this feature has proven to be a significant time-saver for TLDR, as he continues: “It’s easily saved tens of hours per week - probably replacing an entire virtual assistant’s amount of work for us.”

Multi-slot management made easy

Sponsy understands the needs of media publishers - whether they are working across one publication or twenty.

Being able to book multiple slots at once is really great.

Its inventory management system is engineered to make booking as easy as it can be. Through the platform, Dan and his team can perform a range of activities, including:

• Managing ad slots
• Track fill rates
• Swap dates
• Review customer assets

For TLDR, the biggest benefit of Sponsy lies in its powerful management capabilities. “Being able to book multiple slots at once is really great” explains Dan.

This feature, together with streamlined approval processing and automations, keep TLDR and its sponsors on-track for success.

Once approved, the status of an advertisement automatically changes, thanks to Sponsy's customizable automations designed to keep TLDR's operations running smoothly and efficiently across the team.

Deep insights

As a solution built around the needs of media publishers, Sponsy pairs advertisers with the advertisements they have booked previously - ensuring clients and sales are always in the know.

This is particularly useful when considering new engagements. Sales representatives, for example, can see the booking history of each advertiser and make informed decisions about pricing.

Deep details like this help TLDR to transform its pricing strategy for maximum returns. Instead of being restricted to fixed ad slots, Dan and his team are now able to move advertisers towards budget ranges and campaigns incorporating multiple newsletter channels and editions.

Results

I can't imagine running a sponsorship-based business without it!

Within 12 months of working in partnership with Sponsy, TLDR's operations have transformed in many ways, including:

• Expanding from one to eight daily newsletters
• Increasing readership from 300k to 4.5m
• Engagement with more than 250 advertisers
• Growing the TLDR team from 2 to 4

Above all else, this partnership has strengthened TLDR's relationship with its growing base of advertisers and increased its ability to expand its readership and portfolio of publications - while maintaining a lean team.

Dan explains: “Sponsy replaced dozens of Google Sheets for us and several sponsors have already commented on how much they appreciate our new streamlined sponsorship process. I can't imagine running a sponsorship-based business without it!”