Introduction

Experts Exchange turned a failed newsletter into ByteSize, a 100K-subscriber hit with a 47% open rate by flipping their marketing playbook to respect, not impress, their tech audience.

What's the problem it solves?

Most marketers fail when speaking to highly technical people. These audiences despise marketing fluff, fact-check everything, and instantly detect inauthenticity. Experts Exchange learned this the hard way when their original newsletter was mocked for technical errors and shut down after one edition. The challenge: how to market to people who hate being marketed to.

Quick Summary

Experts Exchange, a long-running IT community, once tried to publish a newsletter written by marketers, not tech experts. The result was a disaster: their audience called out inaccuracies and destroyed trust. A few years later, Chief Revenue Officer Thomas Bernal took a new approach. Instead of pretending to be experts, they became skilled curators-collecting, summarizing, and sharing valuable tech stories without pretending to “teach” the pros.

This shift turned ByteSize into a must-read newsletter. EE wrote in a “Tony Stark” voice-witty, sharp, and confident but not condescending. They refined their content from 10 random stories to the top 3 that readers cared about, based on performance data. They also cleaned their list, removing unengaged readers to boost open rates.

Soon, ByteSize became a 206K-subscriber publication with high engagement and new ad revenue. Each section-news, tools, jobs, and community highlights-offered sponsors a trusted platform to reach IT professionals.

The key lesson: stop trying to outsmart experts. Instead, curate what matters, speak their language, and show respect for their knowledge.

Key Takeaways

• Technical audiences hate being marketed to and spot fake expertise instantly.
• Authenticity and humility work better than flashy marketing claims.
• Curate high-value, relevant content instead of pretending to be an expert.
• Pick a clear, consistent voice-EE’s “Tony Stark” style kept it fun yet credible.
• Trim your list to keep only engaged subscribers; quality beats quantity.
• Use strong engagement metrics to attract sponsors and build new revenue streams.

What to do

• Acknowledge expertise: Never talk down to technical audiences.
• Curate, don’t lecture: Share valuable insights from trusted sources.
• Adopt a persona: Pick a memorable tone or style that fits your audience.
• Test and iterate: Use data to refine what stories actually engage readers.
• Clean your list: Regularly remove inactive subscribers to improve open rates.
• Monetize attention: Package your newsletter sections for sponsorship deals.

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