775% growth leads to text sponsors

Super host and Florida Politics publisher, Peter Schorsch, leaned into a simple banner on his website, and the subscribers flooded in.

Subtext super host and Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch runs the campaign “Florida Politics news alerts and analysis”. He brings his subcribers the latest news and analysis on Florida’s 2021 State Legislative Session and beyond. Since launching in mid-November, Peter, the author of FP’s “Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics,” has managed to grow authentic connections with a Subtext community of over 1k subs.

According to Peter whose been loving the ease of one-on-one communication with his readers, the campaign has also served as a driver of his online content.

“I’m very much enjoying the back and forth I am having with the audience. It’s real-time, but also private, as opposed to social media. In fact, I’ve picked up more than one news scoop from readers reaching out to me via the text service.”

Sponsored Texts

Peter told us it’s been amazing to watch the audience responses to texts, and as a committed host, he’s been able to garner a ton of engagement, proving subscribers want more. Such a large and engaged audience has allowed him and the Florida Politics team to accomplish a Subtext campaign first –sponsored texts.

How did they do it? By gaining a loyal audience, then offering opportunities to advertise via their Subtext readership. In Peters own words the advertisers “quickly understood the real-time power of the text service, as opposed to the static advertising on a website.”

It seems as so receiving an ad from a trusted individual directly to a consumer’s phone, doesn’t feel so much like an ad.

“We limit the number of advertisers and rotate them, so that there is more value, and the advertisers like the idea of having a message delivered as opposed to the audience having to come to the ad. And they’re excited to see just how potent the service can be during the Florida Legislative Session, which is a busy time of year for us.”

Here are the parameters of the buy:

• Limited to 8 new advertisers.
• $5K from committee meetings until the end of bill signing.
• Sponsorship messages will rotate at bottom of texts.
• ALSO INCLUDED: Your branding on digital ads for the text service. So it’s kind of like 2 for 1.

Also of note is how Florida Politics has gotten some of their sponsors; by inquiring with the audience they’ve already built!