What tools do you use to run a multi-brand newsletter company?

When I had 15 newsletters, every reply to any of them came to me, because every hello@ address was just an alias for TJ. That was the first thing to fix.

How should I handle reader replies?

One shared mailbox, set up as its own user.

"Make a fake person in G Suite so all the replies go there and anybody can log in and answer."

While you're in there, cut signup friction. Don't make people enter a first and last name. And don't make them confirm their subscription before you count them.

Where should the CRM live?

For us, as of October 2026, in Notion. Cold outreach stays in its own database, separate from warm relationships, separate from clients. People move up only when they engage.

One lesson from setting that up: a connected tool isn't the tool you use. An AI assumed we used ClickUp just because the connector was attached. By then we didn't.

How do I track recurring work across brands?

Tasks with everything attached. Daily checks are a parent task with subtasks for Instagram comments, Facebook comments, the brand inbox and Friday poll comments. Build it in one brand, then template it. The full setup is in how to set up newsletter QA.

How do I get reports without anyone writing them?

Talk through the review. My ad manager narrates his pass through every Meta account into a meeting-note tool, and the plan is an automation that formats any Meta ads note and emails it to me.

Where do ideas go?

A Notion gallery of business ideas, one card each, plus an AI agent that knows the template, so "save this as a business idea" works from anywhere. Details in how I decide which idea to pursue.

Should I send newsletters through AWS or Mailgun myself?

You can have AWS or Mailgun send your email. Once you get to a certain scale, if you aren't handling deliverability correctly, the whole thing can blow up and land in spam. That's a big reason many publishers stay on an established newsletter platform.