Case study
MKE Meetups
Event listings are commodities. Warmth and community are scarce and valuable.
The premise
It's not difficult to find a list of stuff to do in Milwaukee. Anyone can scrape events from around the web and an algorithm can rank the results and display them on a website, easy peasy. What none of those other offerings solve is the hard problem of getting strangers to show up to something (in real life!) for the first time, and then giving them reason to keep coming back, week after week.
MKE Meetups is predicated on the notion that it’s not information that’s in short supply, it’s warmth, community, and human curation. Every part of the product feels like it came from an individual who lives nearby and wants to help you find what you’re looking for; someone who’s inviting you to come hang out, to sit at the lunch table with them. These event lists are hand-picked each week and mailed from an inbox that actually answers back.
It started as a newsletter
I moved to Milwaukee’s Riverwest neighborhood in 2021, after years as a full-time traveler. New city, no existing social circle. So after starting (and loving) a weekly reading group, I started building the list I wished someone would have handed me when I arrived. The resulting Substack newsletter led to a website, and now MKE Meetups lands in 1,200+ subscribers’ inboxes every Wednesday morning, and even more browsers every day. It features local artists, shares sponsored messages, and serves as a matchmaker between meetup hosts and local businesses.
The warmth is intentional
The personality imbued in each newsletter isn’t incidental or mere decoration for the meetup list, it’s the email’s retention mechanism. Each missive contains touchpoints that turn a utility into a relationship. Each one is a deliberate, repeatable ritual, in addition to being an act of genuine care for the reader.
The voice
MKE Meetups is the friend who waves you over to their lunch table. Warm, a little goofy, and genuinely glad you showed up. Every meetup shared is an exciting opportunity, every response from a subscriber gets a reply. The enthusiasm is genuine and should almost always be pointed outward, not at the brand. The hosts, the makers, the sponsors, and each week’s events are the focus of that passion and excitement. MKE Meetups is confident enough to be unselfconsciously silly and to platform others over itself. It earns your trust by saving you a seat each and every Wednesday morning.
Three rules behind the voice
These principles inform every greeting, listing, reply, and sign-off.
01
Welcoming
Write like you’re pulling out a chair. Everyone gets a seat, everyone comes as they are, and there’s no wrong way to show up, including sitting one out. Address the reader with a smile, and mean it.
- Use
- First-person “I,” direct “you,” “beginners welcome”
- Avoid
- Gatekeeping, in-crowd jargon, members-only energy
02
Generous
Point the spotlight outward. The makers, hosts, and neighbors are the stars; the list is just the introduction and a place to gather and enthuse. Quote hosts in their own words, credit loudly, and get excited for what others are doing.
- Use
- Names, credit, hosts’ own words
- Avoid
- Centering the brand, taking the credit
03
Playful
Be confident enough to be silly and guileless. Say things like, “a tail-wagging Wednesday to you and yours,” use a sincere “:)”. A little off-beat absurdity shows that a human made this. But keep it casual and don’t go full-clown.
- Use
- Specific, oddball, handmade phrasing
- Avoid
- Hype or emoji standing in for warmth
Where the voice sits
Holding this position across the newsletter, the website, and every reply is what makes the whole thing feel like a letter from a neighbor, rather than the biased, ad-laden rantings of a mascot.
This, but not that
This stance requires care: taken too far, warmth and earnestness can become something else entirely.
- Warm, but never saccharine.
- Playful, but never pointless.
- Enthusiastic, but never a hard sell.
- Welcoming, but never pushy.
The weekly rituals
Those aforementioned three rules underpin the three rituals that do most of the welcoming and warming, week after week.
1. The greeting and the sign-off
Every issue opens with an oddly specific, slightly absurd salutation: “a heightened but practicable Wednesday to you,” “a demure but confident Wednesday,” “a preposterous, whimsical Wednesday,” “a tail-wagging Wednesday to you and yours.” It’s never the same twice, and while sometimes it references the contents of that week’s newsletter, often it’s random (but personal-feeling) whimsy. This greeting is one of many human fingerprints intentionally left on each issue.
The same voice bookends the email. Scroll past every listing and the last thing you read will be a small, sincere bit of encouragement: “It’s going to be a great week, you’ve got this!” Few readers make it all the way to the bottom of a newsletter, but those who do are rewarded with a simple, heartfelt goodbye.
2. A local artist in every issue
Each week’s newsletter features a Milwaukee-area artist, helping get their work in front of more people. The newsletter doesn’t just point at the community, it platforms it. When a new meetup email is promoted, the artist takes top listing. This allows MKE Meetups to be part of the local creative ecosystem, rather than operating outside or in opposition to it.
3. Sponsors as neighbors, not ads
The commercial side of this project (paid sponsors) reinforces the central thesis rather than undercutting it. Sponsors are local outfits promoting local things: grand openings, Milwaukee-made product launches, small businesses shouting-out their meetup space and events. These messages are often paired with raffles, giveaways, and deals for subscribers. All of which feels more like “a neighbor told me about this,” rather than generic ad inventory.
And the list still has to work
Underneath all that personality is real information architecture. Roughly 40–50 meetups, from pre-dawn workouts, to board game nights, to silent book clubs are collected, parsed, styled, and shared.
Information about recurring meetups (think knitting groups and book clubs, not classes or concerts) is often scattered between far-flung Facebook groups, dusty Meetup.com pages, and letter-sized signs affixed to bulletin boards across the city. That elusiveness makes it difficult for people to find these types of small communities and, as a consequence, find their people.
A predictable list structure (and a predictable publishing cadence for the email) is what allows the brand’s voice to work without muddling or overshadowing the information that’s being offered.
Thus, meetups are always listed chronologically, with the name of the event, the time, the venue, a blurb in the host’s own words, and a link to more information. This structure ensures readers know exactly where to look for the information they need so the voice and the utility can work together, earning the open, and then the trust and weekly engagement.
From voice to component rules
An email’s components aren’t modals and toggles, they’re the recurring sections a reader sees each week, and the interactions they have with the brand beyond the central newsletter. Creating rules for each component ensures consistency from surface to surface.
| Surface | MKE Meetups writes | Not |
|---|---|---|
| In the newsletter | ||
| Context section | A conversational, informational brief A scannable but cordial sentence showing the number of meetups and subscribers, and telling users how to view the newsletter in a browser and where to find the MKE Meetups website. | A bland list of numbers and links. |
| Intro notes | A collection of short, topical, bulleted items Project updates, local happenings, and a teaser for the week’s featured local artist. | Here’s this week’s list of events. |
| Sponsor slot | A message from your neighbor Sponsors share a brief message (with a single link) that feels like it’s coming from a neighbor rather than a corporation. | A generic, non-local advertisement. |
| Ask and invite | How to support and reply A non-pushy sentence about newsletter support options, and a friendly invitation to reply with questions or feedback (including a note saying that every email will receive a response). | Become a paying member to see the full list of this week’s meetups. |
| Meetup listings | Name, time, venue, and the host’s own words Quote the host directly and include first-timer cues (“mention you’re here for the meetup”). Paraphrase only when truncating information that’s included elsewhere in the listing. Always link to more information provided by the host. | The host’s voice rewritten as the brand’s. |
| Footer | Inspirational send-off A one-line, upbeat, encouraging goodbye hidden at the end of the newsletter, ending it on a positive note. | Say nothing at all (like a sociopath). |
| Beyond the newsletter | ||
| Email reply | Human-to-human, signed with a real name A reply to every email, written from one neighbor to another. Be context-aware, but lean toward enthused, welcoming, and encouraging. | Autoresponders, “Your inquiry (#4471) has been received.” |
| Social media | Even the off-list surfaces point outward The Instagram profile exists mostly to share other people’s stuff, not to self-promote. | Spammy self-promotion; “follow us for more!” |
Voice in practice: the weekly greeting
Rejected
“Hello! Here’s this week’s list of Milwaukee meetups. 🎉”
Chosen
“Good morning, and a preposterous, whimsical Wednesday to you!”
Why: The rejected line is interchangeable with every other newsletter in the inbox. The chosen line is a fingerprint: a specific, slightly ridiculous phrase a real person chose because it’s fun and a little silly. It’s unique and suggests that the rest of the email was also made by hand, giving the recipient reason to open it.
Voice in practice: the sign-off
Rejected
“That’s all for this week, see you next Wednesday.”
Chosen
“It’s going to be a great week, you’ve got this :)”
Why: The rejected line ends on the product (“this week’s edition is over”). The chosen line ends on the reader, and offers something the meetup listings can’t: a little reassurance in a chaotic world. It’s utterly purposeless if you think in terms of delivering a bunch of undifferentiated data to x number of subscribers. But these sorts of purposeless things are part of what makes all of this feel human, and that’s why this is the right sort of send-off for this product and voice.
One voice across all surfaces
Each newsletter, chunk of website copy, social post, and email response resonates with the same tone and personality. A reader who lands on the site after reading a forwarded newsletter doesn’t feel handed off to a different brand. A reader who responds to an email will likewise be speaking to a neighbor, not an anonymous, interchangeable internet entity.
The outcome
In its first year, the list grew from 129 subscribers to 1,200+, entirely organically, while the newsletter archive drew 66,000+ views. Open rates average around 55%, week after week: readers don’t just subscribe, they show up. And the curation effort compounds: 40–50 hand-checked meetups every Wednesday adds up to more than 2,000 listings a year.
The numbers that matter most don’t show up on an analytics dashboard, though. Meetup hosts have written to say thanks for the new members who showed up because of the list. Featured artists and sponsors have reached out, unprompted, about the commissions, sales, and opportunities that followed their feature. And then there are all the subscribers who show up to events, make new friends, and keep coming back, contributing to strong communities filled with people who feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, and that they are welcomed, supported, and belong.
Zoom in: the newsletter
Almost every element mentioned above lives in the same place: the MKE Meetups Wednesday morning email.
The walk-through
The masthead. Before a single event is mentioned, the reader meets the curator and is handed information about the newsletter and how to use it.
Greeting and notes. A one-of-a-kind greeting, followed by a nod to the season, a heads-up about a can’t-miss event, or some kind of giveaway. This bulleted list also includes a teaser about the week’s featured local artist, and the sponsor message is always the last item.
The list itself. 40–50 meetups in a predictable, scannable structure, so a reader can quickly assess their options and make plans accordingly.
The featured artist. A local artist’s work is woven into the layout, mid-issue, providing a nice, visual break in the meetup list, while also sharing something about the artist’s inspiration or process, and a link to their portfolio.
The sign-off. After the list comes the bookend: “It’s going to be a great week, you’ve got this :)”. Ending upbeat, and on the reader, not the product.
The takeaway
The meetup list is useful, but it’s the welcoming voice and consistent invitation to build community that keeps people coming back.
In a world where information is free and real-world relationships are scarce, receiving a message that feels like it’s from an actual person who’s glad you’re there and who wishes you the best is a luxury compared to receiving the same general message from a faceless, interchangeable source.