This month, So Many Points turns 1 🥂 ! My little newsletter idea is still a little newsletter, but with a devoted group of readers. Thank you for supporting me by reading each week, commenting, or saying ‘yes’ to an interview.
In a previous issue’s poll, you voted for an overview of how this newsletter comes together. The tools, platforms, and tips that help me push it out twice a month against a full-time job. So below is the no-filter (of course) list of support tools I use. I’m getting nothing for the mentions. Just sharing what I recommend.
Issue #24’s most clicked link? Etsy’s loyalty strategy without a program.
In this Issue:
👉🏻The Behind-the-Points: The tools behind the takes
🔎 Points Worth Reading: A Forbes article on programs moving from Aspirational to Functional
⚡Quick Points: Lots of app news this week
THE BIG POINT
Behind the Points: How SMP comes together
🧺 The Gathering
Frankly, the easiest part is pulling the news that happens over 2 weeks.
A good chunk of it comes from what I read on LinkedIn, or my subscriptions to NYT, WSJ, and other publications.
I have a Feedly subscription which runs constant scans of industry news and reports, and I bookmark those I might want to use later.
Claude AI has also been a lifesaver. I’ve set up a “project” for my newsletter where I have educated Claude on the tone, interest, and sections and ask it to run a daily pull with suggestions of whether it’s a “Points Worth Reading”, “Quick Point” or possible idea for “Big Point”.
A sample of a daily news pull from Claude AI
💡 The Ideation
As easy as the gathering is, there is no shortcut to ideation and developing a POV. Based on what I’m reading, I’m always thinking of angles I can write about or comment on. Some might think AI can help with this. It can’t. Claude has tried to give Big Point angles, and not only is it a bad take, but it’s also not my take. It’s watered down or boring. Or the opposite of my opinion. There is no substitute for your own ideas and opinions.
✅ The Organizing
A few years ago I started using Notion to organize my life, moving away from MS Notes. I keep databases for Home, Work, Travel, and this newsletter. I’m probably using 10% of its features, but it’s a godsend for staying organized. It holds all my Big Point ideas, article links I spot in the wild, and my interview requests, questions, and transcripts. I even record interviews in it, then its AI tool summarizes the conversation and helps me pull the best Q&A’s for the issue.
The Notion page that houses each of my newsletter pages that then link further…
…such as this one that organizes the news and ideas
✏ The Editing
This is where AI helps, with Grammarly. I was pretty far from an English major and have Grammarly installed at home and as I write, it fixes grammar, punctuation, spelling, and tone. To be clear, Grammarly doesn’t write; it edits. You can shut it off or put it to sleep at any time, and it learns your writing style over time across both informal and formal, so its suggestions still sound like you.
There is also a connector built into Claude and this newsletter platform, Beehiiv. After I’m done writing and editing, I ask Claude to check it. It can often find mistakes, missing or incorrect links, or tell me a paragraph doesn’t make sense and I should rewrite it. I can also give Claude permission to make an edit directly. But I proceed with caution here. Recently, Claude told me I had a 2026 Brian Niccol quote wrong and to attribute it to Howard Schultz. Don’t worry, I scolded Claude 😉 .
🎨 The Design
I have an amazing style guide, website, and EM templates for So Many Points, developed by Kristina Volchek from Kristi Digital. Can you design a newsletter on your own? Yes. But personally, I didn’t have the time to learn. Working with an expert on my design vision was very much worth the money, and she made video tutorials for me on how to navigate the Beehiiv platform, which sped up my learning.
The one place I let AI touch design: I generate each issue's web thumbnail in ChatGPT.
⚙ The Platform
I wrestled with which platform to launch in. I considered just a simple LinkedIn newsletter, but I really wanted a web page to house old issues. I considered Substack, but realized it’s a social platform with a newsletter component, and I wasn’t interested in that. So turned to Beehiiv after realizing a few newsletters I love used the platform, it’s not that expensive, and it’s more reader-friendly and user-friendly.
My Claude/Beehiiv Connector also allows Claude to analyze my results and give me a summary of content across issues that tends to have higher engagement.
That’s it! lol. It takes a village of tools, but it helps me bang out an issue in about an afternoon because I’m pretty well organized by the time I sit down to write. If you have any other questions, leave a comment or send me an email.
(If you found this post not useful, we’ll get back to regular Big Point programming in the next issue. )
POINTS WORTH READING
QUICK POINTS
✈️ TRAVEL & TRANSPORTATION
Because kids like loyalty programs too, Millennium Hotels launched a children’s program where kids 5-10 get an Adventure passport with stickers that they can redeem for desserts, merch and more. Cute!
AA is no longer officially allowing complimentary upgrades from economy to business tickets. I added the “officially” because with so few flyers ever upgraded, I doubt this was happening before.
Sigh. We’re still talking about # of members for free programs. Hyatt’s earnings call boasted of membership up 17%.
Hilton cut the fees hotel owners have to pay for their program, and there are concerns that could dilute the program.
🍴RESTAURANTS
Taco Bell redesigned its app. One nice new feature is “My Mods” which allows members to save ingredient preferences.
In what feels years late, 7Brew finally launched an app! A contest to win 100,000 points, new 7Brew merch, and a secret menu are all part of the launch.
In court news, there is now a class action lawsuit against Chick-fil-A for the data breach that exposed customer loyalty accounts.
This is a good idea. Domino’s is giving $5 off digital orders if you give feedback about their new app and website redesign.
🛍 RETAIL
Who has one of the highest customer loyalty but without a program? That would be Trader Joe’s.
⛽ Good timing. Circle K redesigned its program to reward consumers for showing up, even if they don’t fill up. The program moves to “visits,” and members can save up to $1 off/gal.
On the flip side, a recent report said only 49% of fuel and convenience store members use their programs regularly.
Staying on the gas theme, Walmart+ memberships keep on growing, partly on the backs of the fuel discounts it gives members.
🙃 RANDOM
TikTok is testing a membership to rival Amazon Prime. Called TikTok Shop Plus, it offers free shipping, discounts and coupons via their Shop program.
Let’s Trade Points
Got newsletter ideas, feedback, loyalty gossip (is that a thing?).
Drop me a note, would love to connect.