GET BETTER AT REACHING YOUR FANS

If you haven’t started your email list because you’re still debating between Mailchimp or CovertKit or 1000 other servives, you’ve got until the end of this email to pick one.

Don’t watch 18 hours of people you don’t know talking about things you might not ever need.

If you want to learn guitar, find a guitar and fucking go. You can always buy a better one later.

Same with learning photography – pick something you can afford and just start.

Which snare should you get? Which cymbal manufacturer is the best?

What paint brushes should I use? What brand of paint?

JUST. GET. STARTED.

If you start with Mailchimp, you can send five emails and decide you hate it and use something else.

Just export your subscribers and leave.

I did this recently with a client.

We sent two email campaigns and jumped to Substack.

Did you start using Klaviyo and now you hate it? Export your list and move somewhere else.

Hate Substack? Fine. Export your email list and move to Flodesk. I know someone who uses BOTH.

Some cost more money if you have more subscribers.
Some cost more money if you send more emails.
Some cost zero money, but then charge for other things.
Some can integrate with Shopify, other’s can’t.

SIGN UP FOR ALL OF THEM

Put down your phone for an hour and create a free account on all of them and start poking around. Just go crazy.

Find out how easy it is to upload your logo.

Find out how easy it is to start a new email.

Find out how easy it is to enter your basic info.

Stuck? Check out their help docs, or search for the answer on YouTube.

You’ll quickly figure out which service just doesn’t work for you.

My picks?

If you just need basic and free: Substack

Basic and pay a little: Buttondown

If you need something with lots of options and integrations with online stores and SMS: Klaviyo

Don’t be afraid of making mistakes. You’re gonna send an email with a typo, or a wrong link. Professional email marketing folks make mistakes (like me) – no one is perfect!

As my friend Jocelyn wrote in ‘It’s fun to be bad,’

“There’s always something to learn, isn’t there? Even when we’re good. If we’re honest, there’s always something we’re bad at. Something that needs working, practice, etc.. This is true in art and in life. Which is why you should just try the thing and learn to love the process of learning.”

Like your first song, or your first photograph, or album cover, or album you produce, or course you offer – the first one will be rough, and that’s okay.

Make cool stuff, and you show it to your friends, like Rick Rubin says. That’s what all of this is about.

Yes, it’s a new thing to learn, but it’ll be worth it, I promise. Starting and running an email list will help you reach a higher percentage of your fans, who will then be more likely to check out your cool things, and support you in your wonderful creative endeavors.