Category: sethwCategory: sethw

I wrote about Mullet Marketing about a year ago, and if you’re guilty of it, you’re depriving your most engaged fans of your best work.

Let me explain.

The mullet can be described as “business up front, party in the back.”

PARTY IN THE BACK: This is most everyone’s social media feed, where you see live photos from events, gallery openings, and shows. Also, photos of dogs, record shops, and your workspace. It’s videos, 300-word captions, and where we voice support for various organizations and causes.

BUSINESS UP FRONT: This is most everyone’s email list, where we get static images of products, mock ups, poster art with teeny tiny text, details, facts, locations, prices, deals, and colorful buttons labeled BUY NOW or SHOP HERE.

This is why we cringe when our favorite artists say, “Sign up for updates,” or “Join my newsletter!”

We’ve all signed up for enough newsletters to know that most of them suck.

So here’s an idea – make a newsletter that doesn’t suck.

Wild concept, I know.

You wouldn’t share a stock photo on social media, so why use one in your newsletter? Re-use the photos you’ve already put on socials!

And what is the best part about writing a paragraph about your latest project in a newsletter? More than 10% of your audience will actually read it!

You gain a certain amount of energy when you know your creative output is actually being seen, and that energy is exactly what you need to continue producing your best work.

In a recent newsletter titled “Backstage” (which went out to 10,000+ email subscribers) Tegan from Tegan and Sara wrote about putting out a live album. Maybe release it on vinyl, CD, and cassette, “with a booklet with photos from the tour.”

Then goes on to say:

“Maybe we should hold some stuff back, I suggested, and keep the stories and recordings and photos for that. It would be nice to have images and videos that no one has seen. For social media, for the booklet. Right? Or maybe it doesn’t matter; we share so much content (we = everyone) at this point, who even remembers what’s been posted and hasn’t?”

As I’ve been saying for years, re-use photos from social media in your newsletter because most of your followers never saw them.

 

The Tegan and Sara Instagram has 470,000 followers, and the last nine posts got an average of 3,444 likes, meaning 0.7% of their fans liked any one of those images.

Two of those posts have over 100 comments. That’s 0.213% of their fans that left a comment, and that’s on a good day.

Mind you, Tegan and Sara are a Grammy-nominated indie pop duo who’ve been making music for over 25 years.

I’m not saying don’t be on social media (well, maybe I am); just lower your expectations of actually ever reaching 10% of your followers.

Understand that posting an IG Reel to your 3,500 Instagram followers will probably be seen by just 250 people, and if 1% click a link, well, that’s a solid two people that might see your offering.

A friend of mine deleted his social media accounts in 2017 or so. He’s played drums for 30+ years; that’s all he wants to do, be a musician.

He joined some bands he found on Craigslist, did some recording gigs with friends on the internet, played a lot of local shows, learned a lot of covers, and made a few bucks.

He just wanted to play drums, you know?

We talked on the phone recently, and he told me of a “secret” group he’s in, with a bunch of other local musicians. They meet once a week and jam and hang out.

This didn’t happen overnight, but now my friend is in multiple local bands, and playing drums all the time with great people. He’s never been happier.

All without a Twitter account or posting crowd shots on Instagram stories.

This is what I meant when I wrote, ‘Social media loses power when we build community in other places.’

Tegan and Sara were here before social media, they’ll be here when it’s gone.
The creator economy existed long before Zuck and Musk showed up.
There was a time when we didn’t speak of our work as “content.”

“Make cool stuff, show it to your friends,” says Rick Rubin. Friends, family, fans. You get the idea.

But if a platform doesn’t let you show your cool stuff to your friends, ask if it serves you anymore. If not, it might be time to rethink things.

I made the above video reply for my Substack pal Mariah Friend, who is “diving into the world of offering live events/workshops with the hope of building community and engaging more directly with my readers.”

You can find her original comment here.

“Unfortunately, I’ve had little to no engagement. I have around 370 subscribers and offer both free/donation based events and ticketed events… so far, I’ll have 2-3 people sign up on Eventbrite but then not show up. This honestly makes me anxious because hosting a workshop for a live audience vs. doing a recorded workshop with NO audience has a very different flow! I’m not sure how to best prepare for a scenario I’m uncertain about until it’s happening.”

Hosting these events can be a lot of fun, and build lots of goodwill among your subscribers, but getting them to show up can be a challenge!

Hopefully, this video is helpful. Every situation is unique, and every audience is different, so take everything I mention with a grain of salt and then apply it however to your process.

I shared Michelle Warner’s concept of getting “awareness” off our own plate about a month ago and have tested it in a few ways.

First, I pitched an article to Ryan J. Downey, for his Stream N’ Destroy newsletter (above). I felt it fit better on his “platform” than here since I don’t focus on metal bands as much as I used to when this newsletter was called Heavy Metal Email!

Only 27% of the bands at the Decibel Magazine Metal & Beer Fest in Philadelphia have email lists.

Six have websites.

That means four of the 14 bands performing can reach their fans directly via email. Since signing up for all four email lists 25 days ago, I have yet to receive any updates.

Here’s what happened: It’s hardly been a week and it brought in about five new subscribers. That might not seem like a lot, but giants in the heavy metal and hard rock industry read Ryan’s newsletter, so that’s fine with me!

Here’s how you can do it: Ask someone you know if you could offer something for their audience. Maybe it’s artwork for a newsletter series, an audio jingle for their voiceovers or podcast, or something else that supports the work they’re already doing. Maybe someone who makes videos could use your original music or animations.

Second, I helped artist/photographer Noah Kalina move his newsletter from Mailchimp to Substack. He mentioned wanting to restart his newsletter in his new YouTube videos, so I sent him an email, we had a good Facetime chat and got to work. His newsletter lives on and he’s got happy subscribers!

Here’s what happened: Noah credits me as his “newsletter guru” in the footer, and he gave me a Substack Recommendation, which led to about 35 new subscribers. I also reconnected with two wonderful artist friends who saw my name in his newsletters, too.

Here’s how you can do it: If someone is asking, offer a skill as a way to support someone in their creative journey. I’m not into the whole “cold email” thing, but if you see someone looking for help and you feel somewhat confident in your abilities, hit them up – you never know where it might lead!

Third, I submitted the above photo for Photo Talk, which is put together by Marcel Borgstijn. Folks vote in a poll about the clarity and engagement of the photo and leave comments, too. It was terrifying but a lot of fun at the same time!

Here’s what happened: This led to a few subscriptions, but this was just a fun thing to do, and I met some very talented photographers in the process!

Here’s how you can do it: If you see someone doing cool things with other people, ask if you can join in!

I’ve also replied to about 15 people by making individual videos for them and answering their questions or expanding on their ideas.

Why do all this? Well, maybe you missed it from my recent ‘Maybe you don’t need more subscribers’ post:

Setting a timer for 15 minutes and communicating with real people five days a week will probably get you more results than the hour you spend making one Reel for 153 “people” to see (and which will never be seen again after 12 hours).

Does it scale? Fuck scale, do the work.

Everything I listed above was way more fun than “creating content” to drive “awareness” on services that are turning from social media into paid advertising platforms.

Talk to good people, nurture your creative network, and reach out to people you haven’t talked to in a while. Use video, send a text, a postcard, or voice note. Call them on the phone, meet for coffee, axe-throwing, and/or putt-putt golf.

Yes, we’d all love to just post our work and be done, but occasionally connecting with the energy of other creative people will give you new perspectives on what you’re trying to accomplish.

What if the people receiving your emails forwarded it to friends? What if they copied the text from it and posted it on social media? What if your words traveled from the inbox into Facebook group chats and meeting rooms?

When was the last time you sent a newsletter that got 10 replies?

If none of those things happened — not even close— maybe getting more subscribers isn’t the answer.

From social media to Substack Notes, people post in the void. No comments, likes, or engagement of any kind.

Hey, sometimes things don’t work!

Your “questions to everyone” or “open invites” have good intentions, but after a dozen or so attempts, it’s time to reassess your strategy.

Stop asking “everyone” and start actually asking people.

➡️ Reply to someone else’s post. Go into the comments section of another post, or another Tweet, and reply there. Be the person that people love seeing in the comments section by being insightful, gracious, and / or funny.

➡️ Email someone directly in your network. If you’re hoping those people even see your original post and take the time to reply is a long shot. Instead, reach out and ask them. Say you’re looking for their insight for an upcoming post.

➡️ Invite someone before inviting everyone. If you’re just getting started in hosting video hangouts, live sessions, or workshops, consider inviting a few people you know directly. See if you can get three people to commit before announcing to “everyone.”

➡️ Go beyond “just sharing” and make it a big deal. Make a whole post about it. Go deeper than typing “THIS,” and explain why this piece resonated. Don’t just “curate your feed,” rolling the dice hoping that 10% of your audience might see it. Take the time to write about something (or make a video or an audio snippet), and share it directly with your audience in an upcoming newsletter (where 99% of your subscribers will see it in their inbox).

“Yeah, but Seth, I just want to post my thing and go do other things,” you might say.

Well, you see the results that “just posting” gets you.

Also, how can talking to your fans, audience, and readers be a waste of time?

Setting a timer for 15 minutes and communicating with real people five days a week will probably get you more results than the hour you spend making one Reel for 153 “people” to see (and which will never be seen again after 12 hours).

Does it scale? Fuck scale, do the work.

The strategy of “just posting” ain’t working, and it’s not going to get any easier to reach your fans in that way as we roll into the second half of 2024.