Category: NewslettersCategory: Newsletters

You’ve followed the advice, watched how everyone else is doing, tried all the tricks and trending things, and you hated it all. Just dreaded, it right?

You spent all that time begrudgingly, doing something you despised, then wondered why it didn’t resonate.

The problem with modern marketing is that we’re performing for everybody. We’re sanding off the edges, turning ourselves inside out to impress complete strangers on platforms that are built like casinos for attention.

Wouldn’t it feel so much better if you were just talking to people who got you, instead?

In 2023 I knew I wanted to talk to more people about leaving social media. Not selling courses, or writing a book, but talking to people about leaving social media. I started hosting weekly Zoom calls and I don’t do “marketing” anymore. I just tell people who like my work what I’m doing from week to week.

You’ve done the same thing for years on social media, but your followers missed probably 80% of everything you posted. It’s not that nobody liked your work, it’s that nobody knew about it.

It’s amazing what happens when you can actually reach your fans. Your email subscriber count may be less than your social media follower count, but that’s okay.

Because the truth is this: you can build a fanbase, but if you can’t reach your fanbase, you’re at the mercy of the algorithms, and you don’t want to play that game because it’s a game you can’t win and it never ends.

Instead, send an email once a week, talking about the work you make for the people who’ve signed up and said they want to hear from you.

When you can reach those people, they can support your work, which makes the whole “marketing” thing feel a lot easier.

You do the work, you make your magic, then you send a newsletter once a month and nothing really happens.

Your biggest fans (the ones who gave you their email address) get maybe 12 emails a year from you, and chances are they don’t open every one. They might see what you’re doing 4 or 5 times a year.

It’s not that your work isn’t great, it’s that no one knows about it, and it’s hard for people to get into what you’re doing if they forget about you.

You’ve got no problem posting to social media three times a day, spending hours every week engaging, but telling people what you’re doing via email feels like too much.

Think about that!

Imagine you’re a musician, and you reach out to one venue a year to book a show, your odds are terrible. If you hit up ten venues, slightly better. But fifty? Three hundred and sixty-five? Someone’s gotta say yes.

Send more emails about your new song, your new album, your new book, your next class, your next event.

Frequency isn’t some desperate tactic, it’s how you keep from fading into obscurity. It’s not spammy, people signed up for it, and if unsubscribe, then they’re not your people.

But pay attention to the people who stay. As my friend Nikki Learner says, “let’s not hoard our gifts.” Send another email newsletter this week. You’ve got years of “content” that you’ve posted on social media in the last year, start there.

Skip the BUY NOW buttons and product links, you’re not a department store. Everyone does that, then they wonder why they get 10% open rates. Treat your email audience like an ATM and they’ll burn out, then you’re back to square one, posting into the void on social media.

Instead, make your magic, then tell the people who gave you their email address.

Don’t let the 0.02% of your recent unsubscribes influence what you send to the 99.98% subscribers who chose to stick around.

If you want to send more newsletters, but you’re afraid of upsetting your current subscribers, just do it. I bet most of your audience would love to hear from you more often, and for everyone else? Oh well.

Are you in this to please other people, or to serve your own deep inner desire for joy? Our best work comes when we are in alignment with ourselves, rather than trying to please a tiny fraction of our email list. Let ’em go.

We’re not for everybody, but the people who stick around are your people (for now).

Sitting down to write your next newsletter shouldn’t be painful. Not when you post a few times a week on Substack Notes, or have an archive of years of posts on various social media platforms. You might even have long abandoned blogs, or YouTube channels.

You’ve put out years of thoughts and ideas and observations into the world, never to be seen or heard from again, so don’t be afraid to revisit them!

You can copy and paste them, or just write a whole new take on an idea you had five years ago – whatever you do, it’ll work because it’s from you, and where you’re at right now.

As I said in “Writing a Newsletter Shouldn’t Beat You Up,” this doesn’t need to be hard.

“Your newsletter writing shouldn’t be a prison sentence. It shouldn’t feel like digging ditches. It shouldn’t be fraught with stress, or like dealing with a horrible boss. None of these things are desirable, and yet so many times we create these situations for ourselves.”

Maybe you struggle with sending out a regularly scheduled newsletter. You know you should send something to your subscribers, but some days it just feels harder than others.

Well, come to Thursday’s NOTES TO NEWS LETTERS Zoom call and join the conversation. One blog post, or one “webinar with a presentation deck” won’t have all the answers, but meeting with other creative people with the same struggles might help you figure this out!

NOTES TO NEWS LETTERS ZOOM CALL
Thurs, May 14 from 2:00PM – 3:00PM EDT (recording available)
Register here: https://luma.com/fku24gz8

Well, this was a bit of sunshine in my inbox recently, from photographer Gritchelle Fallesgon:

“I recently attended a Zoom gathering where singer and artist Nikki Lerner said, “Stop hoarding your creativity.” Those words really hit home and nudged me to get this out of my drafts and into your inbox.”

I set up that Zoom gathering, with two lovely people who happened to form choirs, a wonderful display of not hoarding your creativity, for sure!

But as Gritchelle mentions, this also goes for sending out a newsletter that’s been sitting in drafts for awhile, too! People signed up for your email list, and you’ve been doing cool stuff – so don’t hoard that creativity from the people who most likely want to know about it!