Sending emails (Part 3) – my story

My previous two articles covered?various aspects of email marketing with the goal to?help you get started, get unstuck, or get comfortable with sending emails to your list. Missed them??Check it out: Four Truths About Sending Emails?and If You Feel Sick About Sending That Last Email, That’s About Right.

I’ve been sending out a regular email newsletter for the last 5 years. Except when explicitly noted, such as over the holidays, I haven’t missed a week.?

It wasn’t always this way.

Oh no.?

For years I resisted HARD sending out a newsletter.

My design studio was plenty busy with work so what was the point of sending out a regular newsletter to an email list I didn’t even have??

Eventually, I came to see how emailing everyone would be a useful way to stay in touch and stay on people’s radars. And this would be a lot easier to do if I could send one email to everyone at once.

So I started sending a newsletter maybe once a quarter? If that? It definitely was sporadic for many years.?

Back then sending an email newsletter?felt like a chore. An afterthought. An oh-crap-I-should-probably-do-that kinda thing.?

Not fun.?

Then somewhere around the 2017-2018 timeframe, I got more serious about email.?

At that point I was a year into my current business and?needed to attract clients well outside my geographical area?and previous industry focus. I?could see how building an email list would be an important means to business growth.

Over the next few years I focused on list building. I did things like:?

1. produced and hosted an online summit in 2019
2. created a lead magnet and ran paid ads to it?
3. participated in summits, speaking, and product bundles
4. made ongoing organic requests to put people I’d meet on my email list

But what good is an email list if you aren’t actively?mailing to it??

I wasn’t shy about writing and have never been at a loss for what to write about—that’s a lifelong writer for you with a mind like Everything Everywhere All At Once.?

(Side note: If you’re not sure what to write about in your emails, check this out.)

But like any newbie,?I had all the nerves about sending emails.?

For me, there were a few specific hurdles to cross:?

Upping my frequency

I gradually increased how often I was sending from once in a blue moon to sending weekly.?

Once I was on a roll sending a regular newsletter each week, I didn’t want to break the streak. The longer the streak goes, the more motivated I am to keep it. Are you like this too?

So sending weekly?went from ugh-do-I-have-to? to come-hell-or-high-water-I-will! even if that sometimes means?cranking out an email on Friday at 5pm for the Monday 4am drop.?

Shoving down?my ego

In the early days, every unsubscribe stung like a tiny heartbreak.

"What??? You don't want to hear from ME???" cried My Bruised Ego, under the presumption it was all about me.?

And?when it was it really was all about me—following my gut, my energy, and my joy—too often I allowed other people's opinions on timing, content, and frequency to override my intuition which definitely hampered my flow.

Tightening up the numbers

Over the years I’ve made a point to scrub my list from time to time.?

Admittedly this is still hard for me to do. It feels defeating when you’ve worked hard on your list building and email relationships to see your list size drop by the hundreds or more.

But number of subscribers is simply a vanity metric if you're not focused on deliverability and engagement.?

I recently culled the list again taking us from almost 3k+ with an open rate in the mid 30s (not too bad, if not exactly accurate given the way Apple reports opens) to 2k. That’s a significant drop in subscribers, but as expected, the open rate has jumped to around 55% and click-through rates went up as well. All this matters when calculating your conversions.?

Writing faster and more intuitively

For all the writing I’ve done, which is 75% of my current lifespan, you’d think I could knock out an email newsletter like that.

Nope.?

I am a slow writer. I’m too precious with my words, and I know it. I love to coddle my darlings, not kill them!

This is something I’m actively working on.?

Big props to my coach Ross for taking us through one of the best writing courses I’ve ever done (and I have a Journalism degree, folks!) called The Frequency. What I’m learning and practicing is how to write faster, more often, more structured, more free, more ME.?

What’s next… sending more emails!

It's true, I went from kicking and screaming about sending an email newsletter once fortnightly every?third quarter?every other year to?presently gearing up?to send two emails every week.

I do?send more than once a week but not with regularity.

(If you're unclear about the distinction between frequency and regularity and why it matters, read this.)

Will sending MORE emails annoy some people? Sure. I get unsubscribes every time I send regardless (though a lot less after the recent list downsizing), and I got over those?baby?boo-hoos years ago.?

But, as I outline here, there are many good reasons to?consider increasing email frequency.

Also I’m actively building my list so despite unsubscribes there’s a net gain, if incrementally at times depending on how heavy I’m pressing the gas pedal.?

… In sum, I could describe my email marketing?journey?like this:?

My take-aways for you are this:?

Start wherever you are with your email marketing because there's probably?nowhere to go but up in terms of your frequency, regularity, no. and quality of subscribers, and earnings.

As with any activity we try to habitualize, there will be false starts and freefall so don't beat yourself up. It's the?trajectory over time that counts.

The faster you move toward the upper right quadrant, the more activity you'll see in your business. Increased activity often?= more money.

You care A LOT more about your emails than your subscribers ever will. Rightly so because?sending emails generates more?benefits for?you than?for them. That means, get over yourself and hit that send button.

If?you can't get over yourself on your own—most of us can't—and sending gives you the sweats, get help! (Big hint, check out how you can get help from me and the team below.)

I can't promise there won't be a "Sending Emails" Parts 4 or 5 coming at you at some point.

For now I'm moving on to other topics because guess what, we have some?great stuff on structuring offers and writing sales copy coming hot down the pipe. More very soon!

Happy newsletter-ing!

Lisa

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