In Defense of Email Newsletters
How I went from a hater to a lover
I used to hate email newsletters. I hated that every time I bought something, I would get added to a list, usually trying to sell me something. I hated all the times someone was giving away a FREE something only to start getting their marketing emails. And truly I hated the feeling of never being able to keep up with all of my email.
My email situation
I have four email addresses. 3, really, that I use on a regular basis. One from my maiden name that I use as my junk email when I don’t want to sign up with my “real” one. One for my personal email, and one for my business. Well, actually two for my business, but I haven’t quite figured out what I want to do about that.
Anyway, managing all these email accounts has always been pretty overwhelming. My unread counts of mails I’ll “get to later” would grow and grow and grow. And that red dot or bold number just poked at the part of me that likes things neat and organized.
However, when I left social media, I found myself having the time to first clean up my email accounts, and second, read all my newsletters.
Getting more intentional
I decided to get more intentional. Every mail that came in I would evaluate whether it’s something I want to keep receiving.
I started unsubscribing all over the place.
I went back through old emails and trashed things that were outdated or that, let’s be honest, I was not going to get around to. (Side note, my family once bought a round tuit while traveling in Maine. So, you know, we could finally do all those things we’d been putting off, lol)
Without social media to fill up my time I had more space to read newsletters I had signed up for. I even came across new creators I liked and signed up for more! Just to hear what they had to say. And I found that I enjoyed the slowness of consuming a newsletter. None of this fast paced read-quick-so-you-can-get-to-the-next-post thing I always felt with social media.
Sending into the void
Learning to love reading newsletters opened me up to the idea of sending newsletters to my own mailing list. My list is a quaint 47 people, but most of them have been with me for quite some time and my open rates are greater than the industry average (according to the internet). Without social media to get my voice out, I decided to invest in newsletters. I settled on sending twice a month.
Now, here’s the next thing I noticed — sending newsletters can be lonely. I think this may be generally an issue for creators. We send things out into the world and if nobody answers, how do we know if it had any value? I watched a YouTube video recently from Kalle Flodin where he talked about why he’s always asking for comments (besides for the algorithm) and he touched on the joy of connecting with people there.
So, another thing I’ve been trying to do more is reply to newsletters. I used to think these people have no time for me, but how do I know that for sure? Maybe they only have 47 subscribers like me and really do have time to read and respond to replies. So, if I like what someone shares or it really sparked something for me, I reply and tell them so. I’ve also emailed some friends with podcasts to tell them about episodes that especially spoke to me. Everyone has been so appreciative!
All this to say, there are some great newsletters out there providing value to me that are not just about trying to sell me stuff. And there’s an opportunity for connection there, as both creators and consumers, if we take the time to reply.
Do it!
So, here I am, converted. From someone who thought newsletters were annoying and a waste of time as a business owner, to someone finding real value in the content created by wise people.
Now, my challenge to you is: Subscribe. Send. And reply.
You never know what new connections you might make or the affirmation someone might feel from what you share, whether you are a creator or a consumer, or both.
By the way, if you want to sign up for my newsletter where I talk about all things belonging to ourselves and expressing our true selves, I’d love to connect with you.
Note: right after I wrote this I read a newsletter from Anna Lovind that also talked about a lot of this! That’s what I call synchronicity!
