Change my mind: newsletters are worthless
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So, I just started a new service and have received advice to "start growing your email list" by adding a newsletter. Is this really an effective form of advertising? I, for one, don't want yet another bunch of emails in my inbox I'll probably never open. Usually I sign up for a new one and then unsubscribe some weeks or months later, often to cut down my inbox. I know a lot of people that just let them pile up. I'd prefer that if visitors are going to enter their email address, why not just create an account and then they can start using the service? Thoughts?
Completely worthless.
In fact, they have only the highest ROI amongst marketing channels, something like 3800%. The average email subscriber is worth $37. Almost 86% of people prefer to receive advertising on email. They are the only channel you have total control on (Google and social can fuck you at every update, choke your outreach and even ban/penalize you for no reason). An email list can boost your SEO.
A newsletter done right is the biggest growth engine you can have with word of mouth. The other channels don't come even close.
Ps I am quoting data from my memory, some of them could be a bit off, but the overall message doesn't change.
Also, I couldn't agree with you more on the precariousness of depending on social media channels and other third parties - they can pull the plug on you for any reason whatsoever whenever they want! In fact, one of the reasons I started Tipalink.com was to help de-platformed and de-monetized internet creators. :)
Wow! I had no idea they could be that valuable. The response here are swaying my opinion in the opposite direction! I guess it comes down to doing it "right", as you mention.
facts - wes bos has made a several million of his email subs
I just interviewed Sam Parr of The Hustle. Episode should be out in another week or two. He was able to create a highly profitable conference from nothing off the back of a newsletter that started with just his friends and family on it. Then he realized the newsletter was more valuable than the conference, so he focused on that instead and grew it to 8 figures in advertising revenue. Today's he's building a media empire off the back of that newsletter that could easily make 9 figures.
He said this during the podcast: "Email is not something that's secondary. Email is the Internet."
That is inspiring, although I wouldn't go so far as to agree that "Email is the Internet". It's a big part of the Internet, for sure.
Thanks for sharing this inspiring story! I am so going to embed this into some future blog post :-)
Nice - heard a Sam Parr interview a couple of weeks ago (on My Firs t Million podcast - the new podcast from the Hustle). He's a great guest and the story of the Hustle is awesome.
Looking forward to hearing your interview.
@Luqa made some good points.
But he's talking about good newsletters. Your newsletter may very well end up being worthless. Especially if you start it for the wrong reasons.
Think of a newsletter as an opportunity to...
You have to do all three.
Exactly my biggest takeaway here: newsletters may not be as worthless as I thought; but they need to be done right.
No, they are not. It's a simple way for people to show interest in your idea, especially if they're not really to use the tool yet.
Just make sure you're not waisting peoples time with irrelevant messages. Reading your message it seems that you should run a 'Derek test', every time you're about to send one.
Ask yourself: "What would Derek do if he received this message?"
Use a good subject line, write in your own tone of voice and avoid fluffy sentences.
One of the things I'm struggling with when it comes to offering a newsletter and doing it "right", as other respondents have pointed out, is why wouldn't someone just sign up to start using my service, if it's free, rather than signing up for a newsletter?
I will pick a couple use cases for illustration...
You are committing to this ambitious product roadmap because you know what the market needs and gaps are, you share your ambitious plans to solve your prospects problems, then:
A. You put up a splash page with a form to collect emails "to be notified" of launch
B. Your product is still in early stages, so you produce an awesome piece of content, say a guide or a template that your target audience wants and put it behind email collection
Then, you send an email every time you have a major release and explain how the new stuff works and helps solve a problem. If you build a decent list then what should happen is every time you send such an update you get a boost in sign ups, conversions to paid, or product usage (leading to upgrades).
It's going to sound obvious, but the key is to produce very high value content that matches your audience and not focus on frequency of updates. Choose quality over quantity. Oh, and make sure to track/measure you email channel performance, here is how https://www.bigmailer.io/blog/email-marketing-google-analytics/
Every time I send a bulk campaign I get new accounts added or boost activation/usage metrics from the email channel.
P.S. Indirect benefit of those bulk campaigns is that if the content is good and you engage those visiting your site well, your site's average engagement stats improve, which is one of SEO signals that helps you rank. If you see high bounce rate and low time spent then your content isn't good, it's not a match to your target audience, or the channels you promote on aren't best for reaching your target audience.
Thanks for your detailed response. The general consensus here is that newsletters are VERY important, but they need to be "done right". One of the things I could see myself struggling with is coming up with quality content that is valuable to my audience. Your suggestion to include product update info is great, thanks!
ProductHunt started as a newsletter. According to articles on the web I could find, it was acquired for "...about $20 million. "
People want newsletters that are worth opening. Send something mediocre or worse and they’ll unsubscribe. Send great content and they’ll look forward to getting your newsletter.
Personally I simply subscribe only few selected newsletter, with great content.
Some exceptions are product I find interesting and I'm not able to find any other way to follow development (why people doesn't use more rss ? )