my love/hate relationship with email marketing

This is a bit of - actually, a huge - industry faux pas, but I'm going to be honest...

I DON'T LIKE EMAIL MARKETING.

But today, I sent out an email anyway.

*gasp*

In the years that I have been studying online business, I've subscribed to and unsubscribed from so many email lists that I've lost track. Sometimes I even end up subscribing to a list I had already unsubscribed from, because I forgot.

That's the kind of volume I've been wading through - and I'm sick of it.

This is why I've gotten so frustrated:

  • I hate click-bait titles, like "The top 3 things you absolutely must be doing if you ever want to be successful," or "I used to be dirt poor and now I make six figures. You can too if you do this." And then they were usually just recycled content with different names and places attached.

  • I can't stand being sold to constantly. I get that you need to sell things to make a living, but I don't need 17 reminders in the week before your launch ends to tell me that I need to buy your thing.

  • I don't like being bribed. Have you heard of an opt-in gift? It's a "free" thing that people "give" you if you subscribe to their list. Which means they have your email address and will start to send you emails selling you things. Every week. Sometimes every day - and I unsubscribe from daily email lists so fast. Ain't nobody got inbox room for that.

  • People can get obsessed with the size of their lists - as in, how many people they're emailing. Which makes sense if your goal is dolla dolla billz, yo. There are countless trainings about "growing your list by 10,000 in six weeks!" (okay, maybe not THAT much, but you know what I mean.) Let's be real here - this morning, I sent an email to 19 email addresses. And one of them was my own.

I can hear what you're thinking - "If you don't like email marketing, why do you have a place for people to opt-in to your list? Why send an email at all?"

Great question!

The truth is that it took me months to build up the courage to send my first email because I resisted so much - but I know that at the root of it, the goal is to connect with the people I want to help.

And I want to help people build a better, more sustainable massage practice.

Massage therapists...we are all kind of bleeding hearts, aren't we.

So I put on my big girl pants this morning and sent out an email. Because without connecting, I can't share what I've learned and actually make an impact in your work + life. And I really, really want to do that.

And just to offer some clarification here - there are some people whose emails I open every single time, because they offer tremendous value and support. Hey Sweet Pea is a great example - they are part of the reason I am not completely disenfranchised with the whole emailing thing.

So, there are a few things I’m going to do differently...

I won’t be sending an email every week - unless I have something incredibly important to share. When I have a few blog posts up on the site, I will send a summary so you can catch up on what you might have missed.

For example, the last couple weeks have been focused on website creation, so I wrote about:

Some posts I’m working on for the near future are about photography for your business (including interviews with some branding photographers) and the difference between being employed vs self-employed.

In the not-as-near future there will be posts about all things online business - marketing, branding, social media, content creation...the list of blog topics in my Google drive goes on.

There is definitely a lot of content in the pipeline - but it won’t translate to a bombardment of emails in your inbox. I promise. If you want to know when each post comes out, come hang out with me on twitter because I'll share them there.

I'm also working on a free course (no strings attached!) about identifying + attracting your ideal client. So if you have any specific questions you want answered, please leave a comment and let me know. I'll make it happen.

If there is anything else you want to learn about online business - again, leave a comment and ask. If I don't know, I'll find someone who does.

That’s the beauty of connection and this incredible thing called the internet.

Last (but certainly not least) if you know someone who would benefit from some real-talk + online business advice, send them my way and we can geek out together!

Aaaaaand that’s all for today. If you want to receive my infrequent updates, you can sign up below.

Thanks for sticking around - I can’t wait to connect with you.

Until next time,



Justine Sones1 Comment