Come on, that’s so lame. That’s not a CTA (or call-to-action as we non-fancy millennials used to call it). That’s a recipe for disaster.
Everyone and their mother is telling you (and me) to build an email list.
Haven’t you heard?
Email marketing is back from the dead. It wasn’t actually dead. It was in a zombie-like state over the past two decades after hipster developer entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg came along and invented social media. Great job.
That killed email pretty quickly. Why email when you can have 1000s of digital (or imaginary) friends on Facebook? Or Instagram. Or TikTok.
I prefer real-life imaginary friends, but I digress.
Oh no, email ain’t dead. It’s never been more alive. Email is as strong as it has ever been.
Here’s the problem.
Email marketing is now working so incredibly well that I have lost count of my email lists. No, really.
My CTAs are basically longer than my CV now.
Something about that sounds dirty to me.
Back to the topic at hand.
To some extent, I’m not even joking. In case you didn’t know, I recently discovered sarcasm.
The not joking part: I have built some email lists. And from time to time, I get a little confused.
I’ll tell you why.
Last year, I started a newsletter on Substack. With the intention of keeping that up and growing my audience there.
As the true millennial that I am, this only lasted a few weeks before I gave up on the idea. We millennials have always been poster children for perseverance.
During that time on Substack, something exciting happened that made me rethink newsletters. Medium introduced the subscriber feature.
I thought why would I need Substack when I could collect emails directly on Medium, my preferred writing platform.
I had already given up on traditional blogging (on WordPress) for Medium. And it’s been going surprisingly well since.
That’s email list number 1. The Medium subscriber list.
Then, I realized that it wasn’t number 1 after all. Quite some time before the Substack list, I had already begun growing another email list. Without realizing it. On Gumroad.
At the end of 2020, I began selling digital products on Gumroad. That crashed and burned quickly. Later, I decided to give digital products away for free. That went through the roof. And with it my Gumroad customer list. Yea, another email list.
That’s two. Medium subscribers and Gumroad customers.
Did I mention I was a millennial?
I did. Good. Keep that in mind while I entertain you with the next amusing story.
A few months after I deleted my Substack newsletter…
which I deleted because of the Medium subscriber feature…
which I then discovered was already my second email list next to my Gumroad customers…
I decided it was time to create another email list.
Because… shut up!
Where? On Revue, of course.
Revue is Twitter’s newsletter platform, and its selling point is the direct integration into Twitter. A cool thing. I thought I’d give that a go. So, I did.
Email list number 3. Revue.
In another turn of events, I started a Substack newsletter. Again…
It might be a mild medical condition.
For real though, Revue is great for its Twitter integration, but the rest of the service just can’t compete with Substack. Ergo, I went back to Substack. I still keep that Revue account for the Twitter integration.
That’s 4 email lists. Gumroad. Medium. Revue. Substack.
Shall I keep going? I have one more.
Most of what I now do is in English. But I used to exclusively work and write in German. Although I have given up on most of these German projects, I still have my personal website with a little blog left. And, what do you know, I’ve got an email list for that as well. With Revue. Again.
That’s 5 email lists. Gumroad. Medium. Revue. Substack. Revue.
I won’t even bother you with my brief experiments using ConvertKit, Mailchimp, or Sendinblue long before I started my first Substack newsletter.
I need help.
Then again, in total my 5 email lists have brought in around 3700 members. I’m confused, but I’m glad you all are here. Honestly!
And that wasn’t sarcasm.
Neither is the following: I am a huge fan of email lists. I’ve written about the reasons here:
The Importance Of a Platform-Independent Audience
And what that isbettermarketing.pub
Since I returned to Substack, I’ve indulged in writing and reading. I’m following some amazing Substack writers, like my friend Chris Zappa and his music newsletter Zappagram, Workspaces by Ryan Gilbert, or The Noösphere by Medium writer Katie Jgln.
Email lists ain’t dead. They’re more alive than ever. And you need one! Or five…
Let me quickly quote myself, because that’s what we millennials love to do, anyway:
As I closed my last sarcastic outburst,
peace out ✌️
