Founder of the Social Media Escape Club
Noah Kalina from “Newsletter #178 – The Chicken Camera.”
“Sometimes the best thing we can do as artists is simply create the conditions for interesting things to happen and then just get out of the way.”
Creating the conditions for interesting things to happen. Yes. That’s why I started my newsletter back in 2021 (here’s the first post). Write about the stuff I want to write about. Maybe other people will enjoy it.
From that, interesting things have happened from Social Media Escape Club.
On a group call today we got talking about an influx of subscribers, and instead of trying to replicate that to get more more more, we talked about ways to get closer to those subscribers. One at a time if needed.
What brought them in? What resonated? How can you meet them?
Can you take 100 new subscribers and find people willing to dive in? Hop on Zoom call?
Maybe it’s “just” 20 people, but those 20 (or 10 or 5 or one) can change your life.
Making more content isn’t always the answer, like Scott says here. Seek more (and better) conversations, and see what happens.
A client who has worked with some big names wanted to build their email list, and I gave them this idea:
Think of the amazing people you worked with throughout the years, and think of all those stories you shared, and the memories you’ve made. They’ve got to have dozens of those stories to write, right?
So write that post, with that one person in mind. Then email that person a link to the piece.
This gets you around sending a boring email to “all your contacts” saying, “hey, I have a newsletter now, you should subscribe.”
Write a post that will resonate with the person you’re emailing. Yes, even if it’s just that one person. Email the person the link. Maybe they subscribe, or at least reply and you two catch up, and who knows where that leads?
It’s not always about striking it rich and getting 100 new sign ups. Sometimes the right message to the right person at the right time is all you need.
This from Matthew Ferrara:
Imagine if you produced direct content as frequently as you produce social media content. But rather than 1% or 10% of people seeing it, it gets received by 100% of your audience. Got your attention?
Keep making Reels that 95% of your audience won’t see?
Or just email 10 people and reach all 10 of them?
Emailing 10 people means we might get rejected 10 times.
Making Reels is safer, knowing it’ll largely go unnoticed, but we still did “the right thing” according to mass marketing gurus.
Photo by Seth Werkheiser
Recently I did a Klaviyo “check-up” for a record label and found they had two abandoned cart flows going at the same time (which meant every user got TWO emails to remind them of items in their cart – ooops).
I’ve been using Klaviyo since 2020 for music labels (including Death Row Records).
The holidays are coming up – if you need a second set of eyes on your email marketing setup (Klaviyo mainly, but I work in Mailchimp a bit, too), let’s connect: hey@sethw.xyz
I don’t know how I got on this email list, but I can’t look away. It’s atrocious in every way. All images. It’s a train wreck.
I can’t unsubscribe from this nightmare.
I see a lot of bad marketing emails from Square, but the marketing emails I get from Bad Luck Burger Club are fucking great.
It’s bold. It’s bright. The logo screams in your face. Love that.
The copy-writing matches their brand so well, too:
✅ The Intergalactic Rolling Church of the Burg (aka our food truck)
✅ Also, when you park at the market, don’t park in the dang bike lane!
✅ Party on, Burger out.
Most marketing emails are just square blocks of things for sale, but Bad Luck gets away with it because the top half was written by people – you can’t get an intern or AI to write that well.
Like, there’s a difference between greeting your customer with a hearty “hello, how ya doing today?!” and “so how many burgers ya want?”
I’ve eaten several of their burgers, all in one week at Furnce Fest in 2023, and they’re fucking amazing.
Over on Substack Notes, Sarah Styf asked about using a lead magnet, to which I replied with this meme because I am a very serious email marketing thought leader.
Do what you want with your thing, of course, but seriously, for Social Media Escape Club, I am the lead magnet.
I’d imagine one reason people don’t sign up for email newsletters is because if they can’t see your email newsletter, they’re going to assume it looks like all the other shit newsletters out there, so why sign up?
This is why something like Substack works so well. It’s literally the secret sauce. You see what you’re going to get before you sign up.
Not so with Mailchimp or the countless other shit newsletters we sign up for from artists we like.
We blindly sign up and get tossed a product catalog every few weeks.
Meanwhile, the same artist shovels 19 posts a week up on social media, filled with jokes, rants, photos, and stories.
Email subscribers are only worth sales, apparently.
Straight up, this post ‘How “Building An Audience” Is Different From “Finding Clients”—And Why It Matters‘ has haunted me since I read it.
Its conventional wisdom of more fans, more readers; more subscribers are somehow the answer to every problem.
This makes sense of course for someone who does podcast editing (like the author of this post); sure, reach out to your network, and find paying clients. Word of mouth. The power of your reputation.
BUT… what about the artist who posts about their new work on Instagram and only reaches 12% of their followers?
This is why social media pushes more – because 12% of more is at least better, right?
Whereas, if you could simply email and reach 100% of your fans, and former customers, with a message about your new offering, you could earn a living, or at least pay your phone bill.
I’ve been thinking of making videos for social media, and starting a YouTube channel. These two things are sort of expected, right? If you’re seeking to make an impact, more people seeing the thing can’t hurt.
But what about the almost 700 email subscribers I have already?
If I make a great video for them, and it’s so good they tell three other people, then I’ve done my job. If it’s a dud and no one watches it, then I’ve learned something new.
But to take the time to build a whole new YouTube channel from scratch?
Why don’t I hone my message, my style, my technique with nearly 700 who’ve already bought into what I’m talking about?
