A Case For Email Subscriptions

I'm sure you see it everywhere, everyone wants you to sign up for emails but when you do you are inundated with them. Some places send three a day, which is insane. Then they want you to sign up for text messages as well! I never sign up for text messages myself, texts are only for people I know or appointment confirmations. I do not need constant text messages on top of all the emails I get. It's exhausting keeping up with that as it is let alone my phone constantly pinging at me. I will never start sending SMS messages for marketing, I think it's terribly obnoxious. It's right up there with the add a tip on every transaction you make nowadays for my most hated business practices of our current times. I really do want your email sign ups though.

I can only imagine your inbox, just like mine, is bursting at the seams with every business you've ever encountered. I hit unsubscribe pretty often when it gets to be too much. I know I have even just visited a website and somehow gotten onto their email list. I don't even know how that happened and I know it isn't actually legal since I didn't consent to sign up. But there are the emails coming daily. The very obnoxious multiple daily email companies quickly get an unsubscribe in most cases. Others bother me far less, perhaps because I am interested or know I will be again so I let them keep coming. 

The ones I will always keep around are other small businesses. I may not read every email they send but when they do send them I won't hit the unsubscribe button. You see I know that their email subscriber list isn't huge and each and every one of those subscribers means so much more to them than a big box retailer or huge corporation who must have millions upon millions of emails. I wouldn't say it's out of pity that I wouldn't unsubscribe, even though you could construe that is why I remain subscribed. It's actually a show of solidarity with other small businesses, even if I am not going to buy anything right then I still support them in the small ways I can. Simply opening their emails can be a huge boost for them. I understand all too well the struggle of owning and operating a small business and how precious each and every customer is. 

So is that why I want you signed up? Well I suppose that's one reason. I also like to share news or what's new and know you actually have a shot at seeing it. I used to rely a lot on social media to reach people but that has become a very iffy thing for most businesses. The way these companies have set up their algorithms and paywalls for reach has made that a really bad way to depend on reaching customers. I'm lucky if 800 people see my posts out of 16k followers, that's .05% of my followers on average. Abysmal statistics, yet typical for so many people who used to reach so many people on these platforms. All of us complaining about this aren't just making this up, no one sees our posts anymore! I do see an awful lot of silly mindless videos though and I'm pulling away from social media more and more because of it. 

But what's in it for you? I do give you early access to releases if your signed up for emails. I also send out coupon codes or sale announcements that I don't advertise elsewhere. The codes are only for subscribers. I'm hoping to add onto the VIP subscriber experience as time goes by as well. I want you to enjoy getting an email from me. Plus I really only aim to send one email a week, occasionally more often if I'm running a sale and want to stay on your radar but overall I will send only one a week. Mostly because I am a one employee business and I don't have enough time for creating a email onslaught to bombard your inbox. I'd rather be making new jewelry. 

 Emails are the only way I know you will actually be delivered, and have a chance to see, things I want to share with you. It isn't controlled by some huge social media company that is only interested in their bottom line and turning people into doom scrolling zombies. Email is feeling like the last bastion of control I have over who sees the things I want to share.

So tell me, what do you love about emails and what do you hate? How many are too many? What can I do to make you want to open my emails?

If I have lured you in to joining the list and you're not subscribed you can do it here