Well, it’s been another 4 months since my last update.
And honestly, I’m fine with that. I’d much rather spend my time sharing useful info about email marketing and cute cat pictures than writing these updates.
Speaking of which…
Have a cute cat picture.
First, the standard disclaimer:
If you’re new here, hello and welcome. I write these updates periodically to give you a back-stage view of how I’m building my own email marketing ecosystem. You’re welcome to follow along and do this yourself, or contact me about building one for you.
Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
What I’ve Been Doing
We are now at month 10 and issue #48. I am quickly approaching the year-mark for the Email Marketing Ecosystem newsletter.
Cue the trumpets and confetti. 🎉
Every issue is long-form, usually between 1200 and 1800 words on average. While some issues connect based on topic from week to week, each remains a stand-alone entity. I will frequently link to other issues that are relevant, but I haven’t created a series of issues yet, like I used to before I started writing in this format.
There’s been a lot of news about AI lately, as well as the standard email marketing info and my regular urging you to connect with your audience by being human first. More on that later.
New additions to my toolbox include the Custom Subject Line Generator, which I released as my birthday gift to you.
I also gave you the 5 components you need to write a good nurture email, and last week, I shared the 3 reasons your subscribers don’t see your emails in their inboxes (and how to fix that).
I continue to share the occasional personal story, like my trip home for my annual science fiction convention. I do this (and encourage you to do the same) so you know who I am, what I believe in, and why I do what I do.
Sharing our humanity is one of the most important things we can do for each other. And especially in this age of constant AI slop, we all crave this genuine connection with each other. I truly believe that the more human you are, the better you and your business will do.
Back to what I am doing…
I still send this newsletter to my email subscribers (that’s you) every Thursday afternoon. Or evening, as is the case with this one.
Then every Tuesday morning, I publish it on:
- My website (under the menu item “Newsletter”)
- LinkedIn (as a newsletter)
- Substack
- Medium
I figure the more people can see what I’m sharing, the more people it will help.
Promoting My Newsletter to the World
As much as I admit I hate social media, it is the best way to get the word out about my newsletter.
So, every week, I’ve been posting on my current 3 channels. On some, it’s going well. On others, not so much.
LinkedIn:
Here is where I’ve seen the most growth in terms of engagement and audience.
I continued my 4 posts a week, and over the last couple of months, I increased to 7 posts a week. 4 posts to promote the newsletter, 3 for engagement or to promote the Custom Subject Line Generator.
I’ve also seen a nice, steady growth in my followers over the last 4 months or so.
A lot of this is posting regularly, but I’ve also been making more of an effort to spend time on LinkedIn, commenting on others’ posts.
Let me be clear, I am doing the commenting myself. I’m not letting AI comment for me. I wrote about LinkedIn’s latest reaction to all the AI slop flying on its platform and I have taken my own advice to heart.
Again, be human first because we all crave connection.
I am finding that the posts that do best are the ones where I am being most human.
(Strokes chin menacingly) My evil plan is working…
And my point is made. The more honest, open and relatable you are in your communications, the more people will connect with you.
Facebook:
I have continued to post regularly on Facebook. However, I did not keep up my daily habit after the month-long challenge I participated in was over.
I still post 4 times a week, all directed to the Email Marketing Ecosystem newsletter. Occasionally, I’ll post something else, or share something I find relevant on my business page.
Unfortunately, this has resulted in a loss of engagement. My views are down by 38%.
I’m getting more engagement from the “personal” posts and less from the promotional posts.
Again, I’d like to point out that whole human connection thing. It’s working for me. I’m sure it will work for you too.
I’m sure some of the downward trend is Meta wanting me to pay for promotions instead of using their platform for free. But I also suspect I need to up my game when it comes to Facebook posts. Fortunately, I’ve enrolled in an upcoming mastermind that should help with this.
Instagram:
I will say that I am utterly failing here.
Instagram is not my bag. What can I say, I am old. I don’t get it, I don’t use it personally, so I’m not terribly surprised.
My numbers appear to be up, at least based on the last report. However growth is ridiculously slow. Out of 76 posts, I reached 188 people and got 13 engagements. That’s a wasted effort in my opinion.
I may have to re-evaluate what I’m doing on IG and whether I even want to continue. Again. I hope the upcoming mastermind can help with this.
Overall, I’d say LinkedIn is my strongest platform, which is great because that’s where business owners spend most of their time. I have work to do when it comes to Facebook and Instagram, if I even stay with Instagram.
The Publishing Platforms
My Website
Visits to my website are up again, though not by as much as my last measurement. That’s fine, there is still a substantial increase in views and visitors.
I’m sure the social media activity has helped drive more traffic to my website.
I am working with a designer to build a new version of this website, which I hope to release soon. That may improve visitor views as well.
Plus, I have added more people to my email list, which is the entire point of this project.
LinkedIn Newsletter
My LinkedIn Newsletter subscriber list is up from 168 to 186. Not as large a jump as my last report, but still good, steady (if slow) growth.
Article views are up, impressions and engagements are down over the last 90 days. LinkedIn won’t let me customize the dates for newsletter analytics, so I went with the closest amount of time for my analysis.
I continue to see more people looking at my profile, which is always a good thing.
Medium
Again, I haven’t been doing enough with Medium to get much in the way of results. I don’t cross-promote my newsletter to other authors’ channels, which is the only way to get exposure on this platform.
My newsletter has been presented to more readers, a few people view it, and one or two read it.
A goal for the rest of the year is to cross-promote my newsletter on Medium to see what happens. If I get good results, I’ll keep it up. If not, I’ll probably abandon this platform.
Substack
I am still at 7 followers and 5 subscribers on Substack.
However, as I have been posting Notes 4 days a week, I have gotten more traffic to my articles than I had in the past.
This is another place where I need to make more of a concerted effort to gain exposure by cross-posting and doing more with Notes. Again, this will be a project for the rest of the year. Though I am less inclined to abandon this platform if I don’t see any results. Substack is great for AEO visibility, so I’ll probably keep publishing here.
My Plans Going Forward (Until the Next Report)
You all know that I use AI for research and analysis. I have admitted this in the past. So, for this report, I asked Claude to analyze my statistics from each platform.
Basically, it told me that I’m putting in a lot of effort on 6 different platforms and getting results on one or two.
It even created this lovely graphic to share with you.
I need to make decisions on Instagram and Medium my priorities. Which means I’ll need to change strategies to see if they have any effect.
I hope that the mastermind I’m enrolled in that starts later this month will help with Instagram in particular. I’ll do some research on both platforms to see what will work best for me in terms of my business and philosophy. I am not going to become someone who obsessively posts on Instagram. Not my thing.
I’ll also work on improving my visibility on Facebook and Substack. Hopefully those will require smaller changes that will be easier to implement.
And I’ll keep up my efforts on LinkedIn, which are helping to grow my email list and get more views on my website.
I’ll be thrilled if my new website is up by the time I report in again. As with all things, it’s taking longer than I’d like. And unfortunately, I am the primary bottleneck.
That’s the latest Monthly-ish Update on the growth of my Email Marketing Ecosystem.
I hope you’re enjoying all of these issues, whatever they may be about.
Finally, have another cute cat pic for good measure.
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