Addressing Justin Welsh’s recent comments on email frequency
Jim Hamilton
November 01, 2023
Justin Welsh has been ranting about email marketing lately.
He sent out a newsletter a few weeks ago with the subject line “Stop Harassing People on Email”...
Where he took issue with getting 22 emails from someone in 40 days.
Now, I’ve learned a lot from Justin…
I own both his products and follow what he does very closely.
But given that Justin’s a prominent voice in the solopreneurship space…
I want to address his comments.
Because I think they’re missing some crucial context.
Especially if you’re a freelancer or solopreneur with a small audience.
Let’s dive in.
Read time: 2 minutes and 25 seconds
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1) You are not your customer
Just because you make decisions in a certain way doesn’t mean all your customers do too.
- Some people like personalized ads
- Some people can’t stand social media
- Some people hate fortune cookie content
- Some people assume low-ticket products aren’t valuable
Different people think differently.
And projecting all of your own beliefs onto your customers can be dangerous.
Case in point:
Despite Justin’s issue with continually receiving emails from someone when he’s not opening them…
He’s also been experimenting lately with a ConvertKit feature called “Resend to unopens.”
This allows you to resend your email to people who didn’t open the first time.
I find this REALLY annoying.
No, I didn’t “miss” it the first time.
The subject line just wasn’t compelling enough for me to open it.
But I realize that’s just me.
Lots of people probably do miss it the first time and end up opening it on the resend.
And ultimately, that’s the game:
Figuring out what works and doubling down on it.
Justin writes a content-driven newsletter.
So do I.
But as I discussed in my email last week…
Content-driven newsletters are NOT the most effective way to sell your own products and services through email.
Especially if you have a small audience.
Justin’s got almost 500k followers on LinkedIn alone, so he can afford to email once a week, put a link to his products in the P.S., and leave it at that.
If you’re gunning for the same level of scale and audience size, great.
For the rest of us though…
It’s going to take a meatier sales argument to get enough people to buy what you sell…
Which means mailing more often…
Whether that’s 2-3x a week…
Or even daily, in the case of a new product launch…
And mixing in more personality and sales-driven emails.
3) Attracting people who vibe with you is key
People buy coaches, not coaching.
So while I don’t share Justin’s perspective on the topic of email frequency…
This is something I think he does very well.
He uses his values and beliefs as a filter to attract people who vibe with him.
People who mail daily apply the same principle.
And ultimately, that’s how you leverage your personal brand to build a high-profit business.
With that said, I bet many of his email subscribers (like me) would enjoy hearing from Justin more often…
Especially if he took a more personality-driven approach.
Putting It All Together
My response to Justin Welsh’s recent comments on email frequency:
1) You are not your customer
2) Content-driven newsletters take longer to monetize
3) Attracting people who vibe with you is key
That’s it.
Thanks for reading!
See you next week.
Jim Hamilton
P.S:
Knowing how to infuse your emails with personality is persuasive.
And when you use storytelling to reveal useful lessons…
You can strike the perfect balance between building relationships and generating revenue.
That’s why I’m excited to announce my upcoming email copywriting workshop titled…
“15-Minute Emails”
Inside, I’ll be revealing how to write simple emails that sell using the S.L.P.C. Method without “brainstorming” for hours or staring at a blank page.
This is the exact same step-by-step approach I’ve used to generate millions in sales for clients across health, survival, coaching & consulting, and more.
So if you want to learn how to write binge-worthy emails that sell…
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