I hear this one all the time. “I don’t want to bother them.” “They’ll get sick of me.” “I’ve already emailed once this month.”
So the email doesn’t get sent, and then it’s been six weeks, and then it feels too awkward to email at all because you’ve left it so long.
But those people signed up. They typed their email address in and asked you to send them things. They wanted your news. They wanted to hear about your offers. They did that because they liked the look of your business.
You’re not interrupting anybody. You’re doing the thing you said you’d do.
And if you don’t do it, they forget you exist. Not because they’ve gone off you. Because they’re busy, and there’s a lot going on, and you’re not in front of them.
Let me tell you about our awning.
Years ago, when Chloe was little, we got a caravan. As she got bigger and family started coming to see us on our outings, we needed somewhere to put the wet coats and the wellies and the smelly dog bed, and somewhere for people to sit when we had visitors.
What we needed was an awning, which is a big tent that zips onto the side of the caravan.
We’d been on the email list of our local caravan dealer for years. I never opened a single one. Not one. They must have sent me a hundred emails and every one of them went straight past me.
Then one day an email came in with “awning sale” in the subject line.
I opened that one. We got in the car, drove over to the dealership, and spent several hundred pounds on an awning.
One email got them that sale. The other hundred that I’d ignored didn’t. But I wouldn’t have opened the awning one if I hadn’t been getting the other hundred, because I’d have forgotten they were there.
And here’s the bit I want you to notice. I never unsubscribed. I still wanted their emails. Nothing had grabbed me yet, that’s all. I wasn’t sitting there getting annoyed with them for turning up in my inbox.
They also didn’t decide I was a waste of time and take me off the list because I hadn’t bought anything. They just carried on emailing. Which is exactly why they got the money when the day came that I needed something.
That’s what you’re doing when you email your list. You’re staying in front of people until the week they need what you sell. You’ve no idea which week that is. Neither have they, most of the time.
So send the email. Tell them what you’ve got on. Tell them what’s new in, what you’re booking up for, what you’ve been working on.
You might be exactly what somebody is looking for that day. And one email away from a sale.