Two mornings ago, I found myself on the street outside my house, in the dark. There were no cabs because it was 4:30am on New Year’s morning. I took my phone out to rent a city bike as the first step of catching my 7am flight, but instead of opening the bike app, I automatically opened my email inbox.
“Hello,” I said. “This will be useful.”
It turns out I’d gotten a new email from marketer Ben Settle. The subject line read:
“Why my ‘no coming back’ policy will inevitably be the new normal”
Ben was talking about his policy of never allowing people who unsubscribe from his paid newsletter to resubscribe.
I have no doubt that Ben’s prediction is right, and that this policy will become more and more common.
After all, newsletters are the Ford Edsel of the information publishing industry.
As Agora founder Bill Bonner, who has sold billions of dollars’ worth of newsletters, supposedly said once, nobody wakes up in the middle of the night, heart racing, pajamas wet from sweat, with the sudden realization, “Good God… we’re all out of newsletters!”
Newsletters are something that the marketer dreamed up, because they provide continuity income, automatically, without the need to keep getting credit card details.
Newsletters are something the market doesn’t really want, not without a huge amount of bribes, indoctrination, and in Ben’s case, threats and shaming. From his email about his “no coming-back” policy:
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“Plus, practically speaking, if the trash lets itself out why take it back in?”
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Whatever. People will justify anything to themselves out of self-interest.
Fortunately, my self-interest isn’t aligned with selling you a newsletter, because I tried it and found I hate it, even before I had to give a single thought to retention.
The good news of that is, I don’t have to threaten you or shame you, which is something I find personally distasteful.
The bad news is, I don’t ever hear the satisfying sound of shopping-cart notifications telling me I’ve made a bunch of sales on autopilot.
Instead, I have to keep sending emails, writing sales letters, and doing my best to tempt you into buying the offers I’m selling.
That’s okay. Like I keep saying, I’m okay with working a bit, regularly, and for the long term.
And I’d rather have my freedom, both from the fixed schedule of publishing a paid newsletter, and from the psychological toll of barking at my subscribers and cracking my whip at them.
Perhaps you also value freedom over automatic shopping cart notifications. Perhaps you can understand where I am coming from. In that case, you might like to sign up to my (free) daily email newsletter.
You can try it… find it doesn’t work for you… unsubscribe… and later, if you change your mind, you can subscribe again. No threats or shaming.
To get started, click here and fill out the form.