The issue for a lot of freelance writers (especially newer ones who make up the bulk of visitors here) is that email lists aren’t free for long. For them to get the most out of them via automation and such, they’ll generally have to pay. For most of us, that’s not a big deal. It’ll pay off. But it’s not uncommon for newer writers to have no marketing budget to speak of when they’re new and struggling to land their first several clients. For them, and email list wouldn’t help much, free or paid. The time they’d spend building a subscriber list in the hopes of converting some of those people later would almost always be better spent directly marketing their services in other ways.

Email lists make much more sense for more established freelancers, or those on the higher end of the pay spectrum, where demonstrating expertise and cultivating industry relationships in a specialty area can matter much more. Even then, it’s not necessary — more PR benefit than direct marketing in the long run. But in that case, I absolutely agree. They need to focus on relationships and consistency. Think in terms of a publication almost more than just a marketing tool. Have a content strategy that’s both continual and not just about their services — the list itself has to serve their target clients. That’s where I tend to see freelancers in general go wrong. When I’ve bothered signing up for their lists they’re not only sporadic, but there’s nothing in it for me. They often get used as promotional announcement tools and not much else. It’s a shame because there’s a lot of potential there when they’re done well. But they still work better in businesses where people need more than a handful of customers at any given time and a few more in-waiting. My biggest hope with this is more new writers understanding that scope better. It can go a long way toward minimizing the intimidation factor of landing new clients when you realize you don’t need to appeal to massive numbers of people. And with email lists, people have a tendency to focus a little too much on raw numbers which would be counter-productive for a lot of readers here.

Great post! What I would say is that if you choose to have an email list then you need to be consistent with it. You can’t just email once, then wait six months and do it again. Not only will your unsubscribes rocket, but most people will have forgotten who you are in that time anyway.

I feel that an email list is an effective tool for people who don’t yet have a “personal brand” and need to cultivate stronger relationships with the people who they do already engage with. Plus it does provide a marketing channel that is effectively free, so there isn’t much too lose if you do want to try it out.

Paul

Thanks Ida. I’ve long been against following generic advice, and one of my aims on this site is teaching freelancers how to tailor the things they learn and pick up from third parties to their own businesses. Not everything works the same way in every business type or every market. And unfortunately marketing advice all too often seems to come in “this way or the highway” framing. It doesn’t help when companies constantly release bad, poorly-interpreted data skewed to make their points, and frequently share very limited-focus case studies as if they represent a wider norm. I can understand how folks get sucked into some of the nonsense, and I’ve seen too many writers end up frustrated because they feel like they’re doing everything right by parroting someone else rather than learning the fundamentals to build upon in their own market. Then they don’t get the results they were “promised” by the person giving the advice. A simple thing to keep in mind is that once something becomes a trend, the real thought leaders have likely already moved on to other things. If you want to stay ahead of the curve, you need a background in those fundamentals so you can adapt to market and environmental changes (new tools, services, sources, etc.) without waiting on someone else to lead the way.