- Thread starter
- #151
Andy Black
Help people. Get paid. Help more people.
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BTW... here's the first and only automated email that's sent to my paid email newsletter subscribers. (It's the welcome email, but I thought I'd add value in it.)
Hi,
Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter!
I look forward to sending you updates of what I'm doing (and why), and the learnings I pick up along the way.
I'm figuring this out as I go along, so expect insights as they come to me, as well as the usual ups and downs you get when your ship leaves the harbor.
I hope it inspires you to leave your own harbor and find your own blue ocean.
The first thing I want to talk about is paid email newsletters.
Years ago I was on a course given by Blaise Brosnan here in Ireland. He dropped a wee nugget on us that the most important formula in business is R+R=Profit, where R+R is Repeat Business plus Referrals.
That formula stuck with me and I've been obsessed ever since with building revenue streams based on repeat business.
Repeat business is amazing. Get someone to buy from you, keep adding value so they continue to buy from you, and then get more people to do the same. It's a great way to grow your business because it can snowball over time.
Subscription businesses are an excellent way to get repeat business, and the simplest subscription business I can think of is a paid email newsletter.
The beauty of a paid email newsletter is you don't have to create any content or products until someone subscribes. Sure, you can create a welcome email like this one that goes out immediately someone subscribes, but I've joined a paid email newsletter where the owner didn’t start creating content until after people unexpectedly subscribed to a list he wasn’t even promoting.
Paid email newsletters are super simple to setup and put in front of people to see if they're willing to regularly put their hand in their pocket.
And finding out asap whether people will pay regularly for something is super important if you want to create any type of subscription business.
In fact, I think this might be the most important reason to try out paid email newsletters!
Let me explain...
I have a neighbour who cycled in the Olympics for Ireland. He told me he wanted to create a subscription box or a training app for cyclists.
He runs a small business creating cycling accessories to sell to retailers here in Ireland. It's in his blood to build things, so naturally he wants to immediately start building the subscription box or the training app.
But building either of these will cost time and money, so he was looking at ways to get grants or investment.
I explained that my preference is to get money from customers rather than investors. That I prefer to figure out how to get customers to part with their cash, rather than how to get investors to part with their cash.
Partly because I don't want to spend my time courting local enterprise offices or investors when I think I should be courting potential customers.
But mostly because I want to find out asap if anyone will hand over their money, and do so regularly.
If my friend built the first subscription box, or an MVP for the app, he'd then need to get his offer in front of people interested in buying.
My suggestion to him was to see if he could get people onto a free email list first, maybe for a 7 day email series, or even just the usual eBook "lead magnet" delivered by email.
Then see if he could convince some to subscribe to a paid email list of tips, tricks, stories, and insights from his many years of cycling and competing.
Heck, maybe there are people who already know him and would subscribe on the spot if he only setup a shopping cart and let them know it was available! (That's always my first recommendation by the way - start with the people who already know, like, and trust you.)
See how different this is from building the product first and then trying to find out if anyone will buy?
See how different this is from asking people if they'd pay for something monthly?
Slapping a price on it helps filter out the people who say they’d buy just so they don’t offend your feelings.
So here we are. I thought I'd better put my money where my mouth is and create a paid email list before bending my friend’s ear again.
And here you are too, hopefully getting value already as you consider how R+R=Profit could be implemented in your own business, whether you should consider creating a subscription business, and what type of paid email newsletter could possibly get you started sooner rather than later.
I hope this helps and you're having a great day wherever you are in the world.
Until next time!
Andy B
Hi,
Thanks for subscribing to my newsletter!
I look forward to sending you updates of what I'm doing (and why), and the learnings I pick up along the way.
I'm figuring this out as I go along, so expect insights as they come to me, as well as the usual ups and downs you get when your ship leaves the harbor.
I hope it inspires you to leave your own harbor and find your own blue ocean.
The first thing I want to talk about is paid email newsletters.
Years ago I was on a course given by Blaise Brosnan here in Ireland. He dropped a wee nugget on us that the most important formula in business is R+R=Profit, where R+R is Repeat Business plus Referrals.
That formula stuck with me and I've been obsessed ever since with building revenue streams based on repeat business.
Repeat business is amazing. Get someone to buy from you, keep adding value so they continue to buy from you, and then get more people to do the same. It's a great way to grow your business because it can snowball over time.
Subscription businesses are an excellent way to get repeat business, and the simplest subscription business I can think of is a paid email newsletter.
The beauty of a paid email newsletter is you don't have to create any content or products until someone subscribes. Sure, you can create a welcome email like this one that goes out immediately someone subscribes, but I've joined a paid email newsletter where the owner didn’t start creating content until after people unexpectedly subscribed to a list he wasn’t even promoting.
Paid email newsletters are super simple to setup and put in front of people to see if they're willing to regularly put their hand in their pocket.
And finding out asap whether people will pay regularly for something is super important if you want to create any type of subscription business.
In fact, I think this might be the most important reason to try out paid email newsletters!
Let me explain...
I have a neighbour who cycled in the Olympics for Ireland. He told me he wanted to create a subscription box or a training app for cyclists.
He runs a small business creating cycling accessories to sell to retailers here in Ireland. It's in his blood to build things, so naturally he wants to immediately start building the subscription box or the training app.
But building either of these will cost time and money, so he was looking at ways to get grants or investment.
I explained that my preference is to get money from customers rather than investors. That I prefer to figure out how to get customers to part with their cash, rather than how to get investors to part with their cash.
Partly because I don't want to spend my time courting local enterprise offices or investors when I think I should be courting potential customers.
But mostly because I want to find out asap if anyone will hand over their money, and do so regularly.
If my friend built the first subscription box, or an MVP for the app, he'd then need to get his offer in front of people interested in buying.
My suggestion to him was to see if he could get people onto a free email list first, maybe for a 7 day email series, or even just the usual eBook "lead magnet" delivered by email.
Then see if he could convince some to subscribe to a paid email list of tips, tricks, stories, and insights from his many years of cycling and competing.
Heck, maybe there are people who already know him and would subscribe on the spot if he only setup a shopping cart and let them know it was available! (That's always my first recommendation by the way - start with the people who already know, like, and trust you.)
See how different this is from building the product first and then trying to find out if anyone will buy?
See how different this is from asking people if they'd pay for something monthly?
Slapping a price on it helps filter out the people who say they’d buy just so they don’t offend your feelings.
So here we are. I thought I'd better put my money where my mouth is and create a paid email list before bending my friend’s ear again.
And here you are too, hopefully getting value already as you consider how R+R=Profit could be implemented in your own business, whether you should consider creating a subscription business, and what type of paid email newsletter could possibly get you started sooner rather than later.
I hope this helps and you're having a great day wherever you are in the world.
Until next time!
Andy B
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