Hey Reader,

A few of you voted for this topic in my last newsletter, and it tells me you might be thinking about your email list purely as a promotional channel.

Before I get too far into this though...speaking of voting for topics...

By the way, I get why a lot of artists think of email as just promotional. Because every default opt-in form on every platform says some version of "sign up for news and updates".

(And...If all you're sending people is "news and updates" it's no wonder so many artists are scared to death of bothering their subscribers.)

But here's the reframe I want to offer you...

Email is not a promotional channel. It's a relationship-building tool.

And once you start treating it that way, the question "what do I say when I don't have anything to sell?" becomes moot.
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Think about it this way... You probably have at least one friend you keep up with almost entirely over email (or text, DMs, long voice notes, whatever). You don't talk every day, but every month or so, one of you fires off a message. You share what's been going on. They share what's been going on. Nobody's pitching anybody anything.

That's the energy I want you to bring to your list.

So when you sit down to write your next email, and instead of thinking what am I promoting? -- think: what would I say to that friend right now?

Maybe you're deep in the writing process for a new record and you want to share what that feels like. Maybe you just wrapped a tour and you're finally home and decompressing. Maybe something completely unrelated to music has been on your mind and you want to share it.

Any of that is fair game.

A couple of things to keep in mind as you're writing:

Maintain whatever privacy feels right to you. Sharing more of yourself builds connection, but you get to decide where the line is. You don't have to share anything you're not comfortable with. This is your list and you set the terms.

Write to one person, not a crowd. Email is a solitary experience. Your subscriber is reading alone, probably on their phone, probably in a quiet moment. Write like you're talking directly to them, not addressing a room. It makes everything land differently.

Now here's a little trick for when your email is purely an update with no specific ask...

As you're sharing what's going on, you can softly hyperlink the things you mention in passing. Not as a hard CTA. Just as a natural part of the story.

Like if you mention you've been blown away by how many views your new music video has gotten, you can hyperlink "how many views this video has gotten" so that when people click, it takes them to the video itself. You're not saying "go watch it." You're just... letting people click through if they want to.

And here's why that matters beyond just the clicks: when someone clicks that link, you can tag them as interested in your video content. If someone clicks a link about your upcoming tour dates, you can tag them as interested in live shows. If someone clicks through to your merch page, you know they're a potential buyer. This is called a link-trigger inside of Kit, and it's honestly one of my favorite features for tailoring the way you communicate with your fans.

You're not asking them to do anything. But the people who are curious will tell you exactly what they care about, just by where they click. And then you can use that to make your future emails even more relevant to them.

Sending emails like this, purely to share and connect, with no ask attached? It builds goodwill. And it makes your subscribers that much more emotionally invested in what you're doing, so that when you do have something to share or something to sell, they're already warm and already rooting for you.

Hope that helps.

Talk soon,

P.S. Thanks so much if you voted for this topic in my last newsletter! Your feedback helps me write about topics you actually want help with. Speaking of...