The Biggest Mistake I Made as a Digital Writer & Entrepreneur
What would you do if all of your social media followers were deleted tomorrow?
“I grew my Instagram to 100,000 followers and it was deleted overnight with zero warning”
One of my mentors runs a successful 7-figure coaching business for social media ghostwriters and creators.
He taught me an important lesson about building an online business.
Your social media followers are rented, not owned.
Instagram
Twitter/X
LinkedIn
YouTube
When you create a business on the back of a social media audience, beware…
The companies that own these platforms can change the algorithm, suspend you, and delete your account without warning. Anytime they feel like it.
“But it won’t happen to me”
Don’t take the risk. Hedge your bets and save your business.
Build your email list.
Your email list is your most valuable long-term asset.
The biggest mistake I made when I started writing online in 2019:
I didn’t start building my email list from day one.
Before building an email list, I thought I needed:
Thousands of followers
Services and products
Email marketing skills
But looking back, the best advice I would give myself and others growing online businesses is to start building an email list immediately.
Give your social media followers something valuable in return for their precious email and never break their trust.
Over time they will reward you by buying from you and telling their friends how great your content is.
This is the long-term play of every successful creator.
And no, email is not dead.
You can take your email list with you, but followers are non-transferable
What would you do if your social media accounts were deleted tomorrow?
If you’re like me and you rely on social media to grow your business…you’d probably freak the fuck out.
I’d be demoralized.
Maybe even consider going back to a 9-5 if years of work were flushed down the toilet because a social media employee decided to delete me from their platform.
Your followers are borrowed.
But your email list is transferrable.
You can take your email list from Mailchimp to Beehive to ConvertKit to Substack (my rec) or any email service provider you want to try as your business grows.
Social media is where you get discovered. Email is where you build a relationship with your audience
There’s only so much trust you can build with your social media followers.
You’re often limited to:
140 characters
60-90 second videos
Short, bite-sized posts
Social media is the “top of funnel” where you get discovered by your ideal readers and customers.
You play the algorithm’s game in exchange for getting in front of thousands or even millions of people scrolling on their platform.
But this is a worthless game if you don’t convert your biggest fans (followers) to the next step in your sales funnel.
Email = Nurturing
Go deeper. Provide even more valuable, longer-form content. Build a real 1-on-1 relationship with your biggest fans who trust you so much, that they decided to grant you access to their inbox.
If you do this right, over time email becomes your best source of attracting clients for your business.
Social media is like speaking into a microphone. Email is like a 1-on-1 conversation
Social media can feel like shouting into a void.
Are you writing for one person?
Are you writing for a million?
Are you trying to go viral?
I’ve had posts that do over 500,000 impressions and drive low quality followers who won’t be future buyers. They just happened to see my post in their feed.
I’ve had posts do underwhelming impressions but drive 5-10 leads of my ideal clients, leading to thousands of dollars in profit.
The point is…
The algorithm is a crapshoot. A necessary evil.
But the people who have said:
“I like your content so much, I want to learn more from you.
Here’s my email address in exhange for your most valuable content.”
Those are the people that become future buyers of your products and services.
And now you get to have a 1-on-1 conversation with them by landing in their inbox once a week.
That’s why email marketing is still considered the highest ROI marketing spend with $36 of return for every $1 spent compared to social media, which is much lower ROI at $2.80 for every $1 spent.
The best place to build your email list in 2024 is Substack
It’s never been easier to build an email list.
Most of my 3,000+ subscribers come from LinkedIn where I post daily and directly ask my audience:
“Do you want more actionable tips for growing your online business? Subscribe to my Substack for weekly articles.”
But lately I’ve reached people who are not on LinkedIn and find me from Substack. It’s the only email platform I know with a social media component built in with “notes” which are basically tweets.
Posting the occasional note on Substack and engaging with other writers on the platform has allowed me to reach people who are already interested in scrolling Substack’s library of great writers with articles and advice.
It’s like if Medium and X/Twitter had a baby (but the crazies don’t show up in the comments).
If you’re wondering how to start en email list, start with Substack.
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See you next week,
Anthony
When you are ready — here are 3 ways I can help you:
I ghostwrite for finance, real estate, and VC founders at CREdigital.io
Create content faster with my favorite writing tools Taplio (LinkedIn) and TweetHunter (Twitter)
Schedule a 1-1 consulting call with me here
Substack is the only social media that doesn’t feel completely stifling to me- and the built in benefit of having an email list as part of the platform is huge. There’s a lot of quality in terms of content and infrastructure!