This subscriber waited 9 years to buy from me

Nine years is a long time to nurture a lead.

Earlier this month, I launched a paid newsletter for creators who want to use AI: PromptWritingStudio. Donning my marketer cap, I reviewed the launch after the cart closed to see who bought. I wanted to improve things next time.

I stumbled across an intriguing statistic inside Kit. One customer signed up for my list back in 2016. From what I can tell, they haven’t bought anything else from me over the years, at least not directly via Kit.

9 years is a long time to spend on someone’s email list. Some email experts talk about campaigns that last a week or a month but certainly not 3,285 days. I can only imagine why this subscriber stayed on my list that long: boredom, inertia, or perhaps a fascination with email marketing.

When I started this email list, I didn’t write text-first, direct-response emails like the one you’re reading now. I’d wager most of my list who subscribed in 2016 unsubscribed because my emails didn’t always offer value. Or I removed them from my list during one of my many culls.

In 2016, I worked as a copywriter for a FTSE 100 company. I worked on my business in the mornings or evenings around work. I knew that rowing an email list was the cornerstone of an online business.

My first few months of emails were nothing more than an RSS feed of the latest blog posts on my site. I didn’t have time to use MailChimp or Kit properly. So, I emailed my list once or twice a month.

When I started publishing more content on my writing website, I had more content to send to subscribers. So, I switched to emailing a round-up of my latest SEO-optimized blog posts in a fancy template, which a virtual assistant helped me create. I also sometimes hastily cobbled together a series of emails for an affiliate promotion. I also shifted the focus of my list several times, covering topics like productivity, creativity, writing, and self-publishing.

This subscriber also survived multiple culls, during which I deleted cold and unhappy subscribers from my list. I felt somewhat validated to find someone silently consumed my work for nearly a decade before deciding to invest. If fine wine improves with age, so do some former copywriters (me) and subscribers.

I’m sharing this story because I don’t want you to spend nine years nurturing a subscriber. I don’t view non-buyers as cold subscribers. They’re potentially valuable long-term relationships. All I need to do is present an offer that resonates. So, these days, I craft and show more relevant offers, and sales are up.

Right now, you might be:
* Regularly purging ‘cold’ subscribers from your list
* Feeling disappointed when someone doesn’t buy within your expected timeline
* Missing out on potential long-term customers who simply need more time

But imagine instead:
* Know exactly what to write and send subscribers so they’re engaged
* Turning your ‘coldest’ subscribers into your most loyal customers
* Building a system for attracting dozens of high-quality organic subscribers every week

I’m preparing to share my complete Email Nurturing Framework in a new workshop called ‘The Profitable List Builder.’

If you want to learn how to build and maintain a list that delivers value for years (not just months), reply with LIST, and I’ll make sure you’re first to know when it opens, with early bird pricing and exclusive bonuses for longtime readers—regardless of whether you’ve purchased before.