What I learned from an underwhelming launch

You may not know this, but I've been running my own business for 14 years. (yeah, it blows my mind, too.)

That’s 14 years' worth of promoting, marketing, and launching new service offerings. I've thought to myself so many times, "this is going to be it! The big thing that launches me into the stratosphere!"

They can't ALL be stunning successes, though… and that was the story with the membership drive I did back in October. I romanticized the idea that I could turn this newsletter into a thing that pays! We’d have a spicy community of radical humans who subvert capitalism together! Wouldn’t that be cool?! 

As it turns out, fewer people agreed with me than I expected. It's not entirely surprising–while I've been around the block many times as a marketer, I'm new to the world of publishing for pay.

It was a good learning opportunity, at least. Plus, it was a potent opportunity to plug into intentionality, in what should be a season of slowing down.

Plan to use all of the tools at your disposal.

When I really look at it, I could have talked up the membership drive a little (maybe a lot) more.

I feel like I did decently well at promoting memberships within the newsletter. I wove in calls-to-action to become a member, I put out some extras and perks that would be available for paid members. It felt like a good level of promoting without feeling pushy.

Outside of this space, however, I didn't do as much as I wanted. I didn’t give my social media manager the clear-and-literal directives she needed to blast it on our social feeds. I halfway forgot about my email marketing list and blog. I was more shy than I should've been about sharing it in the various communities I’m in.

Basically, you have audiences you probably haven't even thought of yet. In fact, it's worth taking an inventory of them now, so you don’t miss sharing your future offerings with the people who want to hear from you.

Give the people what they want–not what you think they want.

You know those extras and bonuses I mentioned? They were cute and fun! They were useful! They were… not what people actually wanted from a newsletter subscription.

I sent out a reader survey, and I soon saw that what I thought would be fun and enticing for my readers (shirts, stickers, and worksheets) wasn’t what they actually wanted (Q&A calls, promotion opportunities).

The lesson here? Give the people what they want. If you don't know what that is, ask.

Not everything has to be a revenue stream.

Something that dawned on me, as I started to create bonuses for paid members, was that this could become a lot of work. That's doubly true when you're like me, and you want everything you make to be The Best Thing They’ve Ever Seen.

As I thought about that fact, I had to ask myself: do I actually WANT to take on that work? Do I have the capacity for it?

It would essentially be turning the newsletter into a second business, and y'all? That is not in the cards for me right now. It would be a one-way ticket to burnout.

When you want to live a fuller life, you need to mindfully choose what you take on. That includes accepting that not everything you do should be a source of revenue.

Capitalism wants us to monetize and suck the joy out of everything. Saying, "hey, this doesn’t have to be about money," is a small-but-potent act of rebellion we can practice every day.

Let the thing be what it is.

So, yeah, paid memberships are still open, but I'm not going to be pushing them hard. It’s not the right season of life for me to do so.

Instead, you'll hear about the rad things my business can help you out with, because while capitalism sucks, we still have to survive within it, at least for now.

I'm not ruling out the possibility of the anticapitalist membership of my dreams, though. It’ll just be a better one next time. 😉