Ask Jupiter No. 1 — 'Do I really need an email list?'

An introduction to the digital marketing advice newsletter for unhinged small business owners: Ask Jupiter. Plus, our first question 'Do I really need an email list?'

Hello gay* people in my phone**! 

*Not required but encouraged

**Or on the internet at large

Welcome to Ask Jupiter… your biweekly newsletter where I, your host KP, answer all of your burning digital marketing & small business questions with candor, humor, and ideally helpful advice with actionable steps.

Before we get started, or open this pit up if you, too, were at Warped Tour from 2006-2012, I want to set some intentions and make you a promise.

Intention No. 1 - Avoid the boring and mundane 

This newsletter is not going to be generic marketing advice you see regurgitated over and over on LinkedIn. My goal is to answer your questions genuinely with my professional opinion, no matter how random or specific it may be. If you want to know how to market job training to diversify the underwater welding industry, I will give you my thoughts.

(A quick aside — if the advice you seek is “Who should my specific target audience be?” or “What should my marketing plan for my business look like?” I might politely ask you to hire Jupiter Content Co. for a full strategy.) 

Intention No. 2 - I’m not going to tell you how to go viral

This is partially because going viral is so rarely the answer to any of your problems and also because the topic is so played out. If you are in the market for “growth hacks” or trending audios, hell even marketing news, there are several publications you can subscribe to. I encourage you to seek those out and return here when you want to get to the heart of the matter.

A Promise

My pledge to you is that I will remain honest and true. I am not going to bullshit you. 

If I do not know the answer to your question, I will try and direct you to a place that does. If I think your question is off base, I will let you know. If you have absolutely lost the plot, I might hold your hand while I say it (Pisces sun here 👋) and tell you, lovingly, to be so fucking forreal. 

For the love of god, I will not use ChatGPT to write these because that would defeat the whole purpose of this newsletter in the first place. 

On to our first letter…

To kick off an advice column, I have run into a chicken, egg situation. How does one start a column without someone specifically seeking advice from said column that doesn’t exist yet? 

As much as I could pester my small business friends and thriends (Hi, Thriends reading this! Love ya 💋), I thought I would take this to a meta place. No, not Meta. But meta as in self-referential. A letter from Jupiter to Jupiter. 

Dear Jupiter,

Do I really need an email list? Do I actually have something to say? 

I just launched my business earlier this year and have been putting off creating an email list for months. It felt easier to write my entire website, decide on branding, AND plan social content than it has to choose a freakin’ email platform and start my list.  

I feel a little lost and also scared to put out content that no one will read or even want to read. 

— Hemming and Hawing Marketer Addicted to Hemming and Hawing

Hi Hemming!

Wow! Same! It’s almost like you are me and I am you 😉

To answer your first question, yes, you do really need an email list. 

I know! I know! It’s intimidating to keep up with and scary to create but it’s a must-have for any small business.

Most of the time, when people ask me this question, they also add “But I am really successful on social media! Why do I need to do another thing?” and I have to very sweetly tell them that your audience on social media can disappear overnight. 

Remember a few months ago when Meta went down for a couple of hours? Or a few weeks ago when the US government decided to ban TikTok? That could happen at any time with any platform.

Not to get all doomsday on ya but your most successful social platform could go dark never to come back online. In one minute, your amazing and engaged followers turn to dust, never to be seen again. Is this unlikely? Yes. But still possible. 

What is more possible AND likely is losing access to your accounts. Whether it’s through censorship, a missing password, or a maniacal iPad baby stealing your phone for nefarious purposes, you CAN get locked out of your most fruitful account. Your followers won’t turn to dust but they will be out of reach unable to find you, which might be even more sad. 

So yes, you need an email list. Having a direct line to Your People is an extra layer of protection in case they unplug Big Social. 

Email marketing is also making a comeback (or honestly, never left tbh). Sending thoughtful, creative messages directly to your most engaged audience is literally the BEST way to market. 

If your newsletter is worthwhile, they might even give you their REAL email address and not the one they made in college for discounts. Not even their Meemaw has that email address! 

Onto your second question — Do you have something to say? 

As much as I want to be an annoying writing professor at this moment and say something like“I don’t know, do you?” I recognize that defeats the purpose of this whole shebang.

If you were steadfast and courageous enough to start your own business — to say “sure I could work as a corporate drone but instead I want to forge a path of my own” — you absolutely have something to say. If we were working together, I’d likely ask you…

• Why did you decide to start your own business in the first place? 

• What have you learned so far?

• How are you different from all the other schmucks doing what you do? 

• What makes you excited to fire up ye olde laptop in the morning?

• What do people always ask about when you tell them you work in the industry you do?

• Why do people hire you specifically?

The beauty of forging your own path (and your own world tbh) is that it's wholly unique to you! 

People, Your People specifically, care about your unique POV and want to hear more about it. 

Even if it’s just “Here is my favorite snack of the week and a project I am working on. I am now booking Q4!” You’d be surprised how many people will reply back “OMG! You’re into mini m&ms right now? Have you tried putting them in popcorn yet?” 

That, my sweet Hemming, is how the best working relationships are formed. 

💌,

KP @ Jupiter Content Co.

Okay phew! First letter done and dusted! Going to go stare at the sky and drink a Polar seltzer (get me the cran-lime flavor stat!). 

Wait! Don’t leave just yet. I need your help!  

Dear Reader,

What questions do you have about and related to digital marketing? Small business?

Examples of questions you can ask that I’d love to answer include (but are NOT limited to)

Do I actually need to post Reels? What if I don’t want to be a content creator?

Should I create a new account for my business or rebrand the one I have?

How can I tell if a business is actually queer-friendly?

What are your fave tools for getting shit done when you really don’t want to?

What does it mean to run a business during late stage capitalism?

Where did ya come from? Where did ya go? Where did ya come from Cotton-eyed Joe?

Shoot me an email at ask at jupitercontent dot co and I’ll answer your anon question for the world wide web. 

If you have made it this far, I adore you! Here is a sleepy Baci as a treat.

Photo of author’s dog, Baci, passed tf out like he just got home from a 12 hour shift at the steel mill (he doesn’t have a job)