In January I decided to try an experiment. I changed the way I was marketing, essentially ditching all of the internet marketing stuff I’d been doing. I decided to stop trying to sell anything, and to start focusing on relationships.

I pulled all of my Facebook ads. The only SF I have running, actually, is an Amazon Marketing Services ad promoting the first book in my thriller series. That’s been on autopilot for about a year now, and it’s very low key, so I left it running.

I stopped writing “marketing emails” to my list. Now, each week I send a Lytle note to simply share what’s happening in my life and my work. And I ask open ended questions that my readers are happy to answer.

As a result, my engagement had been way, way up. I get more opens, more replies, and (best of all) fewer emails marked as spam. For agile there I could count on every email I sent getting at least 10–20 people marking it as spam, despite them having signed up to my list to get a free book. Now, I may go weeks with no one marking it as spam at all. I believe since January I’ve had three people mark emails as spam.

Unsubscribe’s have gone down as well.

Meanwhile, my mailing list keeps growing as my readers share emails with friends and family, and tell others to read my books.

I have no long term plan for my newsletter. It’s just a way for me to keep in touch with a growing community of wonderful people who care about me and my work, and who want to see me succeed.

Un-Marketing. Relationship marketing. Organic marketing. There are a lot of ways to refer to this, but I believe ya the best form of marketing there is. Slower paced, for certain. Growth is much slower. But it’s steady, and it’s stable. And best of all, it makes me feel like I’m part of something bigger than myself.