Ever get those emails where, in the time since handing over your email, you’ve completely forgotten signing up?

Like meeting someone at a party where they know your name and while they seem familiar to you… all you’ve got is “oh, hiiii babe!” before asking your host to refresh you on who TF that was.

When you’ve let your list go dormant for a while (like me until last week, yea….hi) what is the best practice for getting it back running again?

Should you blaze in with strong conversion content like it never happened, or should you take a moment to reintroduce yourself to your subscribers and get started from a blank slate?

The copy convention often dictates to run back in, guns blazing, bull cape flapping in the breeze, and drop some strong material on your list like it never happened.

While the visual is compelling, it can remove some of the human element from the interaction. I get this sort of email often and always think jeeeez, at least buy me dinner first. This operates on the idea that you should use every interaction to nurture people down your sales funnel towards a sale.

What if instead, you showed up as a human (or as the real humans behind the brands face)?

If you lose people because they realize they didn’t miss you, this isn’t a sign your funnel isn’t rock-solid enough. It’s a sign that your content doesn’t do anything for the people who signed up. Ideally, readers should miss you when you’re gone. Or, at the very least, notice your absence.

When you provide value to readers everyday, this is very doable.

And if you’re new here, or forgot signing up when I came back to life last week… hi. I’m Alexa. I write about the creative process, shipping better work, copywriting (natch), and what I observe in the marketing & media world. I’m trying to get back into a daily-ish habit of shipping out thoughts on media culture every day to you. I know if I can string together 100 days or more of consistent writing, it will pay off in unimaginable ways. Join me if you please!