You had a first email send. You wrote it, stared at the send button longer than you’d like to admit, and hit it anyway.
Maybe the subject line was rough, maybe the formatting was off. Maybe you sent it to twelve people and three of them were your family.
What was it? A welcome email? A product launch to a list of ten? A newsletter you’re now mildly embarrassed by?
Drop it below. Tell us what you sent, what happened, and what you’d do differently today.
The worse it was, the better the story.
I’m going to kick us off. The first email I sent was actually a “Going Out of Business” email 
. This was back in 2017 and I had decided I was going to close up shop on my photography business, so I wanted to let my clients know. I also wanted to assure those I hadn’t yet worked with that I would still honor all of my commitments.
I let everyone know I was going to close down and was running a “last hurrah” type of sale (I shot weddings, so the sale was for albums and prints). However, a couple months later I made the realization that I did still want to do photography and it wasn’t an all or nothing business. I could shoot what I want to shoot and I didn’t have to shoot everything. So, I pivoted and focused more on photography at anime/comic conventions and eventually I got back into weddings for some time.
Would I send it again? Honestly, no. If you’re just getting started with email marketing, a sad news email is probably not the best way to kick things off with your subscribers!
I did end up closing my photography business in 2024 officially but had I not sent that first email when I thought of closing, I probably wouldn’t have kept it going another seven years after that and met all the amazing clients I had!