Email List Reality

Question 2: Email List Reality

Your email list is the asset you've talked about most over the years and the one you've valued most — I want to get this one right. Where the list is today vs. 3–5 years ago — size, growth, platform(s), cadence, content you've been sending, and most importantly the percent genuinely engaged (opened anything in the last 90 days). What's working, what's not.

From your 2025 media kit and our public audit, a few things my agents pulled:

List-size numbers don't agree across your own materials

Media kit reads "35K+" on page 2 and "39K+ Dedicated Email Blast" on page 3. /advertise-here/ says "close to 50,000." The original March audit ask cited 250,000. What's the actual working list, and what explains the spread?

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The list-size numbers don't agree across your own materials. Your media kit reads "35K+ Email Subscribers" on page 2 and "Dedicated Email Blast 39K+" on page 3. Your /advertise-here/ page says "close to 50,000." The original ask for our March audit cited 250,000. What's the actual working list, and what explains the spread across your own documents?

11% open rate vs. 17–30% benchmarks

All-industries averages run ~25%, hobbies/sports/recreation lands 17–28%, post-Apple-MPP "real human" rates for media sit in 20–30%. Where's the gap come from — list hygiene, the three ESPs we detected (MailerLite, GetResponse, FluentCRM), audience-fit, send cadence?

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The 11% open rate published in your media kit is below current benchmarks — all-industries averages are running about 25% [HubSpot], the hobbies/sports/recreation niche lands in 17–28% [AWeber], and post-Apple-MPP-adjusted "real human" rates for media tend to sit in the 20–30% range [Frank Agency 2026]. Where's your gap come from — list hygiene, the multiple ESPs we detected (MailerLite, GetResponse, and FluentCRM integrations all live in your code per the March audit), audience-fit, send cadence, something else?

Homepage has no visible newsletter signup CTA

For the asset you value most, every visitor who lands and leaves without one is a missed subscriber. Always buried, or recent regression?

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The homepage has no visible newsletter signup CTA. For the asset you value most, every visitor who lands and leaves without one is a missed subscriber. Has it always been buried, or is this a recent regression?

2025 media kit still on /advertise-here/

Has 2026 been on the list and deprioritized, or is the 2025 kit still your active sales material?

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The 2025 media kit on /advertise-here/ — has 2026 been on the list and getting deprioritized, or is the 2025 kit still your active sales material?
And the gut-check

When you look at what your email list does vs. what your social channels do, are those the same people or different people? Loyalty on email isn't translating to attention on social at the level your brand should be producing — I want to hear your read on why before I form one.

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