👀 ICYMI: The State of Solopreneurship report tells you how solo operators are making money, what they’re selling, and what channels they’re betting on. Download it here --> ​​State_of_Solopreneurship_report_2026.pdf.

Hey Reader,

In the State of Solopreneurship report, most respondents indicated they have a seemingly low subscriber-to-customer ratio.

Some people seemed shocked by that. Similarly, many of my strategy session clients tell me they expect more sales from their list, so they’re looking for ways to increase conversions — is it better copy? Better emails? More/fewer emails?

Yes, all of the above can help. And I’m not here to tell you to accept low conversion rates and never change anything.

Quite the opposite. BUT it’s important to understand that most people on your email list will never buy.

Don’t delete non-buyers just yet. We’ll talk about them in a second, along with a few ways to increase conversion rates.

First, a quick message from our partner today, someone who offers a solution to increasing conversion rates by making sure you have the right-fit subscribers.

📣 Brought to you by 📣

​Podcast Guest Tours​

If podcast guesting is on your 2026 goals list, you’re not alone.

So many of you shared in the State of Solopreneurship report that you want to get in front of new audiences through podcast interviews, not endless content creation.

The good news? When you do it strategically, podcast guesting isn’t just visibility — it’s one of the fastest ways to build trust with new audiences and bring in your next wave of clients.

Which is exactly why I’ve teamed up with Natalie Koussa — a podcast guest strategist whose clients have been booked on top 1% shows and generated five-figure sales from a single interview — to bring you Profitable Podcast Guest.

It’s a free, 3-episode private podcast series that shows you how to:

• Book a Podcast Guest Tour (not just random interviews)
• Build trust quickly with new audiences
• Turn those conversations into clients

If you want to grow in 2026 without spending your life on social media, this is a great place to start.

P.S.: My favorite is episode 3 because it tells you how to turn podcast interviews into revenue. And I used to focus too much on being a good guest and nothing more.

​

​

​

Want your name up here? Reserve your slot!​
​

Do your emails feel like you’re screaming into the void? One of my clients called it

The “My list hates me” spiral

You know that moment when you open your email reports:

• 43% open rate
• A few replies
• 14 clicks on your offer
• Zero sales

…and your brain goes straight to:
“Cool cool cool, so I’ve built an expensive book club where no one ever buys anything.”

You’re not alone.

In the State of Solopreneurship 2026 report, the pattern is very clear:

• Most people in the cohort run newsletters.
• Lists are modest – a lot under 3,000 subscribers, plenty under 1,000.
• Opens sit in the 40–50% range for many.
• Only a thin slice of subscribers buy anything over a 12-month period.

And yet: these same people report decent revenue, run sold-out workshops, and booked services from email — the second-best revenue generator after LinkedIn.

​

So the problem isn’t “my audience is broken” or “email doesn’t work anymore.” The problem is expectations.

Let’s reframe what “an audience that buys” actually looks like for a solo.

So if your list looks like:

• 800 subscribers
• 45% open rate
• 3–8% of subscribers buying something across the year

…that’s not failure. That’s how email works.

The job of your newsletter is to:

• Keep people close
• Educate and de-risk the decision
• Stay top of mind
• Make sure that when the right offer shows up, they already trust you

Trying to turn every subscriber into a buyer on a 30-day timeline is a great way to burn out and decide you “suck at selling”.

So, should you delete non-buyers?

After all, why pay more for your ESP when most platforms like Kit (aff) charge depending on the number of subscribers on your list?

Please don’t do that, though.

I know this is anecdotal evidence but there are many people on my list who started buying from me after more than a year.

There are also people who have never bought anything from me BUT they are my biggest ambassadors. They talk about me in rooms that I’m not in, they recommend, refer, and more.

(Thank you! You know who you are!)

One of the hardest things in marketing is figuring out how close to buying someone is. Without a 1:1 conversation, it’s next to impossible.

Email marketing and newsletters excel at keeping you top of mind when people are ready to buy.

So don’t treat the people on your list like (credit card) numbers. Give them the time they need to become buyers or ambassadors.

The four groups of subscribers hiding inside your list

Your “audience” is not one blob of people with identical behavior.

Inside every list, you have:

1. The Lurkers: they open sometimes, almost never click, never reply. Some will never buy; some will suddenly wake up after 18 months and grab the thing that finally fits. Some Lurkers can become ambassadors so silently FW your emails, though.
2. The Learners: they read almost everything, save emails, take notes. They click on educational stuff, rarely on offers. They buy slowly and carefully, often starting with a workshop or lower-commitment thing. Personal example: someone recently told me they made $50K by implementing my newsletter on self-liquidating offers. They read it multiple times and then put it to work! I LOVE that!
3. The Buyers: they already have the problem and the budget. They click sales links, hit reply with questions, join waitlists, and move when the right offer crosses their screen. Sometimes, they show up on your list because they bought something off social media or another channel without ever reading your emails.
4. The Superfans: tiny percentage. They buy almost everything that makes sense for them. They refer you. They show up in your replies and DMs. They’re worth more than any “follower count”.

Most solos are secretly expecting everyone to behave like Buyer + Superfan. That’s a fantasy because the 1,000 true fans theory doesn’t hold up in this industry.

Your list is healthy when:

• The Learners stick around → your unsubscribe rate is an important metric.
• The Buyers recognize themselves in your offers → if an offer flops, you may have surprised your audience with something “out of character”.
• The Superfans don’t run out of relevant things to buy → if very few of your Superfans buy your latest offer, start conversations and find out why.

So, how do you get more people in your audience to buy?

First off,

Don’t forget to factor in list decay

All lists decay with time. People change jobs or industries, they get tired of your style, they outgrow you, they bounce, and so on.

I got a lot of pushback when I launched Audience Accelerator. Most people told me that you don’t need a huge list or a huge social media presence to run a lucrative business.

That’s all true. But:

• A large audience is always better than a small one (provided you don’t lose relevance with size).
• All audiences decay with time, so you constantly need to add new people. Your list may be stuck at say, 500 people, but that should include churn — some leave, new people show up.

If your email list is a revenue driver, you should always invest in growing it.

Run the boring math on your list

This won’t be fun, but it will be worth it. Look at these numbers:

• Current subscribers
• Average open rate
• Realistic conversion range (for solos in The State of Solopreneurship report, it’s low single digits per promotion or a few percent across the whole year)
• Price of the thing you want to sell more of

Then ask:

• If 3–5% of my list bought this over 12 months, what would revenue look like?
• If that revenue feels too small, do I have a conversion problem, a list size problem, or a pricing problem?

This stops the “nobody is buying” drama and shows you whether you need better offers, clearer emails, more of the right people, or a different business model.

Give each email a job

Instead of sending a long, meandering thought dump with six soft links, make sure all your emails are tied to your business goals.

Random acts of content are the #1 conversion killer. I know you’ve been told that you need to be consistent and show up every week/month in their inboxes.

But if you go through the trouble of writing a newsletter, make it count. I wrote about connecting every piece of content to business goals here.

Build explicit paths for each group

Back to the four groups inside your list. They have different behaviors and different priorities, so you should treat them differently.

I’m not saying write a different newsletter each week for each of them. But, especially during your promotional seasons, consider a more tailored approach:

• Lurkers → occasional re-engagement emails with low-commitment actions (e.g. hit reply, quick poll, free resource).
• Learners → content series that leads into a natural next step: workshop, audit, clinic, office hours.
• Buyers → clear launch cycles, direct invitations, “here’s how to work with me this quarter” emails.
• Superfans → early access, behind-the-scenes, private invitations. Treat them like partners, not ATMs.

If you plan these paths even loosely, your list stops feeling like “random humans in a spreadsheet” and starts behaving like a system.

I want to linger on superfans for a bit. You should know who they are by now, so if you’re launching something new and you think they’d be a good fit, reach out to them individually.

Nothing, absolutely nothing, beats a real, 1:1 conversation.

If you email/DM them individually, you can always tell them exactly why your new offer is right for them by piggybacking on your history together. And you can address objections in real time.

A canned email, even with light personalization, may be seen and forgotten. A real conversation is remembered and acted upon, partly because it happens so rarely.

Show offers more often than feels comfortable

The State of Solopreneurship cohort sells early and consistently: time-to-first-revenue from the list is often weeks to a few months, not “after I hit 5,000 subscribers”.

That doesn’t mean turning every email into an aggressive pitch.

It does mean:

• Mentioning your services regularly
• Linking to your offers inside educational content
• Running actual sales campaigns instead of hoping people will dig through your website on their own

​This previous SAF issue explains the psychology behind talking about your offers more frequently.

Want to make your email list more profitable?

80% of my clients say “I found you on social media but bought from you because of your emails”. So I built Inbox to Income to teach my audience how to do the same.

Inside this masterclass, you will find the system for both audience and revenue growth. Because no one wants their newsletter to be just an expensive hobby.

If you feel like your newsletter is growing too slowly or selling too little, take a page from Milos’s book, who watched it (at least) twice:

​
​

​Get instant access!​

​

If you leave with one insight from this essay, make it this one

Ask the important questions before you ditch your email subscribers:

• Do the right people even know what you sell?
• Does your newsletter have clear jobs across the month/quarter?
• Are you building for the buying slice, or trying to emotionally blackmail the lurkers?
  ​

That's it from me today! See you next week in your inbox. Here to make you think, Adriana ​

​

Share this essay

🔗https://www.adrianatica.com/why-so-few-people-buy-from-you-and-why-thats-normal-saf-157/​

Quick share links

​​​

​

​
​