Twice this week, I've had conversations with friends around email list anxiety. It happens–I've gone through it myself.
One friend has a large number of subscribers who've transitioned with her when her business changed. She's afraid to email this segment of her list as she sometimes receives pushback or criticism from this group in reply to a newsletter. They may or may not be her ideal customer. It stresses her out, so now she's stopped emailing that segment them all together. They are dead weight.
Another friend has collected a significant number of emails from events. She's add people to her email list, and only some people clicked the link to confirm their newsletter subscription. The rest are in this “confirmation pending” status. It's like email list limbo and terribly frustrating to her.
I also have been there.
For me, it's hard not to take it personally when someone unsubscribes from your list. You think to yourself: is my content crappy? Should I just give up? Is it me? Did I offend? Do I have B.O.?!?
ACKK! You could drive yourself batty with the chattering monkey-mind questions of enough and what if.
You can bounce back in stride.
First, realize your email list is an entity–like a plant. You've got to feed and care for it regularly with great content and attentiveness. There will be brown leaves that wither and die. It's okay. That means the healthy green leaves can thrive and grow bigger.
There will be fluctuation in your list. You've got to be aware if you change directions, your list isn't that responsive. You'll probably loose a few as your new direction is not the same where they want to go, and that's okay. Your list will start attracting new subscribers to your new vision–it just takes time.
Don't be afraid or upset when someone leaves–rejoice! You have cut off a dead leaf–someone that wasn't your ideal customer and probably wouldn't make a purchase from you. Now your list is that more honed and targeted.
Think of your email list as an exclusive or intimate group. It's VIP baby! Haters got to go.
Next, focus on serving those who are on your list. Engage them often–ask them what they need from you. It's a two-way conversation. This will help you customize content to your audience's needs. Ask via surveys, conversations, through social media. Not everyone will respond, but I bet those who have a problem in your expert area will.
List size is a major head trip. Please do not get caught up in how many people are on your email list.
Strive for quality over quantity.
It's the same with paying a fee to an unscrupulous company for 1000 Twitter followers or Facebook fans. Sure, you've got a great number–but it's not 1000 of your ideal client. Most of those are fake email addresses associated with those accounts and you run the risk of getting blacklisted by the social media service. Or worse–your Twitter/Facebook account becomes one of the addresses they use for other people's 1000 fans. Yuck.
So ultimately, who really cares about the number of email list subscribers?!? Are you sharing that number publicly? Probably not. It's under wraps, like your lingerie–nobody knows but you.
How to get around it? Go pro. That's right, pretend you've got the number that you want–whatever it is, and make your email newsletter the best it can be. Honestly, would you change anything if you had 15,000 subscribers as opposed to 15? If you would, change it now and go professional. Turn up the quality volume to 11 and make it the very best you can. As a wise sage once said, “You get as good as you give.” Give it better than anyone else.
Straight-edge Strategies for list building.
Let's take the high-road approach to list building. Here are a few tactics that are on the level:
- Make your email list opt-in box easy to find on your website–and put it on every page.
- Make your offer for something in exchange for their email address that's irresistible.
- Get involved with groups and forums of where your ideal client may hang out. Comment on posts. If you have some helpful information on how to solve their issue–post a link back to your website. Or help them live via chat. Make it conversational. Forums are great ways to see what people need or are struggling with for blog article topics.
- Share your posts on social media regularly, and track it through Bitly with photo/video.
- Mix up your format with different media–if you usually write, make a video, or an audio file, or an infographic. Get creative! You never know how people will find you. Part of my personal strategy is creating free how-to videos and posting them on YouTube. I get a lot of traffic that way as I try to direct them back to my website with more details on the subject.
- Got a friend who blogs? Why not do an article swap on your particular subject expertise? Guest blogging is a great way to lead people back to your site and get in front of a whole new audience. Contacting complete strangers can be daunting for guest blogging, so I suggest get a few under your belt with a fellow compadre to gain some confidence before branching out.
- Comment on the blog posts on other sites. Share any information that you might have on your site in the comment.
- Create a landing page that's just for your newsletter sign up, and list that link in your electronic signatures. Add a menu item on your website that says “FREE UPDATES” and link to that landing page.
- Add your newsletter signup to your Facebook business page.
- Join a blogging group that shares their posts and agrees to comment on member's posts. 😉
For my friends in the opening scenarios–I hope my first friend creates a special email, just to that segment–asking them if they want to stay on her list, and invite them nicely to unsubscribe if they don't want to be there. In the very least, she'll have honed her list to those who want to hear from here and won't be afraid to email these people.
My friend who's stuck in confirmation pending limbo–she has to play the waiting game. In 30 days, those confirmation pending email addresses will be purged from her system. She can sign them up fresh, and hopefully some will opt-in. Unfortunately with the CAN-SPAM act of 2003, you can't force people to be on your list–action is required on their part. However, I know that she offers an amazing service, and shares excellent content. By sharing some her great content on a platform like Pinterest, she'll start to gain more opt-ins.
I tell myself all the time, this path is a journey, not a race.
Enjoy the growth, and cultivate healthy relationships with your clients.
Be active, be visible, and be of service.
What's your email list anxiety? Share your story in the comments below.
