I just unsubscribed people from my email list, about 40% of my list. Why would I do that? Have I lost my mind?
Well partly I want to avoid the spam vortex, but there are some other reasons too.
The thing about business and marketing is that you don’t need a lot of people, you don’t need a large audience, you need an engaged audience. This is true with social media and advertising and online groups, and it is particularly true with email marketing.
Firstly it is true with email marketing because you want to write to people who want to buy from you. You do not need to waste your time writing to people who signed up because you offered something for free, or because they were once your client five years ago but they are now using your competitor. You want people to receive your emails because they are interested in your services, they are your ideal customer, or they are business referrers might tell their friends or clients (who are your ideal customers) about you.
How do you escape the spam vortex?
Secondly spam filters are a vortex. If your emails hit spam filters then you get downgraded. If you get downgraded then you hit more spam filters. If you hit more spam filters, then … You get the idea. What you need is an engaged audience who opens your emails, then when a new person signs up to your mailing list they are more likely to actually see your email rather than have it go straight to spam.
Thirdly you need engaging content that people want to read, and if your list is too large then you won’t know who those people are. They could just be reading it looking for free advice, or because they like the graphics, or because they open all emails before deciding what to do but they aren’t actually reading it.
Are the people who are reading it the people who you want reading it? Yes you want people to open your emails to escape the spam vortex but don’t you also want them to spend money with you?
As tempting as it is to just look at the total numbers, the total subscribers, the total followers, you also need to think about the value of those numbers. You need to focus on the subscribers who are your ideal customer and anyone who doesn’t like you or your content is unlikely to be your ideal customer.
Have a look at the statistics in your mail program today and ask yourself, are those people who rarely open your emails really going to start opening them? Even if you up your game and start pumping out great content are they suddenly going to change or are the emails just going to keep going to spam because they are never opened. If they aren’t going to start opening your emails then why are they there? Shouldn’t you unsubscribe them?