How to keep your subscribers engaged by pruning your list
(This originally appeared in my newsletter. Sign up now to get content like this, for free, every Monday.)
Here's a line graph of the size of my newsletter subscriber list over time:
You've probably noticed the two drops, in August of last year and this year.
They're not small! My newsletter is only 300-odd people, so this is more than 10% a year, all dropping off in one day.
The good news is, this is not a mass unsubscribe in response to some extremely offensive newsletter.
(Although a smaller-scale version of that happened a few months ago, when I got a little too braggy.)
But these big drops are a deliberate move I make - and it's one you should make too, if you're in charge of a list of subscribers. Here's what's happening, and why:
The yearly cull
Once a year (around August), I pull a report from Mailchimp of people who are not that engaged. People who barely open newsletters, and clearly aren't that interested.
Then I send them an email asking if they still want to be subscribed. If they do, all they need to do is reply and let me know.
Surprise! Barely anyone replies to this email. I give them a week, then I unsubscribe them. And my list drops by 30-ish people, like clockwork, every August.
Quality over quantity
There's a marketing adage that goes like this: your campaign's success is 40% your offer, 40% your list and 20% your copy.
If you have a list of 1,000 people, but 800 of them could not care less about what you have to say, then you're going to have to have one hell of an offer combined with some of the best copywriting ever seen on this earth to get them over the line. And even then, you're still probably not going to be that successful.
It often makes sense to market to a smaller number of more engaged people.
That's what I'm trying to achieve with my list - quantity over quality. My list right now is 339 people, all of whom open and engage with my newsletters with some regularity. That's what I want. If someone doesn't get value from this newsletter, there's very little sense in having them on this list. I don't gain anything from their presence on the list, and they don't get anything other than a cluttered inbox with a newsletter they don't read.
But, it's still pretty painful to see 10% of your list evaporate overnight. I did have 360 people. I have 339 now. So hopefully I'm back where I started by the end of the year. We'll see.
Sam
PS: You can help me get my numbers back up - just forward this email to someone who you think might like it. Or send them a link to the subscribe page.
PPS: Home page review! $799! Book now! You know the drill.
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