Bigger is always better unless it isn’t. Bigger can cost more with less returns and it can depreciate your rankings.
When it comes to your email list, Twitter, Facebook or any social media following, bigger may not be in your favour. If a subscriber won’t engage with the you or your company, they are telling you that they are
Consider a real-live example. If you were invited to put on a talk to an audience that just shifted in their seats, chatted amongst themselves, or got up and did their own thing – would you be satisfied that they were happy with your talk?
Likely not.
The same can be said about your email list. If they aren’t engaged with what you are delivering then there are a few issues to consider at including:
1. Perhaps you are delivering the wrong message
2. The person who is on your list doesn’t care what you say because they habitually just sign up for everything in their path on a daily basis.
3. Your subscribers might care more if you were a little more entertaining.
Entertainment is Today’s Information
We are now fully immersed in the “Entertainment Age”. Just a few short years ago the “information” market was the ticket to traffic. Today, if you aren’t able to hold someone’s attention for at least 5 minutes then turning them into a customer is going to be difficult.
A prime example is the current political goings on in the USA. This just shows how entertainment is in higher demand than information. Love or Hate The Donald – he’s the entertainer, he’s got the attention of EVERYONE! Both sides of the Party fence is giving an intensive scrutiny to his talks.
People who loathe the thought of him at the head of the Party (not to mention the possibility of President) give him lots of press. It might be negative talk but he’s still in the foreground.
People who support him are vocal and rise loudly to his defence.
The simple moral of this story is if you want to shine above the rest – be entertaining! Even people who don’t like what you have to say will at least be responsive.
UPDATE: Proof to point… He won!
What Being Entertaining Means for a List
Having an email list is MORE than just having a cash register on hand. It also allows you to increase your rankings in the SE’s by sending traffic to your blog or to any of your other of your digital properties.
If people are opening your emails you are less likely to have emails bounce. This helps to raise your senders score that in turn makes it less likely that your email will go to the JUNK pile.
To get people to click on your link, regardless of the purpose of that link, you first need them to open your email. If people know they will be entertained they will open. They might even comment on a blog post or two. Be controversial and you can get a heated debate going. Be contrary and no one will come and play.
Of course not everyone is as entertaining as The Donald or the Kardashians – if you can’t be entertaining, then you need to at least be interesting, helpful, and on-point in your topics.
Delivering the Right Message
Segregating your lists to specific micro niches of interest will help to make sure you stay on a topic of interest to your subscriber.
If you have a list of people who have signed up for a general “Build Your Business by Blogging” book then you can niche your subscribers into their current areas of interest.
For example there are 12 general steps to successful small business blogging. You can send an email to your general list about Best Blogging Platforms for Local Business. The people who open that are expressing their interest. Those folks would be more interested in more information on that topic. This can be further broken into “…for Scrapbooking business” or “…for Home Based Business”. From there you can localize it like “…for Small Businesses in Seattle”
Sending your list an email series about paid traffic when they aren’t ready for that and still on the first few steps of building their online business will result in unopened emails and possibly unsubscribers because they feel overwhelmed with irrelevant information.
List Spammers be Gone
Every day people will sign up for your free thingie and may or may not open the emails that follow. Some people never even download what you send.
It is true that some people can be on a list for a very long time before they buy anything from you but they still have a value. If they open and click they are good to keep. If they never open then I dump them. As a subscriber it is their job to engage with the people or business they have subscribed to. If they don’t then just assume that they are either freebie hoarders, or there is an issue with the entertainment or message.
Either way, an unresponsive subscriber adds NO VALUE to your bottom line!
If you have done what you can to fix your email open rate and they still don’t respond then – delete them!
It costs money to have a list of deadbeats. Money that would be better spent building your list with relevant, interested, and supportive subscribers.
