Does your autoresponder system tell you when someone leaves your list? Does it even let your subscribers give you a reason for unsubscribing?
I have mine set up to tell me whenever someone leaves one of my subscribers list along with their reason for leaving.
Having this notification is probably a bad thing because people join and leave my lists each and every day so you’re going to get quite a few emails. However… in these removal notices I do sometimes get messages like… “You are mailing to your list too often!”.
This got me thinking…
What’s more important, that they’re being given quality content or how often it’s sent to you?
This kind of comment dumbfounded me!
If it was me and someone was emailing me every day with something useful to my online business I would not unsubscribe just because they were emailing me every day! If I did this I would loose out …so why the heck should I unsubscribe? Makes sense right?
I then checked this out with a few of my online friends who also have subscriber lists and they said if a subscriber doesn’t buy anything from you it doesn’t matter if they leave for reasons like this. The whole purpose of any subscriber list for an online marketer is to make money, period. You want a subscriber list of buyers, not readers, not hangers on, you need buyers! So having this focus is important if you want to stay in business.
The point to consider is this…
You can’t please all of the people all of the time, only some of the people some of the time. If you’re doing the same as me and reading your unsubscribe comments …don’t pay any attention to them.
The worst case scenario is lets say you listen to those few people on your list who give you this kind of feedback. So you send fewer emails. 1 month goes by and then another and you’re emailing people less and less. The end result is a decrease in profits and even more unsubscribes from those people who wanted your regular content. And the value of your list you’ve spent so long building and cultivating a good relationship with shrinks.
The takeaway from this is… Email your list as often as you can get away with (you’ll know if it’s too much because your list will shrink quicker than it grows). Mix good content with the promotions of products you believe will help your subscribers. Don’t listen to people leaving your list!
P.S. If you’re looking for a “first class” autoresponder and list management system I highly recommend Aweber (it’s who I use). Go here for more details.
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I have been wrestling with this very question. I even addressed it in an email to my lists! Thanks for putting things in a different perspective. I was thinking the same way you were and this was VERY helpful!
John Zajaros