How To Alienate Your List
Do you want to learn how to alienate your list so that you can take steps to avoid it? Seems like a reasonable question, no? But by not learning how to alienate the potential customers on your list is almost a guarantee that you will actually do just that. The following are steps that people often use that serve to quicken the unsubscribes.
- Bombard them with a bunch of promotions.
- Excessively talk about yourself
- Promote offers that have little or nothing to do with the theme of the list
- Sell the list for others to bombard it with offers
- Don't engage or interact with your list
Constantly Bombard Your List With Promotions
Hey, we all want to make coin in our business. It pays the bills and allows us to buy our spouses and kids some nice stuff. Even on occassion we can buy some toys they we like to play with. But think about a list that you subscribed that practiced this, i.e., every email you got leads to a sales page, etc. How quickly did you hit the unsubscribe from that list?
Excessively Talk About Yourself
I've got some bad news - NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOU! Okay, that's a bit harsh. A lot of people care about you. I do. But the reality of having an email list is that your list doesn't want to hear about how your kid made the soccer team and about how your Aunt Sally just won the lottery. Your list is full of subscribers that signed up because you promised them something that can enrich their lives in some way.
Promote Offers That Are Not Part of the Lists' Theme
If your list is about cooking, why the heck are you sending them offers for internet marketing? Sure, there can be instances when you can cross promote certain offers when it makes sense. But if you are do this in excess, then you are engaging in a bait-and-switch scheme. You got them to sign up to your list under false pretenses.
Sell Your List To Others Such That They Bombard It With Promotions
People like to cross promote with each others lists and it's a great way to get your subscribers to head for the exit of your list. It's a very tempting practice because it's nice to make some money by selling the names to others, but you could actually be risking legal action against you because in your privacy policy or terms of service you told the customer that you would not sell their names to others.
Don't Engage or Interact with the Members of Your List
If you don't nurture your list and engage with the people on it, they are going to forget completely about and the next time you send them an email, you're going to see a string of unsubscribes. On the other hand, if you are constantly keeping them intrigued by what you have to say or what you offer them, you are likely to keep them on your list for a long time.
It's All About Your Cost of Acquisition
In this highly competitive world in which we live in, obtaining customers is not easy, by any stretch of the imagination. And it costs us money and time to do. So having people on our lists that actually want to stay there is one of the biggest assets you can have for your business. Suppose it costs you $4 per customer to get them on your list (in the internet marketing world, it can be much higher than this). Now suppose your list is a revolving door of customers that subscribe and quickly unsubscribe. You'll need to have very high sales conversion rates with products that are greater than $4 in order to make any money. This may not sound like a lot but if your conversion rates aren't good, then that $4 spend is going to break the bank quickly.
But suppose you nurtured your list to the point where your retention rate is good. Then over time, when you actually do sell these people with the occasional offers, one customer can be worth hundreds (and even thousands of dollars). It's much less work to sell someone that you have already developed a trust with than it is to acquire new customers. Just don't overdo the selling.
Having a list is a smart idea. Alienating that list is not. Creating a wonderful relationship with your list is an even better way to go. If you learn about what steps alienate your list and you do the opposite, you'll be well on your way to keeping that list for a long time.
