Lost in a sea of numbers
Instead of growing your email list, build a hyper-responsive, happy customer list.
Welcome to Connectable #007 🧑🤝🧑
I am so thrilled to have you here!
I want to help your business succeed. I want to inspire change. I want you to question your current processes and align yourself with the needs of your audience / community. I want you to attract the right people, solve the right problems and create superfans.
The medium? Email.
Call the shots
Last week I did some work for a client that I didn’t enjoy one bit. When a copywriter dropped out of a project they asked if I wanted to take on the work. I had some time and wanted to remain in their good books, so I said yes.
The task: write 3000 words on interactive video. 😴 😴
Sometimes I forget that I am in charge of my own business. I forget that I’m the one who calls the shots. I am so used to others making the decisions in my work spaces that it still often surprises me that I can choose what work to do.
I understand even freelancers sometimes have to do work they dislike and it won’t always be sunshine and rainbows, but this was something I could have easily said no to. So, from now on I am making a concision effort to make better decisions and seek out the work I enjoy doing: email marketing!
Lost in a sea of numbers
It’s a well-known fact that when things get bigger and bigger in number, they get harder and harder to manage. This is true for classrooms, music concerts, pandemic patients and, your email list.
It seems everyone around me at the moment is pushing for list growth.
“Triple your email list with this one secret”
“How I gained 1000 new email followers in one day”
Sure, big lists can be great for some people or businesses. They can broadcast important messages to a mass of people or share their new article to interested parties around the globe.
But here are my concerns with massive email lists:
How do you keep track of your community members in meaningful ways?
A bigger email list does not equal higher revenue
It’s the second one that I think a lot of businesses ignore.
The power lies in having a list a people who actually want to give you their money, not how many there are. Having 300 people on your list, 80% of who are superfans ready to give you their money for the value that you offer will bring in more revenue than having 30,000 people on your list, the majority of who don’t even open your email.
Chris Orzechowski teaches businesses to not build an ‘email list’ but a ‘customer list’.
“It's not the size of the list that matters. It's the quality.”
Try using this nifty little metric on your next email sequence:
- Earning per subscriber
(money you make from your list divided by no. of subscribers)
In this metric, list size does not matter.
When André Chaperon entered a competition with fellow marketers to promote an affiliate product, he went in with the smallest list out of all of them, a humble 1,391 list size. But want to take a guess who made the most money? You guessed it, André. His most important lesson to fellow marketers: targeting.
Stop selling to everyone.
(If you want to learn more about building a hyper-responsive email list, check out this value packed article from André)
SO, rather than prioritising list growth, prioritise list optimisation.
Put your efforts into understanding your audience, who they are, what they want and how you can best serve them. Connect with them, build relationships, earn their trust and strategise - so that when it comes to exchanging money, your list will convert.
Pro tip for serving your audience: add some questions in you first welcome email to segment your list. Even within one community, everyone is unique.
🌟 Takeaway: It's not the size of the list that matters. It's the quality.
Fancy digging deeper into building a ‘happy customer list’ - do check out Chris Orzechowski course.
Newsletter of the week 📖
Here’s a newsletter I would sign yourself up for right this very minute.
Personal Brand Brief - Joel Hansen
What d’you get?
- top tips, tools and trends to grow your personal brand
- in depth interviews with top founders, marketers and thought leaders
- templates for outreach, content and community to build a strong following
- a weekly newsletter thats’s 5 mins, zero fluff, hyper applicable and fun to read
Here are some of my favourites:
What You Miss By Not Asking for Feedback and How to Change That
How to Turn 1 Idea into 100 Pieces of Content: With Growth Expert Brittany Krystle
What 99% of People Don’t Know About Storytelling Momentum: Compound interest isn't just for finance...
Article of the Week 📜
The Community Discovery Framework
- Rosie Sherry
Key takeaways:
Before building a community, find out if the journey is worth starting
Follow these discovery steps:
Define your Community Compass — where is your community heading?
Align Community Activities (what we do and don’t do)
Discover your people (how will we define and refine your people?)
Map their activity (for the Explorers, Participants, Contributors and Builders.)
Explore conversations (learn and build trust)
Create value
Tweets(perations) 🐦
That’s all for this week, thanks so much for the support.
If you enjoyed this newsletter, please give it a like or share it with your friends/on Twitter. I’m still a newbie, so any help would be awesome! 💚
If you have any questions, want to say hi, or want to feature in my Q & As - my DMs are always open @LisanneNausner.
Have a fabulous week full of connection!
- Lisanne 🌻