{"id":1653,"date":"2020-03-06T08:12:03","date_gmt":"2020-03-06T16:12:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/?p=1653"},"modified":"2020-03-06T08:58:51","modified_gmt":"2020-03-06T16:58:51","slug":"how-to-build-an-email-list-full-email-list-size-doesnt-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/how-to-build-an-email-list-full-email-list-size-doesnt-matter\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Build an Email List \u2014\u00a0Full Email List Size Doesn’t Matter"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

“How do you build an email list?”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a belief that\u2019s stuck around since the start of email marketing…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bigger your email list, the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, there’s a marketing influencer I know with a full email list of ~120,000 subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the old days, your full list size was<\/em> all that mattered. If you wanted to build a great email list, you’d just stockpile subscribers for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nowadays, your total email list DOESN’T matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I know because I’ve seen multiple brands with email lists in the 100,000 to 1,000,000+ range that have been around for 10+ years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And they all run into similar issues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, what matters MOST is the size of your ACTIVE email list.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Looking at large email lists, the data shows Google owns the inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From large lists I’ve seen, 70%+ of email subscribers have a Gmail or G Suite address.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And lots of subscribers using Google inboxes mean you play by Google’s rules.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last year, I was able to talk to one of the members of Google\u2019s Anti-Spam team. It was like talking to a celebrity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This small Anti-Spam team at Google are the gatekeepers to decide if your email gets delivered to the inbox… or if goes into spam. They hold an unbelievable amount of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I shared the lessons I learned from the Google employee in a workshop I\u2019ve done a few times (you can see the presentation here<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here’s the main takeaways…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"How
Lessons from the Gmail team member.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Every bullet point I listed comes down to one thing…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Make sure the people you\u2019re emailing still want to receive your emails.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you email your full email list, there are subscribers who mistakenly signed up. Or, got added to your list in a way they don\u2019t remember. Or, just lost interest in your content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s a clear, data-backed example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A couple months ago, a marketing influencer emailed his full list of 120,606 email subscribers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He broke down the email into two segments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • Subscribers who had joined the list, or opened an email, or clicked an email in the past 6 months.<\/li>
  • Subscribers who were inactive \u2014 aka they had not engaged at all in at least 6 months.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The 6-month active send had an open rate of 41%, a click rate of 3%, a bounce rate of 0.24%, and an unsubscribe rate of 0.38%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The inactive send had an open rate of 10%, a click rate of 0.29%, a bounce rate of 0.95%, and an unsubscribe rate of 0.13%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The click rate is what sticks out the most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The point of an email is for subscribers to take action, and the inactive subscribers didn\u2019t take any action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I\u2019ve seen this data repeated, too. Check out the screenshot below for a million-dollar ecommerce company I help with their email marketing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Notice the low open rate (and also notice how 70% of subscribers are Gmail).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \"A
    A low open rate for an inactive email send.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

    So how do you build an email list? Focus on your active<\/em> subscribers.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Email your subscribers who have opened, clicked, or joined in the past 3-6 months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Do re-engagement emails with your full list once every quarter \u2014 for a big sale or an amazing piece of content \u2014 to grab any loose subscribers who forgot about you, but don\u2019t obsess over emailing your full list size regularly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The data shows that your active subscribers are all who really matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    “How do you build an email list?” There\u2019s a belief that\u2019s stuck around since the start of email marketing… The bigger your email list, the better. For example, there’s a marketing influencer I know with a full email list of ~120,000 subscribers. In the old days, your full list size was all that mattered. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1653"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1660,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1653\/revisions\/1660"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dmkthinks.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}