Why you don’t want a big list

I don't agree with the strategy of building a huge email list, throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall, and seeing what sticks.

I'd rather laser-focus on the right person and totally rock their world with an offer that speaks directly to their biggest pain point.

A big email list is yet another vanity metric (like social media followers or traffic). The only metric that matters is money in the bank.

If you "need" that kind of validation, just host a raffle and give away a prize. You'll end up with a huge list of people who don't care about anything but their entry into the raffle.

Now go try and market to this list. You'll end up in spam folders across the world so fast your entire domain will be blacklisted.

I have a better idea.

How about creating a small list of highly-motivated people who get you, vibe with you, and want to learn more from you.

These are the people you should focus on, your raving fans who will thank you for helping them, buy all of your products, and then recommend you to everyone they know.

How many tribe-members does it take to earn a six-figure income?

Here are a few scenarios that do the trick:

🔸   12 people per month join your $700 program ($100,800/yr)

🔸   21 people per month enroll in your $397 course ($100,044/yr)

🔸   86 people per month buy your $97 product ($100,104/yr)

🔸   278 people pay $30 / mo. for your membership program ($100,080/yr)

Here are some problems you might not have thought of that come with having a big list:

- Your email deliverability rates DROP if subscribers don't engage with your emails. I'll take an engaged small email list over a big list any day of the week!

- You're going to pay up the WAHOO in fees to your email marketing provider.

- The bigger your list, the more spam complaints you get. Get enough complaints and ALL your emails get sent to spam!

- Casting a wider net doesn't result in more sales, it will instead lead to low conversion rates. Your sales will only come from your biggest fans anyway, so the rest are pure bloat.

Here are some steps to take to get a smaller, more engaged list.

- Narrow down your list by making bold statements that speak to only one specific segment of your audience (your ideal reader).

Doing this will push people (who aren't your people) off your list (that's a good thing).

- Remove cold subscribers periodically. Check with your email marketing provider and find subscribers who don't ever open your emails.

Email providers like GMail use all sorts of data to determine where your emails belong (Inbox or Spam). It helps when they see a large percentage of people opening your emails.