Who merges all of their auto responder lists?

[sylviad]

Obviously, it's best to keep your list members on lists that are most relevant to what they signed up for in the first place. But I've noticed that some marketers who have my contact info have added me to other lists - usually referred to as the "General List".

My assumption is that they kept me on the original list, but copied me to an all-consuming list of every member they ever signed up. For the most part, the marketer is focusing on IM business topics in the general list, but some of the email is in an entirely unrelated niche.

Do you do this? Would you recommend it?

Just curious.

Thanks.

Sylvia

[Lisa Gergets]

I would absolutely not do this. And if I received mail from a list that was not one that I specifically signed up for, I'd cancel it immediately. I don't think that's ethical.

[mmurtha]

Sylvia,

I used to merge some of my lists depending on the market, but haven't in a very long time.

The reason behind that madness for me was to separate the different levels of participants and buyers, and then have one general list for the ones that don't buy as often but who I didn't want to simply weed out all together.

But like I said earlier, I don't compile my lists like that anymore so ...


Mary

[sylviad]

Here's the thing.

Everyone has interests beyond business. They have lives.

How about this.

You send an email to every list you own to let them know about a new unrelated list and inviting them to sign up to it. Would that be more palatable? Otherwise, you could miss making the most of current list members who would be interested in the other niche.

This would give them the option to say no, but still remain on the first list.

Sylvia

[Lisa Gergets]

Hmmm...maybe it just depends on your autoresponder. With Aweber, which is what I use, I have the option to include lists or not include them in an email blast. So if I have a relevant product or message that may be of interest to more than one list, I just add in the other lists before I send.

[sylviad]

Oh, that's a good idea. I use Get Response and I think I did see that option somewhere, if I'm not mistaken.

Thank you.

Sylvia

[MerlynSanchez]

I also use Aweber and do what Tinker does... send out relevant information to more than one list.

Merging lists is a bad idea unless you're already sending the same information to all your lists. Then it just makes sense.

[Frank Bruno]

No need to merge lists in Aweber because essentially you can do th same thing by choosing which lists you want to send to. All at one time, or seperate.

Frank Bruno

[Allen Graves]

So what's the difference between merging lists and sending a message out to multiple lists?

[Lisa Gergets]

Originally Posted by Allen Graves

So what's the difference between merging lists and sending a message out to multiple lists?

Because I'd never send every message out to every list. Sometimes one product would overlap different lists...and another product may or may not include those same lists.

So, by picking and choosing which lists you send a message to, you're not just sending out a blanket email which may have absolutely no relevance to some of the recipients.

[sylviad]

That is a good approach, but the more I think about it, it makes even more sense to do as I suggested... send everyone on all of my lists an invitation to sign up for a totally irrelevant product. If they don't sign up, they stay on the original list and get only what they requested in the first place.

On the other hand, if they DO sign up to the new list, you get the chance to weed through your list for people you've already signed up who might be interested in other offers.

If the invitation is worded well, it shouldn't tick people off to be offered an unrelated product. Of course, you wouldn't want to make a habit of it, but the occasional invitation should be ok.

Seems to me this was done by another marketer and at the time I thought it was a polite way of getting people to buy other products.

Sylvia

[JayXtreme]

Nope..

In fact,, I do the complete opposite.

We have a whole segmenting process we perform regularly on our lists. I have found that all the better e-mail results come from tightly managed, tightly grouped, lists of people who are all interested in the same stuff...

That's not to say it works for everyone, but it does for me... so I'm happy. And my un-sub rate tells me my subs are, too

Peace

Jay

[vicone]

I do this if there is a common element between the lists. For instance if I have promotions for fitness equipment, stretching exercises, fitness diets, etc, I would assume an overlap of interest and sign them all up at the outset to the same list.

There may be 3 different freebies involved but I simply give all new subscribers the three freebies so that they consider they are getting a bonus and not just the original one they signed up for.

I also have an exit popup on the three optin sites so that those who don't sign up initially are sent to a page which displays ebook covers for the 3 freebies. They can see that instead of the single download they are actually getting much more.

This strengthens the appeal and increases the optin rate.

A key advantage of having them on a single list is that it saves a lot of my time in writing and setting up email messages and sending out broadcasts. Basically it reduces my workload.

However, i regard this as suitable only for those subscribers who clearly have a lot in common and I plan ahead with this concept in mind so that I can target a particular group with a shared interest. Many of my websites are closely related. For instance, for a group of 10 websites I might have only 2 lists to maintain as the optins from each of the websites are added to one of those two lists.

If the lists are related but not close enough to be combined, at times I can still send the same broadcast to both lists. A weight loss list might have different requirements to a fitness list but there are products which appeal to both.

Ivan

[sylviad]

Good points, Ivan.

So far, it seems the preference is only send them info related to their original membership.

You make the point I was thinking... saving time lost by having so many different lists. I have so many now I don't even know what I've got.

Sylvia

[vicone]

Combining lists can also make it easier to do demographic marketing, if done with care. For instance college students are not only interested in educational grants, they could also be interested in improving social skills, fitness, and budget travel.

Having fewer lists can make a system more manageable.

The owners of FatLoss4Idiots report that their website is designed for a particular demographic and that their top affiliates practice demographic marketing.

Ivan