Tips to Keep Your List Responsive and Money Pouring In - Please Share Yours

by l1one
20 replies
Here are a few tips I have picked up over the years. I don’t see a lot of gurus or WSO creators talking about these but I think they are important and have really helped me. I hope they are helpful to others.


1. MAIL YOUR LIST DAILY - I know this seems obvious but I see experienced marketers making this mistake as well. Some people are scared to mail their list thinking they are going to get reported for spam. Or some people take unsubscribes personally. That's all nonsense because even on the best lists people unsubscribe and report for spam for many different reasons. It is just part of the business!

Your list opted in because they want to hear from you. You will also solidify your brand if you mail daily. They will not forget who you are which will keep your spam rates VERY LOW. Hell, if it's great content you are producing mail them multiple times a day! Your list will thank you as well as your bank account.


2. REMOVE NON OPENERS – Remove all non openers if they have not opened an email in at least 1 month. Some people wait up to 6 months but I usually only wait about a month.

There are a couple reasons you want to do this. The first is that email services use non openers as a trigger from spam. So if you are sending a high number of non openers repeatedly you have a higher probability of not landing in the inbox. Another reason is that it helps hold down your Autoresponder costs.


3. REMOVE SPAM TRAPS, COMPLAINERS and RBL LISTED Email Addresses – This is a bit of a controversial subject but it is known that email companies use these as a measure of spam. Send to too many times to these email addresses and your emails will have a higher probability of landing in the spam box.

So how do you do this? Well I personally use a list hygiene company called Towerdata.com. I do notice immediate improvements in open rates after a good cleaning from them. I typically do it every 3 months or so.


4. DO NOT USE EXCLAMATION POINTS IN SUBJECT LINES – I was told this by a consultant who used to work for Microsoft and was in charge of building spam algo’s for Hotmail. In fact this was one of his top rules to stay out of spam box.


5. REFRESH YOUR LIST DAILY– Again this is obvious. But so many are not engaged in active subscriber generation. Then they wonder why they fail. A growing list is a responsive list. The more people you have on your list, generally the more possibilities you have for sales.


These rules have helped me keep my list responsive and kept the money coming in.

What are your tips?
#list #money #pouring #responsive #share #tips
  • Profile picture of the author Steve B
    Tips to Keep Your List Responsive and Money Pouring In - Please Share Yours


    - Don't abuse your list with too many emails or emails that are not relevant

    - Laser target your marketing so that everyone on your list wants to hear from you because you know what they want

    - Remember the golden rule - treat your subscribers as you would want to be treated

    - Be customer centric in your business - treat your list as though it's you most valuable business asset - it is

    - Get personal whenever you can - treat your subscribers like they were more than just a name on a sheet of paper

    Nice thread,

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author ncloud
    Nice tips. How do you tell if an email address is RBL listed or a spam trap? Or do you just let Towerdata.com figure that out?

    I've heard Frank Kern talk about having more than one list. Honestly I don't fully understand it all, it's a bit over my head. I think he creates a separate list for his campaigns where he sales his product for a limited time. So he gets the people on his main list to signup for the "webinars" or whatever, and that puts them on that list also which is a temporary list, but it supposedly keeps the list responsive. Email opens rates increase right after people sign up and apparently sales do too.
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    • Profile picture of the author l1one
      Originally Posted by ncloud View Post

      Nice tips. How do you tell if an email address is RBL listed or a spam trap? Or do you just let Towerdata.com figure that out?

      I've heard Frank Kern talk about having more than one list. Honestly I don't fully understand it all, it's a bit over my head. I think he creates a separate list for his campaigns where he sales his product for a limited time. So he gets the people on his main list to signup for the "webinars" or whatever, and that puts them on that list also which is a temporary list, but it supposedly keeps the list responsive. Email opens rates increase right after people sign up and apparently sales do too.
      I just let Towerdata do it. I think the way it works is that they are integrated via API with a bunch of Real-Time Blackhole (RBL) lists. The biggest one being Spamhaus. One the emails come back from Tower you just stick them into your suppression list.
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  • Profile picture of the author RealCasher
    Mailing the list daily is a big NO.

    It will increase unsubscribers and decrease open rate, that's for sure.
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    • Profile picture of the author l1one
      Originally Posted by RealCasher View Post

      Mailing the list daily is a big NO.

      It will increase unsubscribers and decrease open rate, that's for sure.
      Notice in the title of the thread I said "and Money Pouring In"

      Having a higher open rate doesn't necessarily make you money. What makes you money is having more eyeballs taking action on your emails.

      TRY THIS EXPERIMENT: Mail 3 times a week and total the unique clicks you get for those 3 email.

      Then mail everyday for a week and add up the number of unique clicks you get for those 7 days.

      All things being equal I guarantee you the daily for the week will be higher in unique clicks.

      Those additional clicks are OPPORTUNITY.

      With regard to unsubscribes, as long as your getting more new subscribers then unsubscribers then it really doesn't matter.

      Moreover, my unsubscribe rate as a percentage of my list is lower then others that I know who mail only a couple times a week.
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    • Profile picture of the author TakenAction
      Originally Posted by RealCasher View Post

      Mailing the list daily is a big NO.

      It will increase unsubscribers and decrease open rate, that's for sure.
      Don't be ignorant. Having people unsubscribe is a good thing, keep your ideal subscribers and weed out the rest. And yeah open rates decreasing doesn't always mean less money...
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      • Profile picture of the author l1one
        Originally Posted by TakenAction View Post

        Don't be ignorant. Having people unsubscribe is a good thing, keep your ideal subscribers and weed out the rest. And yeah open rates decreasing doesn't always mean less money...
        BINGO! You hit the nail on the head buddy!

        Intuitively, I can understand how this doesn't make much sense especially to noobs. But the reality is if your turning out great emails people want to hear from you.

        To give you a little bit of a story. I had some autoresponder issues a little while back and it prevented me from sending emails to my list for about 10 days.

        About 2 days past and suddenly I got a TSUNAMI of emails asking where I have been. Is something wrong? Why haven't you emailed me? I miss getting my daily emails from you, they put a smile on my face. And on and on...

        That's when it really solidified with me that people were enjoying getting daily emails from me. Not only were the products I was offering helpful but some of the stories and inspiration I was giving were deeply important.

        The bottom line is people are missing out on a lot by not mailing daily...
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  • Profile picture of the author Lightlysalted
    Not sure if I agree with mailing your list daily, I think that tends to annoy people, I know it does me. However I do agree with your general point that you need to stay engaged with your audience. I think twice a week is more than enough to maintain your engagement and brand presence.
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  • Profile picture of the author Megan Cooper
    To keep a list responsive, I also agree NOT to email daily but several times a week. Also, don't ALWAYS be selling. If every email is about a new product promotion, I unsubscribe. Also provide some helpful tips related to your niche and ask/answer questions to keep your readers engaged and looking forward to more emails from you.
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  • Profile picture of the author jfalxr
    I try to keep my list responsive by testing. Sometimes even when you provide some related offers and topics, your subscribers will reacts differently.

    Take notes what offers and topics gave bad open rates and clicks so you'll know what you should avoid to send to your lists
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  • Profile picture of the author mark healy
    To keep your list responsive I like to do storytelling and surveys.


    However the most important thing is it needs to be a 2 way process, not 1 way. So get your subscribers involved in everything you do from latest product launches, blog comments and engage as much as you can.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rory Singh
    You can mail your list every day if you wish. If you are sending them info about stuff that can help them everyday, then most people would appreciate it and wouldn't mind getting an email daily.

    I don't know about removing those who don't open emails. Most of the people who don't open your emails have probably given you an email address that they aren't monitoring.

    But there are a few people who just don't open your emails because they have opted into too many lists already.

    But you can catch them on an off day when they actually read your email and click through to buy what ever you are selling.

    I had a guy on my list that wasn't opening emails for about 6 months then one day he finally read one of my emails then bought.

    So if you have a list of thousands of subscribers, sure you can afford to remove the unresponsive ones. But if you don't have that many subscribers, you may not want to start removing people because you never really know.

    In the end you can't please everyone. You should be giving people what they asked for via emails and offering them back end value.

    But people are people and many will unsubscribe regardless what you do. The key is not to get 'attached' to a lead.

    Most people will not buy from you no matter who you are or what you have to sell.

    But you have got to keep giving value those who like your style, end up knowing you and eventually start trusting you will start buying (when they are ready).
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  • Profile picture of the author heavysm
    Originally Posted by l1one View Post

    1. MAIL YOUR LIST DAILY - I know this seems obvious but I see experienced marketers making this mistake as well. Some people are scared to mail their list thinking they are going to get reported for spam. Or some people take unsubscribes personally. That's all nonsense because even on the best lists people unsubscribe and report for spam for many different reasons. It is just part of the business!

    Your list opted in because they want to hear from you. You will also solidify your brand if you mail daily. They will not forget who you are which will keep your spam rates VERY LOW. Hell, if it's great content you are producing mail them multiple times a day! Your list will thank you as well as your bank account.
    This is market/niche specific. Some markets will react far differently to being mailed everyday, and even email marketing specialists (for example Ben Settle and Perry Marshal) have varying views on frequency of mailings. Ben believes in daily mailings whereas Perry teaches spaced out sequences. Both work, but both are in different markets.

    The sweet spot for me has been to mail every other day. I give my list stuff to think about and work on, so that extra day gives them ample times to get things finished.

    Perfect example of something that should be tested out depending on the market and expectations of the subscribers in question.
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  • Profile picture of the author salegurus
    I don't get what the benefit is behind emailing people daily, I would just get peed off. Guess I'll join your list to find out...
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    • Profile picture of the author TakenAction
      Originally Posted by salegurus View Post

      I don't get what the benefit is behind emailing people daily, I would just get peed off. Guess I'll join your list to find out...
      You can't put your personal feelings and belief into things and think, "oh well, I hate getting emails everyday so everyone else must hate it to..."

      The cop out answer is to test and find out if it works for your list and I have tested it and I get more loyal subscribers by emailing everyday.

      Also, side note.

      I hate being taken to up-sell and OTO pages when I purchase something but it's a damn good thing I tested it with my list (even though my personal feelings are against it) because now I have literally x4 my income from a strong back-end.
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      • Profile picture of the author l1one
        Originally Posted by TakenAction View Post

        You can't put your personal feelings and belief into things and think, "oh well, I hate getting emails everyday so everyone else must hate it to..."

        The cop out answer is to test and find out if it works for your list and I have tested it and I get more loyal subscribers by emailing everyday.

        Also, side note.

        I hate being taken to up-sell and OTO pages when I purchase something but it's a damn good thing I tested it with my list (even though my personal feelings are against it) because now I have literally x4 my income from a strong back-end.
        Huge noob mistake to come in with negative predisposed feelings.

        Like you I have tested it and my loyal followers all tell me they want daily content. Money has also proven this.

        I used to not like coming into funnels with OTO's either. But the deeper I became into IM the more interested I became in how the top funnels were created. So I don't mind them now as look at them more as a science project.
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  • Profile picture of the author copywriterco
    Originally Posted by l1one View Post

    Here are a few tips I have picked up over the years. I don't see a lot of gurus or WSO creators talking about these but I think they are important and have really helped me. I hope they are helpful to others.


    1. MAIL YOUR LIST DAILY - I know this seems obvious but I see experienced marketers making this mistake as well. Some people are scared to mail their list thinking they are going to get reported for spam. Or some people take unsubscribes personally. That's all nonsense because even on the best lists people unsubscribe and report for spam for many different reasons. It is just part of the business!

    Your list opted in because they want to hear from you. You will also solidify your brand if you mail daily. They will not forget who you are which will keep your spam rates VERY LOW. Hell, if it's great content you are producing mail them multiple times a day! Your list will thank you as well as your bank account.


    2. REMOVE NON OPENERS - Remove all non openers if they have not opened an email in at least 1 month. Some people wait up to 6 months but I usually only wait about a month.

    There are a couple reasons you want to do this. The first is that email services use non openers as a trigger from spam. So if you are sending a high number of non openers repeatedly you have a higher probability of not landing in the inbox. Another reason is that it helps hold down your Autoresponder costs.


    3. REMOVE SPAM TRAPS, COMPLAINERS and RBL LISTED Email Addresses - This is a bit of a controversial subject but it is known that email companies use these as a measure of spam. Send to too many times to these email addresses and your emails will have a higher probability of landing in the spam box.

    So how do you do this? Well I personally use a list hygiene company called Towerdata.com. I do notice immediate improvements in open rates after a good cleaning from them. I typically do it every 3 months or so.


    4. DO NOT USE EXCLAMATION POINTS IN SUBJECT LINES - I was told this by a consultant who used to work for Microsoft and was in charge of building spam algo's for Hotmail. In fact this was one of his top rules to stay out of spam box.


    5. REFRESH YOUR LIST DAILY- Again this is obvious. But so many are not engaged in active subscriber generation. Then they wonder why they fail. A growing list is a responsive list. The more people you have on your list, generally the more possibilities you have for sales.


    These rules have helped me keep my list responsive and kept the money coming in.

    What are your tips?
    What can I say? You already summed it all up - nice! Thanks for those tips, will definitely keep in mind!
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  • 2. I wouldn't immediately remove non-openers,

    I put them in what I call a ''Re-Engagement Sequence'' first, to win them back...

    (A 5-7 part auto responder, with subject lines like..)

    ''We miss you''
    ''Come back - Free Stuff''
    ''You risk losing out on the latest IM secrets''

    Etc, to win back the un-engaged clients
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    • Profile picture of the author l1one
      Originally Posted by selfdisciplineacademy View Post

      2. I wouldn't immediately remove non-openers,

      I put them in what I call a ''Re-Engagement Sequence'' first, to win them back...

      (A 5-7 part auto responder, with subject lines like..)

      ''We miss you''
      ''Come back - Free Stuff''
      ''You risk losing out on the latest IM secrets''

      Etc, to win back the un-engaged clients
      I have done that. But in general I just never found it to be worth my time. I rather have fresh eyeballs.
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  • Profile picture of the author dhimankartikya
    The best way to turn any list into a responsive list is to remove everyone who's not responsive. One should frequently clear non-openers, and the remaining people will only constitute in building a responsive list.
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