“A small list that wants exactly what you’re offering is better than a bigger list that isn’t committed.”

~ Ramsay Leimenstoll

Quality Lists Come In All Shapes and Sizes

Last week two of my clients launched new programs, both programs were priced at just under $500, both are well known authorities in their fields, and both were using JV partners in addition to their existing lists to help them reach a wider audience.

The patterns that started to emerge about list criteria were extremely instructive and I had some interesting discussions with some of the JV partners about their list-building techniques which provided important insights about what to do and what to avoid.

One thing was very clear: the size of the list is not the most important criterion when choosing a JV or affiliate partner (or assessing your own list, for that matter)… instead, you need to pay attention to the quality and responsiveness of the list.

How Big Should My List Be? Smaller CAN be Better!

I reached out to one of the biggest list-owners in this exercise because I was interested to know how he had built his mega-list. He has around 300,000 people on his list, and yet others with fewer than 1000 people on their lists outperformed him. After I had talked to him, I reached out to several other people who had large lists and low response rates.

Here’s what I learned:

• Size of list is not the most important criteria when it comes to sales;
• Buying lists rarely works out well – if you are going to purchase a list, use a reputable list-broker;
• Regular list-cleaning is an important task if you want to improve delivery;
• Most email delivery problems stem from the sender, rather than the mail delivery service which means that excessive spam reports are probably your own fault;
• Lists which are focused on a particular topic or personality tend to have the greatest engagement.

One of the people I spoke to was selling the product to two separate lists. It’s no surprise that the list which focused on this particular area of business was far more responsive to the offer than his more general list was, the interesting thing was the degree to which they purchased the upsell. He made more money mailing the 150 people on his segmented list than he did on his primary list of over 100,000 people – because close to 100% of the engaged segment purchased all the upsells and premiums.

How to Build a Hyper-Reponsive List

Personally, I don’t recommend buying lists although there are one or two list brokers in the US I would trust. In Australia, I’ve never seen a mailing or email list broker who delivered close to break-even results. Most of the time, it’s money flushed down the drain.

So, what can you do instead?

Organic list growth doesn’t have to be deathly slow if you take a strategic approach, identify your ideal client, and offer them the information and/or opportunities they desire. The primary advantage with organic growth is that if you make your offer interesting enough, you will only attract people with whom you want to work. Once you have your organic attraction sorted, you can shift to paid advertising to accelerate the process, OR…

You can invert the process and use paid advertising to work out what offers are most desirable and which ones attract the best prospects.

Whichever approach you use, it’s important to start with a clear view of who you want to work with, so that you can:

• Design the perfect lead magnet to attract their attention;
• Avoid the distraction of unqualified prospects;
• Create offers that are perfectly suited to your audience;
• Build deeper relationships with people on your list and turn them into clients.

The real advantage of following this strategy is that you can fill your list with ideal buyers. AND… Once you work out what your ideal buyers are attracted to, you’ll be amazed at how many you find, and how much more enjoyable every aspect of your business becomes.

List Metrics that Matter

Email open rates and even clicks are deceptive metrics, social media likes, shares, and even comments are even less indicative of real interest and engagement because there are many reasons for these behaviours that have nothing to do with their intention to buy from you.

The key metric that indicates whether or not you have attracted the attention of someone qualified is their willingness to buy something. This is why so many people make low-budget entry offers with near-instant delivery: people are more engaged when they have made an investment (however small) and once they consume your product, they will have a good idea whether they resonate with your philosophy and presentation style.

In this context, list size can be more of a ‘vanity metric’ than a reflection of engagement and income. When people tell me about their list size, the question I always ask is: What is the average $$ value of each person on your list?

Training Your List Members

You may not be able to see how many people are opening your emails these days with any certainty because various devices and email clients allow people to ‘read’ their emails without ‘opening’ them, but you can train your list members to diligently keep up with your emails by including special offers and opportunities. If you view these emails as client filtering resources, you can also ensure that when they ask to work with you or respond to your offers, people on your list already have a good understanding of how you operate and the standards and behaviours you do or don’t tolerate.

Short promotions, firm expiry dates, and engaging stories are useful tools to maximise engagement, which means that:

• Your email deliverability rate goes up;
• Your sales goes up;
• The quality of your clients goes up;

All of which are extremely important, especially if you are in a service business where the quality of your clients is directly tied to your personal enjoyment as well as their success.