List Building and List De-Building

Have you spent a lot of time and money on list building? Maybe you built an irresistible squeeze page or paid for someone else to do it. Then, you probably went around placing ads wherever you could or paid for some. Maybe you paid for co-registration. And you probably wrote some great autoresponder messages and gave away a bunch of free stuff. You’ve done things to the best of your ability, and all of a sudden… you’re seeing people unsubscribe like mad. Rather than list building, you’re seeing list deconstruction.

Does it depress you?

Probably.

But here’s the thing… you shouldn’t even be getting those messages. They are depressing! So, turn the option of getting a notice every time someone subscribes from your list off. Just turn it off! Then, you won’t know when someone does unsubscribe and you won’t have to worry about it. The last thing you want to see in your mailbox are unsubscribe notices.

Don’t take those personally, if you do insist on getting the messages. It could have nothing to do with you, personally, or your message. People often get the idea that their mailboxes are too full of stuff they signed up for over several months, and will just opt-out. Or, they’ll decide that what you’re teaching is too easy or too hard. No big deal! Replace the one or two members you lose today with three or four tomorrow.

List building is a process, and with processes you have expansion and contraction. Your list is made up of people, and it should be people who are interested in what you have to tell them. If they aren’t in tune with your message, should they really be on your list? No. It’s better to allow people to come and go as they please and not worry too much about it.

Yet, smart businesspeople are stats checkers. Numbers just don’t lie. You do need to check on the rate of your unsubscribes, and you can do this through any good autoresponder service. If you find a message that seems to be the sticking point, the point where people unsubscribe, then, you have to do some detective work and some testing.

If after a few months, you see that it’s message 4 that is letting people go, take a strong look at message 4 and figure out what the problem might be. It’s either the headline, the message, or the offer.

So, you’ll need to do some testing. Edit your message, change your headline, or come up with a better offer or a better way to present the offer. But do each of these things independently. Don’t just throw message 4 away and start all over. Otherwise, you’ll never know what the problem was and you won’t have learned a valuable piece of information that you can use in future list building efforts.

Remember that when you’re list building you’ll always have people that unsubscribe. It’s natural. But don’t take these personally and let it depress you. Approach the issue like a businessperson. Decide why people are unsubscribing and find a solution. Your list is your most valuable asset. Spend whatever time and energy it takes to keep it running smoothly, and always be list building.

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Tagged as: autoresponders, co-registration, testing