“Why I Cut Thousands From My Email List Last Weekend” by Erica Duran

Posted on August 17, 2015 by Erica Duran, One of Thousands of Entrepreneurship Coaches on Noomii.

“The money is in the list.”

This is what is being told to new entrepreneurs (especially online ones) at every webinar and in every blog around the globe.

And, I agree the money is in the list, but not in the sheer numbers.

The money is in the relevancy of the list.

An overused example, but I’ll still mention it here because it is true… is the White Pages.

That is a big list, right?

But how relevant is it to your business?

Last weekend I took the time to tediously go through my email list.

This particular list had been growing for about four years now and really started to double regularly when I launched the podcast.

Good or bad, “Digital nomads” like myself, attach the health of their business (and even their self-worth) to the size of their list.

In the big picture, size matters when it comes to list building but only if it is relevant.

Only if the list is full of ideal clients for what you are offering right now.

Did your list come from a lead magnet or opt-in bribe that has anything to do with what products or services you are currently offering?

So, I would like to share my thought processes and what I actually did to cut my list my thousands last weekend in hopes that it will inspire you to have a lean and “scrubbed” list full of people that actually want to hear from you and get excited when they see your name in their inbox.

If people are not happy to see your messaging, that is just time and energy leak for you and the reader.

For some reason, I seem to do something major with my list on the week of July 4th.

I have no idea why but the timing is interesting to me.

At first, it was so hard to delete people off my list!

I’ve worked so hard building this list for years!

And, what if these people were just at a busy time in their lives, or they would come back around and be re-engaged soon.

The more I deleted, the easier it got and the better I felt about having “real” numbers and statistics to go by.

If anyone I deleted “misses” me, they know where to find me and opt-in again.

So here it goes…

Why and How I Cut My List By Thousands Last Weekend:

It Was Time.

It has been about four years since I started this list.

Many people joined it back when I was a Certified Professional Organizer.

My business evolved and shifted over the years but very slowly so there wasn’t a real end date to when I “officially” stopped offering that service.

And, I still write about organizing often because it is part of having a freedom based lifestyle.

But these readers are looking for more traditional organizing topics and there are plenty of blogs out there with those… so I let these people go.

Helps My Visibility and Open Rate With Email Service Providers

Did you know that email service providers actually take a look at how many people are opening and interacting with your emails and from that information deciding what folder to put yours in?

For example, if you send out your newsletter to your large but unresponsive list, (meaning they don’t open them or click on something) your email is far more likely to go into the spam and promotions folders, even for the people that WANT to get your emails.

In other words, the people that really want to get information from you may not even see it because so many of the other people that are on your list are not opening them.

To fix this on my list, here is what I did…

I searched my list for those who have not opened ANY of the last 50 emails I sent.

I deleted these people.

Then, I thought. Hmmm… I wonder how many people haven’t opened the last 20 emails.

I deleted these people too.

Then, I got ruthless and searched the opposite way.

How many people opened the last 10 campaigns/emails?

I decided to keep these people and delete ALL the rest.

Half my list was gone, but it was the truth.

Holding Back In What I Was Writing and Sharing

In the beginning. you just want your emails and newsletters to get out into the world so they will be forwarded and shared so you may add everyone on your personal email contacts – family and friends.

You also want to start the habit of writing regularly so knowing that someone, even if they are family and friends, helps with accountability and building this practice.

But, over the years as you gain ideal subscribers and you want to put more of your own personality and voice into your writing, having certain family and friends on your list could hold you back.

You are probably going through a lot of self-development as an entrepreneur and your family and friends don’t always understand.

I started finding myself when I was writing holding back because I knew certain people were on my list from my past personal life.

These people were deleted.

I feel free to right they way I am showing up now and not worrying what people from my past would think.

Battle of the Spambots

When you have an email address collector on your website without a captcha barrier, you are bound to get a lot of spam robots filling in your form.

“Captcha” is where you have to type in those squiggly words to prove you are not a robot. You see this mostly before buying tickets and things like that.

I noticed last December and April I got a huge spike of email opt-ins where the email addresses weren’t looking like real people.

They looked something like duu0goer3wk@Gmail.com.ru

I had just kept these on the list because I thought it might be someone’s special “To read later” email address and I was worried that they were interested but we employing a time management tip that even I suggest to certain people to wean them off of email madness.

There is even a term for this type of email.

Have you heard about it – it is funny. It is called “Bacn”. Yes, like the meat product and yes it is spelled like that.

So “spam” is junk mail and you ask for “bacn” but it isn’t an “important” email. :)

“Bacn” is all those emails that you opted in for to get a free gift or resource guide and you are currently interested in the topic.

You want to get these emails, but day-in-day-out in your busy life they don’t get read and usually end up in some sort of “read later” folder.

But, after thinking about this, I really don’t want these emails going to a “To Read Later” address.
I want to re-build my community to be engaged and action takers.

So sorry Bacn, you got deleted too.

Nothing More Than Feelings

Some people are just on your list because they think unsubscribing might hurt your feelings.

Well, this too is an energy leak and you need to get these people off your list!

And don’t stay on someone’s list because you feel guilty.

If the information is not relevant to you right now or it doesn’t inspire you, get off the list!

You are only hurting that person’s open rates and giving them an inaccurate number to work with when they are doing their projections.

And, the biggest reason, is that it is causing you to manage and sort these emails you don’t want in your life.

You can always re-subscribe later when the time is right to re-engage.

Which brings me to my next point…

Unengaged Subscribers Hurt Your Ability to Forecast

In email marketing, (and most other types of marketing for that matter), on average, you can expect a 1% return on whatever metric you are looking at.

My numbers were way off. They didn’t make sense.

As soon as I deleted all the spam, friends, and unengaged people… my numbers were spot on!
It was like magic!

It validated that I wasn’t failing at this process – I just had a lot of clutter on my list.

Niching Until It Hurts

Just when you think you have a narrow enough niche, you should take it down one more level until it hurts!

You will always have resistance doing this and a feeling like you may miss out on opportunities, but you won’t.

Your marketing, writing, and engagement will be so much clearer when you know exactly who you are writing for.

And I know there is a lot of crazy “define your Avatar” talk out there.

I don’t believe you need spend that much time to think on this step down to know your ideal client’s dog’s name or what color car they have.

I personally don’t believe you need to go into that kind of detail, but if it helps you open up and feel like you are talking or writing to one person, go for it!

Once you have your core niche down to a science you can branch out but not in the beginning.

Future Offerings

I’m elevating my email list to more of a community/tribe with new features and benefits.

I only wanted those that were engaged to receive the new offerings, opportunities and gifts.

Some of the new offerings are LIVE Google “Luau” Hangouts, invitation only events and extra tools and resources for free.

It is a lot of work, fun and inspired work, but work just the same to put these programs together and I only wanted people that were engaged to be in the new “club”.

So, in a world where the topic is always revolving around how to get more people on your list, I wanted to share a different way of looking at it.

Quality over quantity is the right way to go, in most cases, in every area of your life – email list included.

A funny thing happened after I decluttered my list, this past week I’ve had a record number of new subscribers!

All of them seemed to have typed in their “real” email address and their first name matched the email – so no spam or “bacn” here.

Just a whole new crop of “Escape Artists” ready to simplify, focus, be more productive and get the luxury lifestyle of their dreams!

Now, on a weekly basis, I’m going to take a few minutes to “scrub” my list so it won’t take a 6-hour session like I had last weekend.

Have you ever felt resistance to your own email list – like it was an energy drain or the numbers just wasn’t clicking?

Do you hold back what you really want to say because your ex-boyfriend or grandmother is on your list?

Are you still resisting scrubbing your list because you are caught up in the sheer total number of subscribers you have?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and opinions in the comments below.

And remember! Please unsubscribe if you are no longer interested in these topics! Make room for your interests that you have right now.

Need help with your business systems and structures so you can create your own version of a Freedom Based Luxury Lifestyle? Take advantage of my complimentary “Aloha” Strategy Session.