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MenuHow to make the most out of an email list of 425,000 emails that has been dormant for years?
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Tricky.
Likely many email addresses are dead + others have forgotten your name + why they subscribed.
Your steps.
1) Clean your list.
2) Place a link at top of each message that says.
Report this message as spam, which then connects to a non-interactive, instant unsubscribe mechanism.
This keeps people from reporting you to real spam authorities.
3) Wait 10 days, for all unsubs to come in.
4) Create a targeted audience in Facebook or Traffic Oxygen to get your name in front of these people + generate some cash, without emailing them.
5) Then run this for... say 30 days...
6) Then start weekly emails + keep these email going, so your list stays warm.
If all this makes your head spin, hire someone to assist you with this.
As others have said, proceed with caution! Assuming you've already used a top email list hygiene provider like Fresh Address or Webbula (if you haven't, you might need to clean it again), here's what I suggest you do next:
1) Interrupt your pattern of sending content newsletters with either a preferences or general survey, ideally with an incentive for completion (random prize drawing works well). At this point, sending a campaign people will be HIGHLY MOTIVATED to open and click is key, since leading ISPs such as Gmail and MSN are increasingly using engagement metrics to determine whether your email keeps getting delivered or gets junked. Also, conditioning a pattern of response early is important to getting people to engage on a regular basis.
2) Vary your messaging to include other campaigns than just newsletters. People grow immune to repetition. What stand-alone messages can you work into the schedule? Maybe a weekly spotlight on a featured piece of content, interview with a subscriber, weekly trivia, etc. These are all great for engagement.
3) Keep a strong eye on your deliverability and reputation as an email sender. Look into ReturnPath's services.
4) As far as "dropping email addresses that have not engaged with any campaigns" consider your options and define "engagement". What are the actions and thresholds of activity that constitute "engaged" - is it no opens/clicks in 30 days? 90 days? longer? You don't say if you'll be wiping those from your list and never emailing again, dialing back volume, or suppressing and contacting with a reactivation or re-opt-in campaign. If you decide to no longer email inactives, try targeting them in other channels like via FB custom audience targeting or Live Intent.
Need more help or a long-term strategy? Contact me - it's what I do.
Related Questions
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How can I effectively use an old email list from a previous business to jump start my next business?
Use the "audience" feature on facebook and import all of your emails. Facebook will match them so that you can ran ads to promote your new startup or service to whoever has a fb profile with that email. Happy to help if you need more infoHJ
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Cold emailing is just as bad for you and the recipient. Even if you have the perfect list, the attempt to sell in a cold email is rarely going to be effective. You're better off curating the list to the top prospects, find a mutual connection on LinkedIn or even just cold-invite them on LinkedIn,. Worst case scenario, send a 'permission pass' email where you simply gauge interest and let them know you won't be emailing them again if there's no interest. Keep it very short, non-commercial with just solid information/links to web, and an easy to reply yes/no answer.BI
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Hello, great question here. First of all you should understand that there is no 1 way and depending on who your audience is and what you sell the answer will definitely vary. A short answer however would be - engagement. Forget about likes and follows and shares are engagement, if you want to be a successful marketer you need to see engagement as conversations. The more conversations you can build around products the more you can rely on them to follow links or follow up on a request when you do make one. With that said, social media updates should be about what your followers want to see - depending on the social media - try to avoid being too pitchy on each post. My name is Humberto Valle, I have been a strategist for about 10 years now and have helped countless of entrepreneurs and businesses thrive through creative competitive strategy and marketing and I'm the co-founder of Unthink.Me. I hope my answer helps you a bit.HV
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I would seriously consider launching a blog and posting content of the same type to the blog, in abundance. Then add a popup box to the blog to collect email addresses. Post daily blog posts about topics related to your blog and your newsletter. If you do this consistently, over time, you will build up traffic to your blog and also get people entering their email into your popup. This is the free way to do it...EW
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How do you approach an influencer, a "guru" or a podcaster /blogger in your niche offering a commission without being too direct?
Do the opposite. Think about it from their point of view. They get requests like these all the time and most of the time the request comes from random people they don't know. That would be kind of annoying right? You get an email from someone you don't know but they want you to do something for them? You'd delete that email too. Best way to get their attention...get a referral from someone they know and trust. Get someone else they know and trust to introduce you (this is the whole reason I built my business www.reverralriver.com). Referrals work the best. Second best way...develop a relationship with them before asking for anything. Don't email and ask for something right away. You wouldn't ask someone to marry you on a first date would you? Develop the relationship slowly. Give them value before ever asking for anything in return. Over just a few short weeks you could easily establish a relationship to the point where you could actually mention an "ask" which should be very open-ended and create absolutely zero work/friction for the person you are asking. One of my favorite techniques to warm-up a relationship...just email and tell them you appreciated (insert an article they wrote or service they provide, whatever, just stroke their ego). Tell them you're a fan and often point people their way. Then go way above and beyond and find their physical mailing address (it's not that hard to do) and send them a small gift or hand-written postcard in the mail just to say thanks. Then email them once you know they got it and just say thanks again. Then start emailing them various articles or things they might think are valuable, I'd say no more than once every 4 days. Connect on LinkedIN and message them funny pictures or GIF's. Show them you're human. Make them laugh and smile and just say "Hey I appreciate all you've done so just wanted to return the favor and make you smile (insert funny GIF here)". Then, once they know who you are, don't ask them directly to partner...ask them if they know anyone who would be interested in partnering. Below is a template I've used with great success...and the beauty is that they will often ask for more info and get interested themselves, but usually only if you have offered them some sort of value to stand out amongst the crowd. --- Hey (prospect first name), Hope you laughed at the last GIF I sent. I was just wondering if you knew anyone that would be interested in a partnership/affiliate opportunity… Real quick summary… I’m building a SaaS that automates the process of asking for referrals…it uses artificial intelligence to find potential leads in your existing customers network and makes it super simple for your customers to make the referral (one click of a button). If you know anyone that has an audience of people that would benefit from something like this I'd be grateful for an intro. I won't let you down I promise if you can make an intro. I’ll draft up all the marketing material and do all of the work, so all they would have to do is say “ok”, hit copy, paste, and send and I’d be happy to pay them 25% commission for life (or if there is another payment structure in mind I’m happy to talk about it) So what do you think? Can you help me out? Thanks, Parker ---- If you found this useful please upvote. Book a call with me if you want to know more or if I can help further.PW
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