You don’t have to have a big list to successfully market your business with email. There are plenty of people out there who make a steady stream of income each month from lists that have less than 1,000 subscribers.
Yes, it’s true! Heck, if you have two people on your list and one of them buys something from you, you’re profitable. It may not be enough to buy more than a pizza or a gallon of gas, but it‘s a start.
You may be thinking, ‘Come on, Karen, get real. I can’t build a six figure business on the price of a pizza!” You’re absolutely right but my point is, don’t ditch the small list and don’t think you can’t start to make money with your list until you hit a certain magic number. There is no magic number. It doesn’t exist. Start marketing to your subscribers from day one. They don’t know that there are only five other people on the list.
What matters to each of your subscribers is that you treat them right.
Provide them with good information and help them find the products they need. Take every opportunity to help your subscribers, even if you don’t benefit directly from it yourself. This is perfect for creating lifelong, loyal customers. It doesn’t have to take much time, simply answer any questions your audience poses.
Take advantage of this. Start building a relationship with your readers and monetize as you continue to build your list. As your existing subscribers get to know you better, your sales will increase. And as you continue to grow your list, you’ll make more sales. Those are all good things and it’s perfectly fine to start small. After all, we all start our lists at zero and build from there.
Focus on Quality
Instead of focusing on growing that number of subscribers as quickly as possible, focus on building a quality, targeted list. A small well-curated list will convert much better than a larger list. Think quality over quantity when it comes to subscribers. In the end, the number of subscribers isn’t what matters. How much you bring home at the end of the month and the difference you make in your subscribers’ lives is what matters.
Evaluate your Click-through Rates
Instead of valuing your email list on the number of subscribers, look at your click-through rates. In other words, how many of your subscribers actually open your email? After all, if they aren’t reading your email you might as well be sending it to Mars.
People often ask me, “What is a good open rate for my email campaigns? To get some hard data, take a look at the Email Marketing by Industry January 2016 from Get Response. They report the average open rate across all industries is 21.73%. If your click-through rate is significantly lower, evaluate the quality of your subscribers.
Do that and not only will you be profitable, but you’re building a sustainable part of your online business that will continue to help you grow and flourish for months and years to come. And isn’t that much more important than some silly number that’s only use is to impress your marketing friends?
Start small, stay smart and you will do just fine even with a small list. And who knows, that small little list may grow into a large, highly-profitable list down the road.
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