List Building: Does Size Really Matter?

Dec 21
00:36

2008

Tim Whiston

Tim Whiston

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Is size (number of subscribers) really the most critical point in your list building campaign? Find the answer to this common question in the following article.

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When building your opt-in mailing list,List Building: Does Size Really Matter? Articles how important is size? In other words, how critical is the number of readers you have toward your overall success?

Obviously you should strive to build the biggest list possible. More subscribers mean more people who will potentially view your offers and buy your products.

However, it's important that you understand the size of your list should not be your primary concern. In fact, even if you have only 50 subscribers you should always treat your list as if it were 50,000 readers strong!

List building is about far more than just collecting names and email addresses. Your subscribers are not numbers; they are real people just like you.

Therefore, the crucial factor is not how many people you have to throw an offer at. The crucial factor with any list building campaign is how valuable your content is, and how effectively you are able to establish a trusting relationship with your readers.

If you have thousands of people who don't care about your message, you won't make any real progress with your offers. But even a few hundred people who like and trust you can put some serious money in your pocket.

So with list building your mindset really needs to be about quality first and quantity second. Naturally you'd like a list of 10,000 (or more!) dedicated readers; but this takes time to create. So just start giving your current list the absolute best quality content you can provide and let the total subscriber count add up over time.

In addition to solid info, do your best to create a personal feel to your messages. Talk directly to the reader as if he or she were a good friend you've known for some time.

Think about the newsletters you are subscribed to. The ones you actually read probably contain good information, but more importantly the publisher probably makes you feel important by creating personalized messages.

This strategy works like magic.

Once your subscribers begin relate to you, they'll actually start to look forward to your next message. And when you reach this point as a list owner you'll have the ability to create traffic and profits on demand.

Clearly, for this to work long-term you must offer real value. The products and services you sell to your readers must be worthwhile, or soon you'll have lost the trust you worked hard to build.

But as long as you provide quality products you'll have a group of loyal customers for the life of your business. And again, 300 loyal buyers is worth far more than 3,000 disinterested subscribers who rarely open your messages.

So the bottom line is, while size matters to your overall list building objective, it is far from the most important consideration. As long as you keep promoting your sites your mailing list will continue to grow by default; therefore size will take care of itself while you work hard to cultivate the more valuable aspects of trust and value.

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