Let ‘Em Go, Let ‘Em Go…
With apologies to parents of daughters everywhere...
I had written back in May that I wanted to take my opening rate from 60% up to 70%
The last 5 emails have averaged 65.08%.
Here’s what I did:
- Thought more about the email during the week and when I had an Idea, email it to myself with the subject title “It’s Friday”. (Evernote would be more efficient)
- Dedicated a 3 hour block from 6:00 Am to 9:00 Am every Thursday morning to write and publish and didn’t allow anything to disturb or compromise that time.
- Culled my list by 10%
Pop Psych 101 - hacking yourself
The opening rate of my newsletter has a huge impact on how I feel - the higher the rate the more energy I have, the more optimistic I am and everything becomes a little more possible.
That first email after the cull had an opening rate of 72% - Score! I was indeed faking it before I made it. Within four weeks new subscribers had replaced the ones I’d gotten rid off and the opening rate had settled in at 65%.
Don’t be frozen
While size of list is a core KPI and something we always look to grow, don’t be afraid to treat it like a garden plant. Cutting back and removing the deadweight is not only liberating but it raises the quality of the list and ultimately improves your writing.
As a Mailchimp user I filtered for 1 star list members and quickly scanned through to see their opening habits. If they hadn’t opened a newsletter within 3 months I deleted them.
Having Idina Menzel singing in the background makes the process weirdly more enjoyable!
Caveat
Your business is different from mine. Variables such as frequency, audience and content type will all affect how you prune your list but, if you’ve got people who haven’t opened in a year:
Let ‘em go, let ‘em go
Don’t hold it back anymore
Let ‘em go, let ‘em go,
Cull your list & slam the door
You don’t care
What those people say
Why waste your time
If they don’t bother to read you anyway!
Written while listening to: The Bench - 163 - Periscope development by music2work2
Image credit: Let it go | Into the Magic *Explore* by chris alcoran on Flickr