There’s a great belief in this industry that in order to be successful you have to build a list of 1000′s of people. Get them however and wherever you can, but just get them. And once you’ve got them, hang on to them for dear life. They are your ticket to the big leagues.
But that’s all it is. A belief. No matter how big your list is, the only people on there making you money are those who are responsive to what you are selling or interested in joining your business. And the only ones who are going to be responsive and interested are those who think you are worth listening to.
The rest of them probably just signed up to get whatever freebie you were offering as an incentive for them to hand over their e-mail address. If your freebie was good enough, they’ll probably stick around and read a few more of your messages before making a decision as to whether or not to trust your judgement. If it wasn’t, chances are they’re never going to read anything you send.
So what’s the point of keeping them on your list? So you can brag about how big your list is? So you can call yourself a ‘lead magnet’? Seriously, it’s a question you need to ask yourself, especially if you’re just starting out.
Listbuilding Explained
You offer something to someone in return for their contact details.
There, didn’t take long did it?
The more people who take you up on your offer, the bigger your list grows. And of course, you are then able to keep in contact with them via your autoresponder.
Unfortunately, just because they took you up on your offer does not make them a prospective buyer/customer/business partner. That happens over time, not at the signup stage.
It happens as a result of the value you provide in your dealings with them. But if those people on your list aren’t opening and responding to your e-mails, then:
- You’re not providing them with anything.
- You’re not building trust and/or credibility.
- You’re not making any money from them.
And if you’re not doing any of these things, why do you have a list? Why pay for an autoresponder? Why waste your time scouring the Internet for valuable information that you can’t share with anyone? Why waste even more time putting that information into a message that nobody is going to see?
The true secret to listbuilding is making sure that the people on your list are listening to you. You wouldn’t keep bidding on a non performing keyword in your PPC campaign, so don’t waste your time sending messages to people who don’t read them. Get them off your list!
You know opting into someone’s list isn’t a lifelong committment. There is no ’till death us do part’ clause in any of the opt in forms I’ve seen!
People change, they move on, a lot of folks are attracted by the next bright, shiny offer they see and they get too distracted by all the other messages flooding their inbox every day. So it’s nothing personal when they unsubscribe. And the more of them that you can get to unsubscribe, the more targeted and responsive will be the ones you are left with.
Note I’m not recommending you get folks to unsubscribe by spamming them with crap – though that will definitely work! 
But a little reminder now and then that they are free to leave, or sending out notices to those who don’t bother checking out the information you provide, and even personally going in and deleting those who haven’t bothered to open any of your e-mails for a while- these are all methods I’ve used and they help ensure that my list remains clean and responsive.
Now, I have had lots of people scoff and outright roll on the floor laughing at my listbuilding ‘secret’, but I learned the principle behind it from none other than Mike Dillard himself.
Mike’s mails are one of the few I look forward to receiving in my inbox. I like his style, his sense of humour, his insights into the industry. But I’m often caught most by his ‘get off my list if you’re not interested’ line. I figure if he’s not afraid to tell people to get lost, then why should anyone else?
It’s a matter of overcoming the scarcity mindset. You’re so worried that you might not be able to replace anyone who leaves your list that you wouldn’t dream of letting any of them go. Pfft! Good way to build a big list, but not so good when it comes to having a list that is targeted and waiting with bated breath for your next mail to hit their inbox.
Those that take an interest in the people on their list, checking and tracking their open rates, click rates, bounce rates…are the ones with the highly targeted lists. And the more targeted your list is, the more money you make.
Why is it that in every other aspect of marketing, the advice is to keep it targeted as tightly as possible, yet in listbuilding it’s assumed that just because someone once entered their e-mail address into an opt in form, they are considered to be a potential source of income for the rest of their life?
Sure, there’s the fact that not everyone is ready to buy as soon as they visit your page so capturing their information is helpful because they might be willing to buy a while down the road. But how far down the road do they have to be before you realise that they are never going to buy anything from you because they don’t look at anything you show them?
And consider this. If people know they run the very real risk of being deleted from your list simply because they don’t bother opening your messages, how much more valuable does being on your list become? 
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Hi, nice post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for sharing. I’ll certainly be coming back to your site.
Glad you liked it. Most folks just laugh, but it works for me.
Like your blog.