Last month I unsubscribed just under half of the emails from my email list.
And it freaked me out.
I don’t have a large list. And I kinda didn’t want to do anything that would make that list smaller.
But by making that change my open rate went from around 17% to over 30%.
And if I would have shared those numbers with you without any other information would you have immediately assumed that the change was the number of people that I send my newsletter to?
Maybe you would have wondered if I figured out some magic way to write subject lines or if I discovered the absolute perfect time to send emails to guarantee more people will open the email.
This is why it’s so important to ask question when someone starts sharing statistics without any additional information.
Telling you that I unsubscribed emails from my email list doesn’t tell all the story either, but when you add the improved open rate to it the picture becomes a bit clearer.
The full story of why I unsubscribed so many people from my email list is that the emails going to those addresses weren’t being opened anymore.
Some hadn’t opened an email from me in over a year.
So, I decided to start a re-engagement campaign that asks people if they want to continue to stay on my list if they haven’t opened any of the emails in the last 90 days.
If they don’t open the emails or indicate they want to stay subscribed, they are unsubscribed.
I thought about putting this system in place off and on for over a year, but I was always scared to pull the trigger.
If you have an email list, you want it to continue to grow and not get smaller, right?
Well, there’s many reasons for that goal missing the mark.
One of them being that an engaged smaller list is better than a large list with incredibly low engagement.
But man on man, was I tied to that old number!
Even though the same number of people opened my newsletter last week, but because my list was almost half the size, the open rate significantly improved.
I’ll write it again for emphasis the same number of people opened my newsletter this week as they did last week.
The open rate improved because the email went to fewer people.
So, what can you do with this information?
I’m not encouraging you to go and implement your own re-engagement / unsubscribe campaign (of course, do it if it’s something you want to do and it makes sense for you right now).
What system or change in your business are you resisting putting into place?
If you have a system or change in your business that you want to put in place but are having some problems putting it in place or getting the details figured out and you’d like some help, let’s talk! The easiest way to set that up is by applying for coaching by clicking here.