Last month, daily email reader, fellow creator, and productivity queen, Elle Cheron, posted this tweet on her timeline:
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Deleted 136 people from my email list.
Why?
They didn't open the last 20 emails.
You don't need inactive subs.
Clear your list.
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And yours truly just had to pitch in.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not trying to throw any shade on Elle or make fun of her in any way whatsoever.
She’s building something truly incredible and there’s so much both you and I can learn from her.
And I’ve spoken to her about this exact topic before, to which she listened open-mindedly, willing to learn more—a skill that seems to be rare nowadays.
Anyway.
While it’s true that you don’t need inactive subs. This advice—which I sadly see everywhere—of “kick the inactive readers off your list” is the worst action you could possibly take.
Some people even recommend having “re-engagement” emails where you’ll send automated emails to people who haven’t opened an email of yours in the last 30–60 days asking them to click a link if they’d still like to remain on your email list—which might be even worse.
The thing is.
None of this works the way you think it does, and it does more damage than it does good.
Truth be told, I used to do the same early on.
I probably kicked over 400 people off my list in total.
But that was a big mistake.
Open rates are highly unreliable (they can’t be trusted at all, trust me) and there's a good chance you're kicking people who read every single email.
I’ve made multiple sales to people who ‘supposedly’ only opened 5% of the total 100+ emails they received so far. How could this be?
Did they only open 1 in every 20 emails? And just so happened to read a wonderfully written email that got them sold on my products?
No of course not.
Here’s what happened: While their open rate might be 5%, their click rate was close to 100%.
Meaning?
Those 5% of “emails they opened” only registered because that's when these people clicked a link, something which is a lot more reliable—but still not 100%.
Now I’m far from an expert on email deliverability & tracking.
But I do know why, how, and when people buy stuff. And so I also know how to make money. And let me tell you that “kicking people because they don’t open my emails” is severely hurting the money you’re able to make.
So for the love of everything that’s bananas, stop kicking people off your list for that specific reason.
Does this mean you shouldn’t clean your list?
No. Far from it. You should clean it. But not like this.
You should clean it in ways that actually help you make more money, not less. Which is something I talk about in Email Extraordinaire.
Beware. It won’t be flashy, it doesn’t use any automation tricks that the big email service providers (who have no idea how to get paid writing emails) suggest you use. But it will work wonders, and it will make you more money.
So if that tickles your fancy, then learn more here: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL
P.S. I’m doubling the price for my course tomorrow, Friday, December 1st (that’s in exactly 24 hours)
To get the full details on Email Extraordinaire do this:
1. Read every single word at the URL below to make an informed purchase
2. Buy it before Friday, December 1st at midnight CET to get it before the price increase
3. Use code EMAIL at the checkout
And make sure you see the price change before entering your info
(I technically already doubled the price, but this discount code gives you the opportunity to get the course at the original price until Friday, December 1st)
Here’s the link: https://alexvandromme.gumroad.com/l/EE/EMAIL