Saving on your email marketing costs
Most email marketing providers charge by the number of subscribers to your email lists. The cost is not much when you start your journey but it can get hefty as your list grows.
This is why it’s important to focus on the quality of your list and not just the number of people who sign up. You want to insure people actually open your emails and listen to what you have to say, otherwise you just pay “money for nothing”.
Lets look at a couple of strategies to maintaining a quality email list, something which will help you to reduce the costs of your email marketing efforts.
1. Use a confirmed opt-in – This means that when someone subscribes to your list, they will have to activate their subscription through an email confirmation. As mentioned in week 7 in this course, confirmed opt-in protects you against false spam complaints and keeps your subscribers list clean of unwilling signups. In addition, confirmed opt-in subscribers have a higher conversion and response rate on email campaigns so if you want a higher quality list, I’d recommend you use this feature.
2. Delete unsubscribes – Most people assume that email marketing providers don’t charge for people who have unsubscribed from your list when, in fact, they do. This can easily be avoided by simply deleting the people who have unsubscribed from your list on regular basis.
3. Create a welcome email to remember – Use the first email to new subscribers as an opportunity to offer a warm welcome that gets them excited for what’s to come next. You can thank your recipients for subscribing, deliver a free giveaway, and make it more interactive by asking a question. This is also a great time to surprise and overdeliver for what people expect.
4. Use a filter email – Your second email (the follow-up message after the welcome email) can be used as a “filter email”, where you actually encourage subscribers who you do not want on your list to unsubscribe. For example, I use the following text at the bottom of my email: “P.S – If you ever feel that my emails are not providing value to your life, please don’t hesitate to unsubscribe. I understand that an abundance of email isn’t sustainable for anyone and I certainly don’t want to contribute to the noise.”
5. Remove inactive subscribers – As mentioned previously, people who aren’t opening your messages on ongoing basis (a good cut off point is four to six months) are not valuable to you as subscribers. Email marketing providers make it easy for you to find these inactive subscribers using the search function and then delete them from your list. However, before you do, I recommend sending one last message to your inactive group and inform them on your planned action. Email marketing providers are not always accurate and you don’t want to delete people who actually read your emails.
Here is a template I created that you can use:
“Subject: We need to talk. (Action required)
Hey [INSERT SUBSCRIBER NAME]!
It’s [INSERT YOUR NAME] from [INSERT NAME OF YOUR SITE].
I might be wrong, but it seems it’s been awhile since you opened any of my emails. And, while I strive to provide you with valuable and relevant content, I also don’t want to flood your inbox with unwanted emails.
So, if you’d like to continue receiving my emails, simply respond to this email by [INSERT EXACT DATE] with a “YES”. (This will make me very happy)
If not, no hard feelings. I’ll assume you’d rather not receive the emails and you’ll be unsubscribed in a couple of weeks.
Cheers!
P.S. Very important – reply to this email by [INSERT EXACT DATE] in order to stay on my list”
That’s it. Very simple. Now go ahead, take action, and start saving on your email marketing costs!
* If you’re seeking extra motivation and inspiration on your journey of personal growth, I recommend taking a look at my SMART growth goals page, This page offers thousands of goal ideas that can assist in the establishment of new aspirations and the attainment of greater heights in one’s life. In fact, it was instrumental in my creation of a list of 100 goals, which I pursued for a decade.
Chief Editor
Tal Gur is an impact-driven creator at heart. After trading his daily grind for a life of his own design, he spent a decade pursuing 100 life goals around the globe. Tal's journey and recent book, The Art of Fully Living, inspired him to found Elevate Society.
