1. Make people opt-in to your list. Research has shown that when people have to opt-in to your list, they are more "qualified" prospects.
2. Provide valuable, interesting information. If the information you send your list is boring or crap, your prospects will either ignore future mailings or opt-out faster than you can say "Hussain Bolt."
Neither scenario is good.3. Don't make every mailing a sales pitch. If you make a sales pitch each time you mail to your list, they won't respect your information.
4. Keep your list motivated. Conduct reader surveys and opinion polls. Let your prospects know their opinions matter.
5. Keep your list clean. If after mailing to your list consistently for two years, drop those prospects who haven't made a purchase. If they haven't purchased anything in two years, they're probably not going to. DEMC cleaned their list recently, and their list shrunk from 135, 000 to 35,000. But here's the amazing part. Even though DEMC's list is 100,000 subscribers smaller, it's just as responsive as its ever been, according to advertisers. Dropping a bunch of deadwood won't hurt your bottom line.
6. Separate your list into two categories - customers and prospects, and mail your customers special offers to reward their patronage. If they purchased from you once, they'll purchase from you again and again. You just have to give them a reason.
David Jackson
