3 Things I’m No Longer Doing on My Website (Email Marketing Edition)

Website

Nov 3

Email marketing has one of the highest returns on investment, and most marketing mentors will advise you to build an email list. And while I think that’s sound advice for most businesses, I’ve found that many of the practices recommended to build your list are spammy – and I’m not into that.

So I’ve decided to turn away from what the gurus say and listen to my intuition by no longer doing these three recommended practices to grow my email list on my website.

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#1 I did away with my pop-up.

Pop-ups are downright annoying and I don’t want you to feel irritated while scrolling through my website.

#2 I disabled the auto subscribe checkmark when someone pays for an online course on my website.

The checkbox is still there, but you now have the choice to click it if you’d like to be subscribed.

(With the previous auto-check method you had the ability to uncheck the box and not be subscribed, but because it was a small portion of the checkout page, most people overlooked it then would immediately unsubscribe when they started receiving emails. I’d rather them not have the hassle and potential poor view of my business.)

#3 I reduced my freebies to one.

Lead magnets, or freebies, are highly recommended to grow your list, but I think having multiple is overkill.

I want people to want to subscribe to my email newsletter because I’d rather have an engaged list than a big one.

That’s why my subscribe forms say what they are and don’t lure you in with a freebie you probably wouldn’t look at anyway.

And while my email list is a humble 221 subscribers, my average open rate is 36.8%. To put that in perspective, between 15% and 25% is considered a good open rate.

As for unsubscribes? A good rate is 0.5%. My unsubscribe rate is .3%.

My list may be small, but she’s mighty.

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