Following the the recent release of our latest whitepaper on email list growth, it seems a good time to highlight some of the key points in the development of a list growth strategy. Evolution is not a matter of time -- so that in the first year you do X, in year 2 you do Y, and so on. It is more appropriate to think of major milestones as the markers of when it is time to adjust your approach to email list building.
Phase 1 - From Zero to Cash Flow: The first step in the development of a list growth strategy is to reach the point at which the program starts to pay for itself on a monthly basis. This is achieved when the revenue or number of leads associated with the program exceeds the cost of running the program—taking hard costs (e.g., cost to send email, cost of names acquired, COGS, etc), and soft costs (e.g., content development, programming, oversight) into account.
This phase of the program should focus on putting tracking mechanisms in place and optimizing organic list growth efforts such as onsite registration. The temptation may be to look to list rental or other non-organic tactics to jump start the program. However, by starting slower, you decrease the likelihood of wasting money promoting a program that consumers aren't interested in. While optimizing onsite registration, you get to test different ways of positioning the program (i.e., value proposition) to get people signed up, plus you keep costs relatively low as you get your footing.
This process can take some time, but if done right, it will provide the foundation for exponential growth in Phase 2. Jumping the gun and simply gathering too many names too early puts marketers in a position where they need to make painful adjustments later.
Phase 2 - Growth: Once the program starts to generate cash flow, the next phase of list development involves accelerating growth by amplifying what you learned in phase 1. Take successful value messages to additional channels. Integrating search with landing pages that sell the benefits of registration, collecting email addresses during inbound calls, and integrating email with social networks all help build out organic list growth programs and can rapidly accelerate the growth of your list.
If these tactics do not generate the results you are looking for then move onto the second part of the growth phase by adding in non-organic list growth tactics, such as sweepstakes or co-registration. By employing these tactics later in the process, you dramatically increase the likelihood that these efforts will be successful.
Phase 3 - Maintenance: When lists get large, there is a point at which it becomes unprofitable to add names faster than natural attrition occurs. Imagine a list with 5MM subscribers. If natural attrition (due to email addresses going bad and unsubscribes) is 1% per month, then that program must add 50,000 people per month just to maintain list size. Email marketers never arrive at the end of their list growth efforts, but there is a point in the life of every program where revenue growth is going to be achieved more efficiently by optimizing other aspects of the program such as improving relevance through segmentation, personalization, etc.
Phase 1 - From Zero to Cash Flow: The first step in the development of a list growth strategy is to reach the point at which the program starts to pay for itself on a monthly basis. This is achieved when the revenue or number of leads associated with the program exceeds the cost of running the program—taking hard costs (e.g., cost to send email, cost of names acquired, COGS, etc), and soft costs (e.g., content development, programming, oversight) into account.
This phase of the program should focus on putting tracking mechanisms in place and optimizing organic list growth efforts such as onsite registration. The temptation may be to look to list rental or other non-organic tactics to jump start the program. However, by starting slower, you decrease the likelihood of wasting money promoting a program that consumers aren't interested in. While optimizing onsite registration, you get to test different ways of positioning the program (i.e., value proposition) to get people signed up, plus you keep costs relatively low as you get your footing.
This process can take some time, but if done right, it will provide the foundation for exponential growth in Phase 2. Jumping the gun and simply gathering too many names too early puts marketers in a position where they need to make painful adjustments later.
Phase 2 - Growth: Once the program starts to generate cash flow, the next phase of list development involves accelerating growth by amplifying what you learned in phase 1. Take successful value messages to additional channels. Integrating search with landing pages that sell the benefits of registration, collecting email addresses during inbound calls, and integrating email with social networks all help build out organic list growth programs and can rapidly accelerate the growth of your list.
If these tactics do not generate the results you are looking for then move onto the second part of the growth phase by adding in non-organic list growth tactics, such as sweepstakes or co-registration. By employing these tactics later in the process, you dramatically increase the likelihood that these efforts will be successful.
Phase 3 - Maintenance: When lists get large, there is a point at which it becomes unprofitable to add names faster than natural attrition occurs. Imagine a list with 5MM subscribers. If natural attrition (due to email addresses going bad and unsubscribes) is 1% per month, then that program must add 50,000 people per month just to maintain list size. Email marketers never arrive at the end of their list growth efforts, but there is a point in the life of every program where revenue growth is going to be achieved more efficiently by optimizing other aspects of the program such as improving relevance through segmentation, personalization, etc.
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