IS BIGGER BETTER?

The timeless question that everyone gets all heated up about. Some will tell you that yeah, bigger’s definitely better. It’s more impressive. It draws attention. It shows that you’ve got stuff that lots and lots of people know- and want to know. We hear numbers that can be totally mind-boggling- and frankly, they can make our mind go wow.

10,000. 100,000. 1 million, 2 million.

Whoa. That’s a lot. And it is really very impressive.

But ask them how many have joined in the last 90 days- and the answer can leave you out in the cold. Community engagement is a consistent one. It is a process that involves frequent new views, frequent likes, frequent additional members. We send them emails for primarily two reasons:

1. To serve them with content, promotions, news, updates, etc. that they want
2. To affect some greater number (sales, revenue etc.)

We want them to be excited about receiving the update. We want them to be thrilled by the fact that there IS news, that there IS something happening. When there’re no updates or content, we want them to wonder why there’s nothing happening and wait eagerly for the next news that pops up on their screen.

And if you’re finding that amongst your gargantuan community numbers there’s only a teeny weeny portion that’s reacting to your news, then it’s time to shake off that indecisiveness (cos’ we know you’d seriously thought about it before but changed your mind) and bring the chopper to the numbers. That means cleaning up the mailing list and putting aside the inactive ones.

Wait, what, you say, if I do that, I’ll be left with a pathetic few! How will I survive then? And what about those that I’ve tossed away?

Well, firstly, there are more important things than the size of your email marketing list. Yes, seriously. A smaller, higher-quality email list works better than flinging your news into the abyss. It’s not news if no one reads it. It’s not news if no one gives a shit about it. Segment your email list and provide them specific content that will engage them and you’ll find that the response is more effective than a one-way communication.

Yes, it can be a very scary thought when you compare your now-very-tiny numbers to the other small content marketer who has hundreds and thousands on his list. But not all battles are won with large armies. I love Entertainment, and since I think Entertainment Content is fantastic for illustrations, let’s look at the movie 300. (You know, that movie with the “THIS IS SPARTAAAA!!!!” line and the other famous one, “TONIGHT WE DINE IN HELLLL!!!”) 300 is based on a true story about an army of 300 Spartan soldiers that fought against a million-strong Persian army. And like all true stories of ancient warfare, we see this small VS big victory legacy repeated in Alexandre The Great and Genghis Khan.

And it’s not your fault either that the list has *painfully* shrunk. This is part of what community building and community engagement and reengagement is about. If people can break up and fall out of love, if people can get married and settle down with three kids, if people can change email providers or change jobs or move from one place to another, for a million over reasons they can stop reading your email marketing or stop getting interested in your updates.

What then, you now ask, do I do with those that I’ve chopped away?

Run a win-back campaign. Study why they left. Figure out why they ignored your email newsletters. Did they grow out of a phase? Did they discover new interests? Did they have so much else to look at that they deleted yours without even looking? Why did they stop being loyal? Did they forget you entirely?

This is the time to convince them. This is the time to reach out to the inactive ones and re-engage them with compelling content that meets their current lifestyle needs and fire up their lost love for you. (And if they don’t re-engage, well, clean the list again and stop mailing to them entirely.)

How then, you ask now, do I go about it? Here’re some questions to help it along.

1.     How many new subscribers have you had in the last 30 days?

2.    How many have joined beyond 30 days and opened an email from you in the past 90 days?

3.     How many have joined between 30-90 days and have not opened your email since they subscribed?

4.    How many have joined beyond 90 days and have not opened your email in the past 90 days?

5.    How many have joined beyond 180 days and have not opened your email in the past 180 days?

Rather technical and number-crunching, isn’t it? But so, so necessary.

Because the content to win back each of the five groups above differs from each other. Content to engage new subscribers in the last 30 days will differ (even slightly) from content to re-engage those that were your subscribers more than 180 days ago but haven’t cared about a single update of yours since.

It is all about the emotional connection with each of them. If your current content isn’t touching their hearts, you’ll have to go beyond small content marketing and pump in content that sparks off the fire at every stage as they move through the funnel.

If not, it’s no use punishing your generals either. You’ll still be, you know, dead.