Mailing List - Does size matter?

[The Masked Scrivener]

Of course size matters, but at what size is your mailing list productive? I'm early in the process of developing my mailing list, just over 200 organic signups so far. At what number does my list become useful for things like news letter swaps? At what size should I expect a sales boost on new releases?

Besides sending newsletters to my list, and swapping with other authors, what other ways can you use, and not abuse, your mailing list?

[JRTomlin]

I think size matters much less than engagement which sounds remarkably dirty. My mailing list actually does much better since I trimmed off about half of it who were non-organic and not engaged.

[Shoe]

At what number does my list become useful for things like news letter swaps?

What do YOU mean by swaps? It means different things to different people, one of which is handing your list over to a third party, which is a no-no.

I'm three years in and have only 250 organics. You'll get some juice (sales) at your level when you release.

My non-organic list has been trimmed to 6000 (thereabouts). It used to 18k, mostly miscreant freeloaders from Instafreebie. Still, a percentage of them will buy at release. I just wish they'd identify themselves so I could trim my list below 5000 and save $20 a month.

[LilyBLily]

I'm experimenting right now with doing what amount to weekly emails to my newsletter list with new Bookfunnel group promos each time. There are so many in romance it's possible to do that. Since I don't have a cute pet to pimp, and engaging with readers personally gives me hives, I want to see if offering some value will boost my list's engagement. Most of the list is from giveaway promos, anyway. The organic part is <100 names.

What has happened so far is that somewhere under 1% unsubscribe with each email, and about 20% officially open it (although many more may read it). Click-through rates vary but hover around 2%. Sounds terrible, doesn't it? When I gave away a new novella to my entire list--free for all--the click through rate was a bit under 8%, and someone who'd been involved in a similar freebie said that was a good percentage and theirs had done worse.

At the unsubscribe rate above, it would take me a decade to irritate the entire mailing list into unsubscribing, so I plan to keep on sending out the promo info. It's a way of offering something that readers might like. Today it's so hard to find books to one's taste that a promo pre-sort is IMO a valuable thing. I'd appreciate getting the same from the few authors I follow.     

[Post-Doctorate D]

I just wish they'd identify themselves so I could trim my list below 5000 and save $20 a month.

Option A: In a new release(s), put a special mailing list signup form at the back of the book.  Offer a freebie short(s) if they sign up through that special list.  Might help weed out the non-buyers.  Downside is that people that buy but never read will never get transferred to the new list.

Option B: Send a message to the non-organic list that if they send you proof of purchase from a recent release, you'll send them a freebie short(s).  Depending on what percentage of people from that list buy, you might want to segment the list and do this in batches so you're not overwhelmed with responses.

Option C: Offer a new freebie to the non-organic list and require they enter an eMail address on the download page.  Then think about removing those addresses that did not download.  Presumably, those that regularly buy your stuff will also be interested in your freebie.  Of course, those that only want freebies will want it too.  But, it might help weed out the people who aren't buying or reading your messages.  You might want to repeat the offer a couple times just in case a single mailing ends up in their spam or gets overlooked.

[Vinny OHare]

I think size matters much less than engagement which sounds remarkably dirty. My mailing list actually does much better since I trimmed off about half of it who were non-organic and not engaged.

This is totally true. Engagement is the key. When you have a lot of people on the list that don't open your email eventually your open rate goes down because the email server gets sent to spam by some email inboxes. I trim ours every month or so.

[LilyBLily]

I'm going to trim mine again in a month. Then I'm going to join another newsletter builder from Ryan Zee and beef up my numbers again and see if this time around I can keep them interested.

[Shoe]

Does anyone know a ratio for front-matter/back-matter mailing list sign-ups? My sign-up links appear only at the end of my books.

[Simon Haynes]

My non-organic list has been trimmed to 6000 (thereabouts). It used to 18k, mostly miscreant freeloaders from Instafreebie. Still, a percentage of them will buy at release. I just wish they'd identify themselves so I could trim my list below 5000 and save $20 a month.

Are you using Mailerlite?  I sometimes use 'toggle columns' and view source to identify instafreebie/promo subscribers, then filter out those who haven't opened or clicked recently.  Usually the Bookfunnel page ID will be there, for example.

I also make use of the additional fields on Bookfunnel signup pages, but that's something that's only useful going forwards.

[Bill Hiatt]

Does anyone know a ratio for front-matter/back-matter mailing list sign-ups? My sign-up links appear only at the end of my books.

If someone is reading on a Kindle, it takes more effort to see the back matter. At the end of the body of the body, Amazon pops up the rating request, other books in the series, etc.

On the other hand, if a reader is new to you, it's hard to imagine that the person is going to sign up before even starting to read the book. And front matter can be an issue as well. When I open a book on Kindle, it typically opens to page 1 of the actual text, not the front matter. I have to back up to see the front matter. So maybe it's about the same as the back matter in terms of actual visibility.

[Shoe]

If someone is reading on a Kindle

I should really invest in one of those if I'm going to be taking this seriously.

[Bill Hiatt]

If someone is reading on a Kindle

I should really invest in one of those if I'm going to be taking this seriously.

It does sometimes help to see things the way readers will. Of course, not everyone reads on a Kindle, but they are still fairly popular.