Every email newsletter goo-roo seems to scream the same mantra, “Bigger list, bigger business.”
So you chase the number like everyone else.
You watch your subscriber count rise, feel good when it ticks up, and keep looking for the next way to add another thousand people.
But a bigger list can also give you a colder audience.
Replies can get thinner, your emails can get less attention, and when you finally have something to sell, the number at the top of your email platform doesn't tell you much about how many people actually care.
Adam Ryan, the founder of Workweek, asked this simple question, which I feel is highly relevant here: Are you in a “how many” business, or a “who” business?
A “how many” business makes money from size.
The bigger the audience, the more valuable the audience becomes because the audience itself is the product.
A “who” business makes money from fit.
Coaching, consulting, courses, and other service businesses depend on having the right people in the room.
As a service or product provider, you're a “who” business.
You don't make money because 10,000 people are sitting on your list.
You make money when the right people trust you enough to buy, irrespective of how many of them there are.
But look at how people have actually been building their lists.
They create a free guide broad enough to appeal to almost anyone, run a giveaway that attracts people who only want the prize, and attach that giveaway to a post that goes viral and brings in hundreds of subscribers who really do not care about them or their business.
Those are “how many” moves inside a “who” business.
The more people you collect who are never a good fit, the harder it becomes to tell how warm your actual audience is.
Your subscriber count can keep going up while the relationship you're building with that audience gets weaker.
That's why I wouldn't make “grow your list” the goal.
I'd make “grow the right list” the goal.
This is why I help my clients write so specifically for the people they actually want in their business, so that the wrong ones read their email and think, “This isn't for me.”
But be warned. If you go this route, you will lose subscribers.
That's fine.
A smaller list of people who understand why they're there can be healthier than a much larger list filled with people who came for a freebie, a giveaway, or one viral post.
So try this with every place people can subscribe to you.
Read your opt-in page, lead magnet, or signup promise like a stranger.
Then ask yourself if almost anyone would say yes to it.
If the answer is yes, you're probably collecting a lot of people who were never meant to become part of your audience in the first place.
Audience warmth starts with who you let into the room.
That's all for now. Talk soon,
Chike
P.S. If you want to see where your own audience is weakest, take the Audience Warmth Assessment. It can help you identify where the relationship may be weakening before you launch your next offer.