Now we’re going to talk about warming a cold list, and this is amazingly easy. A cold
list is basically a list that you’ve built up, but then you stopped mailing it so it gets
cold.
People may think, “Who are you?” They forget about you very quickly. Almost
everyone has let a list go cold. The reality is that once you start a list, you’ll usually end
up with more than one list. I could go into the reasons, but just trust me on it. You
usually end up with more than one list. Almost everyone who starts building a list
ends up with more than one list, and we’ve almost all let a list go cold by not
publishing to it. It’s the reality. I know it sounds weird.
If you’re sitting there and you don’t have a list (all you want is to have a list of X
number of subscribers) to let it go cold seems like really weird, but trust me it
happens. The thing to remember is for every week or month that a list goes unmailed,
it gets colder. If you let a week go by, it starts to cool off. If you let two weeks go by,
it’s getting colder. You let a month go by, it’s getting colder. That’s okay because there
is an easy solution to that.
This is how you warm a cold list: The “mea culpa,” which means basically that’s
where you just admit your mistake.
What you do is you admit your mistake, you reintroduce yourself, and you tell them
why you haven’t contacted them. It doesn’t have to be a great reason. It could just be,
“Hey, it’s John. You subscribed to my updates a few months ago, and I screwed up. I
haven’t sent you anything in months, and I’m really sorry about that, but my dog got
sick, and I got real busy,” and yada, yada.
You just give them the reason. Doesn’t have to be a great reason, just has to be a
reason why. It could just be I just got really busy, but you give them some reason.
Then some revelation of self means telling them a little bit about you and who you
are, your situation, my dog got sick, this happened, that happened might not be a
bad thing here. Then you send them two or three pieces of really cool content.
Frankly, what I would do is send the first email and tell them “Hey, this is who I am, this
is why I haven’t mailed you, but to make it up, I’ve got this really cool thing for you”.
Right in that very first piece, I would give them a cool piece of content. Then send
them another piece of really cool content, maybe two more pieces of cool content.
Then you can ask them to opt in for some more extra cool content.
None of this is rocket science. You could just send them one email that introduced
yourself, gave the reason why, then gave them some really good content, and then
asked them to opt in for some more cool bonus content. Basically with that old list
your open rates and your click rates are not going to be great. You’re just trying to
migrate some of those people over to your new list. Then your new list will be warmer,
the open rates will be better, the click rates will be better, and that will actually make
your delivery rates better.
I know this could be getting a little complicated for a few folks, but just in general, you
want to move people to a new list. Give them some good content and then promise
them some even more cool content. It doesn’t have to be something amazing. It’s not
like you’re giving them some amazing course. It could just be a quick video. It could
be a quick PDF download or something like that.
Set up a new list and have them opt into that list. Then keep in mind that your new list
and old list are very, very different now. Your old list is an old cold list. The new list is
the people that have migrated over and stuck with you. Best case scenario, take the
people that have moved to your new list off your old list. Now they’re just on
your new list, unsubscribe them from the old list. Then every now and then, you
can send your old list another email telling them about some more cool content and
try to get them to move over.
With your first email to your old list, there aren’t going to be that many people
opening or clicking, but you’ll still move some people over. Then a week later, you can
mail them again and you’ll get some more people to move over. A week after that,
same thing. If you’ve had a list that you let go cold for six months or longer, don’t
think you’re going to get the majority of those people moving over. You’re going to
get a very small percentage of them, but it is going to be a very engaged, very
strong percentage. This is worth doing, and it’s really that simple.
That’s how you warm a cold list.
list is basically a list that you’ve built up, but then you stopped mailing it so it gets
cold.
People may think, “Who are you?” They forget about you very quickly. Almost
everyone has let a list go cold. The reality is that once you start a list, you’ll usually end
up with more than one list. I could go into the reasons, but just trust me on it. You
usually end up with more than one list. Almost everyone who starts building a list
ends up with more than one list, and we’ve almost all let a list go cold by not
publishing to it. It’s the reality. I know it sounds weird.
If you’re sitting there and you don’t have a list (all you want is to have a list of X
number of subscribers) to let it go cold seems like really weird, but trust me it
happens. The thing to remember is for every week or month that a list goes unmailed,
it gets colder. If you let a week go by, it starts to cool off. If you let two weeks go by,
it’s getting colder. You let a month go by, it’s getting colder. That’s okay because there
is an easy solution to that.
This is how you warm a cold list: The “mea culpa,” which means basically that’s
where you just admit your mistake.
What you do is you admit your mistake, you reintroduce yourself, and you tell them
why you haven’t contacted them. It doesn’t have to be a great reason. It could just be,
“Hey, it’s John. You subscribed to my updates a few months ago, and I screwed up. I
haven’t sent you anything in months, and I’m really sorry about that, but my dog got
sick, and I got real busy,” and yada, yada.
You just give them the reason. Doesn’t have to be a great reason, just has to be a
reason why. It could just be I just got really busy, but you give them some reason.
Then some revelation of self means telling them a little bit about you and who you
are, your situation, my dog got sick, this happened, that happened might not be a
bad thing here. Then you send them two or three pieces of really cool content.
Frankly, what I would do is send the first email and tell them “Hey, this is who I am, this
is why I haven’t mailed you, but to make it up, I’ve got this really cool thing for you”.
Right in that very first piece, I would give them a cool piece of content. Then send
them another piece of really cool content, maybe two more pieces of cool content.
Then you can ask them to opt in for some more extra cool content.
None of this is rocket science. You could just send them one email that introduced
yourself, gave the reason why, then gave them some really good content, and then
asked them to opt in for some more cool bonus content. Basically with that old list
your open rates and your click rates are not going to be great. You’re just trying to
migrate some of those people over to your new list. Then your new list will be warmer,
the open rates will be better, the click rates will be better, and that will actually make
your delivery rates better.
I know this could be getting a little complicated for a few folks, but just in general, you
want to move people to a new list. Give them some good content and then promise
them some even more cool content. It doesn’t have to be something amazing. It’s not
like you’re giving them some amazing course. It could just be a quick video. It could
be a quick PDF download or something like that.
Set up a new list and have them opt into that list. Then keep in mind that your new list
and old list are very, very different now. Your old list is an old cold list. The new list is
the people that have migrated over and stuck with you. Best case scenario, take the
people that have moved to your new list off your old list. Now they’re just on
your new list, unsubscribe them from the old list. Then every now and then, you
can send your old list another email telling them about some more cool content and
try to get them to move over.
With your first email to your old list, there aren’t going to be that many people
opening or clicking, but you’ll still move some people over. Then a week later, you can
mail them again and you’ll get some more people to move over. A week after that,
same thing. If you’ve had a list that you let go cold for six months or longer, don’t
think you’re going to get the majority of those people moving over. You’re going to
get a very small percentage of them, but it is going to be a very engaged, very
strong percentage. This is worth doing, and it’s really that simple.
That’s how you warm a cold list.
