Last month, Inside Sales Dude had its 1 year anniversary and this month I have my 50th birthday. (I know, you don’t even have to say it, I don’t look a day over 25).
To celebrate ISD’s birthday, I decided it was time to spring clean my newsletter email list.
The ISD Gazette is how I keep in touch with my friends and business associates. It is the equivalent of my “leads list”.
Twice a month, I send a newsletter that highlights a recent blog post plus any quick ISD updates. I strive to make my newsletter relevant, timely and valuable. However, it won’t always be for everyone on my list.
When I dug into the stats, I saw that almost half of my subscribers hadn’t opened any of my newsletters for at least the past 3 months. (For my readers who aren’t math wizards, that is 6 unopened newsletter in a row).
I despite SPAM. I also don’t want to send my newsletter to anyone who doesn’t want it.
To those subscribers I sent the following email with the subject Removing from list:
The Results
I sent this email to about 500 addresses. Of those, about 50 opened it. I then reviewed each of the 50. Of those,
- 10 seemed legit so I kept them on the list.
- 40 looked like “catch all” email boxes, duplicate addresses or people whom I couldn’t identify at all, so I removed them from the list
The 450 who didn’t open this email were also removed from my list.
A few people emailed me to say they catch up on my blog via LinkedIn or directly online too. They stayed on the list.
Why bother cleaning your leads list?
In my case, I don’t want to SPAM people or send my newsletter to people who are no longer interested.
In your case, you’ve got a team of sales reps calling, emailing and targeting prospects all day long. The last thing you want is for your reps to spend time chasing leads that will never buy from you.
This wastes your reps’ time, it wastes the prospect’s time and it screws up your stats.
It’s a lose-lose situation.
Your marketing team may object. Your reps may object too. They’ll say, “You never know…maybe one day we’ll catch this person at the right time and he’ll buy.”
I’m calling BS.
It never happens.
You might get lucky and get a demo or meeting scheduled with one of your leads that has appeared dormant for years. He might even show up for the scheduled meeting.
But he will never buy.
So clean up your lists and have your reps move on.
Happy Selling!
If you want the ISD Gazette, subscribe below. I guarantee you’ll find it fascinating. If not, I’ll be sure to remove you from the list next time I do Spring Cleaning. [mc4wp_form id=”1491″]