Hi John and Steve,
I've been sending my newsletter for many years now and I've grown a list of a little more than 1400 subscribers.
I have to say that many - not all - of the contacts on the list I've added myself without them opting in, maybe after meeting them at a gig or after a collaborative or working relationship was established. Although very few people over the years have unsubscribed, the newsletter open rates and responses have been quite amazing. My last campaign produced over a 58% open rate, but with only a 7% click rate, so very little sales, which I couldn't even track because I would send the audience to a bandcamp page and similar.
Obviously there has been a lack of strategy, but actually my question here, as I'm beginning this course, is what do you suggest to do with this list. Shall I keep it as it is, re-build it from scratch, send a newsletter asking everyone to opt-in again, or...?
Also, I've been using mailchimp and it's been quite an amazing experience, is it possible for me to keep using it instead of Aweber?
Thanks a lot!
Tommaso
Hi Tommaso,
High open rates like that are not that uncommon when a list is built through real world events, though 58% is very good.
I would definitely not ask those people to log in again. Instead, I would take the emails that you have written for your funnel and modify them so they make sense for a warm list, and then send them in real time. You can also use this as an opportunity to split test subject lines so that you can further optimize the emails in your funnel. Just keep these leads segmented separately from the new ones and only send the new ones through the automated funnel.
You can definitely stick with Mailchimp if you are happy with them. But I sincerely believe that Aweber is a superior service, in features, deliverability, and customer support.
Cheers.
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