Should You Be Bummed When Somebody Unsubscribes From Your List?

You just wrote what you believe is an important email for your subscribers. Perhaps a link to your latest post which you know rocks. Or perhaps even a product recommendation that you truly believe is awesome and will benefit your readers.

So, you send the email to your list. And…

You check back the next day and you see that a certain number of people unsubscribed from your list after getting your email.

What? Why?

It is like a little punch in the nuts. 🙂

Why are they unsubscribing? Do they think your stuff sucks? Are you just that out of touch that you’re the only one who thinks what you’re doing is good work?

Sometimes it CAN feel that way.

But, you know…. it happens.

In fact, as I write this post, I just sent my third email to my list about a webinar I have going on this evening. Since I began promoting this webinar 3 days ago, I’ve had 67 people opt out of my list.

67 people, for reason or the other, decided they didn’t want to hear from me anymore.

With all this talk about the importance of growing an email list, it seems like I’m going the wrong direction, right?

Well, no.

And, no, you absolutely shouldn’t be bummed when somebody opts out of your email list.

Because, it isn’t the size of your list that matters as much as it is that the people on your list really want to hear from you. In fancy marketing talk, they would be “qualified”. You want to be talking to the right kind of person, not just anybody who will fog up a mirror when they take a breath.

Any email list is a living, breathing thing. People come and go all the time. In the end, you want the people who stick around to be there because they truly dig what you’re doing. Those are your fans.

Those 67 people who left my list, they weren’t the right prospect. Perhaps they weren’t that interested in my topic. Perhaps they resent any form of marketing. Perhaps they’re just short on time and realize they aren’t going to act on anything I say anyway. Whatever the reason, it means they aren’t the right fit.

Now, if you’re in a situation where you’re losing more people than you’re bringing in, well obviously you would need to re-evaluate your strategies. That’s a different matter altogether. There’s a course to help you with that. 🙂

So, should you be bummed when somebody unsubscribes from your list?

No, it happens.

Your job is to set expectations on what they can expect by being on your list, then deliver – or even surpass – those expectations. Aside from that,  if they leave, it probably means you just weren’t the right match for them.

No big deal.