Sounds counter-intuitive, right? You would think that building your email list involves making it bigger.

We often get clients whose sole purpose in building their list is to make it bigger.

They feel that sending to more people will result in more sales or more customer engagement. They measure their success based on the list size.  The thing is, bigger isn’t always better.

Very large lists are sometimes disconnected with their audience. Senders are trying to generate sales by blanketing their contacts with offers with the expectation that a percentage of them will convert into sales.  While readers will purchase based on this technique, many will get turned off because the offers are not relevant.

The ideal way to build an email list is to make sure that your readers are getting the information they want.  If they want offers on wine, don’t send them discounts on automotive parts.  If they want notices about club happenings in New York City this weekend, don’t send them information about your new Atlanta club clients.

Think about the direct mail industry.  When they have an offer, they focus on a particular group that is comprised of their target market.  It is costly to send direct mail.  To achieve a high return on investment you have to be precise.  Because email is relatively cheap to send, many companies forget the direct marketing lesson: precise targeting gives higher yields.

So, instead of growing your list to be huge, trim it.  Focus on giving each set of readers the information that is tailored to them.  Don’t blast the same material to everyone on your list.  This unfocused approach eventually deteriorates your list.  People will unsubscribe because offers are not relevant or targeted to them.

Original article by Raj Khera