How to know if your email list is working and some helpful email list math!
One of the reasons I see so many artists and makers struggle when it comes to email marketing is because they feel shame around the size of their email list. They get so focused on growing their lists that they forget to engage with the people who are already on it.
So today, I want to help you release some of that list size shame, while also giving you a helpful metric to let you know if your list is working (no matter what size).
First, the shame part. The biggest way to get over list size shame is to remember that the people on your list love your work and want to hear from you. Full stop. It does’t matter if there are 20 people on your list or 20,000, those people are expecting you to email them. They want to know about your new work, your upcoming shows, things you’re excited about in the studio, etc. They want to be reminded that you exist and be told where and how to buy your work.
And they have no idea how many other people are on your list.
So if you’re waiting to email regularly until your list is “bigger,” all you’re doing is disappointing the people who are on it now and who have no idea why you’re ghosting them.
If you’ve been hesitant to email your list, I recommend committing to a regular schedule for the next six months. I’m a fan of picking one day each week to email your list, but if weekly feels like too much, pick one day and commit to sending an email on that day at least every other week.
Translation: commit to emailing your list 2 to 4 times a month, no matter the size.
Now, I can practically hear some of you arguing with me. “But Megan, I do email my list that often, and it’s not working!!”
That’s where list size comes into play.
Your list size doesn’t matter when it comes to the task of email marketing. But there is a correlation between list size and revenue, and knowing that can help you set realistic expectations for your list.
The metric that I like to use is $10 to $20 per person per year.
What this means is that if you have 200 people on your email list, you can expect to make between $2,000 and $4,000 in online sales in a given year.
If you have 2,000 people on your list, you can expect to make between $20,000 and $40,000 a year in online sales.
The way to check your own numbers is simple. Take your total online sales for the past year and divide by the total number of people on your email list.
I understand that this may feel like an oversimplification. After all, not all of those sales come directly from your email list.
But the problem I’ve found is that even the best email marketing software isn’t perfect at attributing sales to email marketing. I’ll send an email to my list, see sales, and not have them show up in my email marketing software as attributed to my email. Even though there’s no way they came from anywhere else.
Instead, I think of email marketing as the general lifeblood of my online sales. The better I am at emailing my list, the more sales I make. So to look at the overall effectiveness of my list, I look at my overall online sales. And my $10 to $20 per person per year metric reflects this more general approach.
If you crunch your numbers and find that you made more than $20 per person on your email list last year, that’s great! I know some artists who make upwards of $40 per person a year. If that’s you, keep doing what you’re doing! (Including focusing on growing your list.)
But if your list is underperforming (meaning you didn’t hit that $10 to $20 per person range last year) then the first culprit is likely email frequency.
Go back through your email marketing software and see how many emails you sent last year. I’ve found that in order to hit that metric, I need to email my list a minimum of 30 and 50 times a year. (That works out to between 3 and 4 emails a month.) Fewer than that and my list tends to underperform.
If this is the case with your list, your first goal is to increase frequency. If that feels overwhelming, it’s probably because you’re trying to cram too much into each email. Instead, focus on a simple “here’s a thing, go buy it” approach.
If you’re hitting the frequency targets but are still falling short of the $10 to $20 per person per year metric, then you’ll need to look for other culprits. It may be that your emails don’t have a clear enough call to action or that your website isn’t optimized for conversion. (Two things I go into more detail about in my email marketing book.)
Only once you’ve assessed the health of your current list and are hitting frequency and revenue targets should you turn your attention to list growth. It’s likely — based on the targets I shared — that you’ll need to grow your list in order to hit your revenue goals.
But list growth should never come at the expense of the people who are already on your list. No matter the size, the people on your list want to hear from you, and connecting with them regularly should always be your first priority!
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PS. I know some of you reading this are incredibly anxious to grow your email list. I’ll be talking more about that in future posts, but until then, be sure to check out my book, The Artists and Profit Makers Guide to Email Marketing. You can purchase through my online store or on Amazon.