Mailing list thoughts

I use MailChimp for mailing out my various Newsletters.  A company like MailChimp sends out the emails for my Newsletters.  They are of great service because they get the emails delivered.  If you sent out a mass email like that using your own email account, the majority of the emails you sent would end up in the Spam folder of the recipient, in other words, it would be worthless.

I have a number of different newsletters, on different topics, for different blogs.  My main Newsletter, the “biggie” is my “MindanaoBob Newsletter” which primarily focuses on moving to or living in the Philippines.  That particular mailing list runs about 1800 subscribers.  My other Newsletters, about 5 others, range from just 5 subscribers up to 65 subscribers.

On MailChimp, I have the “Forever Free” account.  As the name implies, it is free, no charge.  However, there are limitations.  For a Forever Free account on MailChimp allows you up to a total of 2,000 subscribers.  Also, for each month you can send out a total of 12,000 emails.  So, for example, if you have 2,000 subscribers, and sent out emails to your entire subscriber list, you could send out 6 emails per month, and no more, unless you step up to a paid account.

At this time, I am fine using the free account, but in time I may start paying if the need arises.  The reason why I have never bothered with a paid account is that I have not been good about sending out Newsletters.  Yesterday, I decided that I needed to send one out, so I went to MailChimp and looked at my account.  The last time I sent out a Newsletter was around 6 months ago, or so.  Boom… I immediately found out that I suddenly had more than 2,000 subscribers!  Just a little bit over.  So, if I wanted to send out an email, I needed to upgrade my account.

What did I do?

The first thing I did was go to my mailing list subscribers and pruned it down.  I deleted people.  How did I know who to delete?  Well, I didn’t need to delete very many to get under the limit, so I started looking for duplication.  I found a number of people who had subscribed under multiple email addresses.  I deleted any email addresses above one for those people.  Next, I found some spammer types who had subscribed (under known spam domains from Russia and such).  Frankly, it was pretty easy to get below 2,000 subscribers.

Why not just go for a paid account?

Well, I might go for a paid account, but this was not the time.  Why? Because I had not sent out a newsletter for so long!  I will explain that shortly.

You see, if you sent out a mass email like this, some of the emails will bounce because people closed that email account.  Also, some people are no longer interested in getting those emails from you, so when they get your Newsletter they will unsubscribe.  So, once I pruned my list and sent out an email, boom… like 65 emails bounced, so that reduced my list by 65 more emails.  Next, so far, 9 people unsubscribed from the list.  They just were no longer interested.  If somebody is not interested any longer, I want them to unsubscribe.  If they are not interested, they really are not a good prospect for sales or even reading of what I write to them, so unsubscribing is fine.  Not only does it stop from bothering the person, but it also gives me more room on my list for subscribers who want those emails!

Another thing…. if you send out an email and the person thinks that it is Spam, they will report it.  If you get too many Spam reports, then companies like MailChimp will then ban you from using their company for sending out bulk emails.  So, if you don’t send out a Newsletter for a LONG time, many people will forget that they signed up for your Newsletter, and they think that it is Spam.  It is not Spam, because they signed up, and said that they wanted it. Spam is unsolicited email, and they certainly did ask to get this.

So, sending out emails on a regular basis is a way to keep your list fresh, and people know and remember that they are the ones who signed up to receive the emails.  Sending out the mail regularly keeps your list fresh.  That is why I wanted to prune down my list, both through manual pruning and natural attrition, before paying to keep the extra subscribers.

Now, I have things set up where I will be sending out weekly emails to my subscribers.  By doing that, I can then keep my list fresh at all times.  If I now get too many subscribers, I will feel fine about paying for the service!

What about you?

Do you use a mass email provider like MailChimp?  Who do you use?  How often do you send out email? Leave a comment to let me know about your experiences!