It’s not the size that matters but how you use it. This can apply to almost anything.
Do you know people with big salaries who always seem to have no money? Do you know people who have enormous IQs but not much common sense? Do you know people who have thousands of people following them on Facebook or Instagram but don’t seem to have any friends?
It is not how big something is that matters but how you use it.
The same is true in marketing.
The old way of marketing was to build as many followers as possible, have hundreds of thousands of subscribers on your email list as possible and have millions of people watching your videos.
To get and keep these subscribers, you had to be everywhere, in people’s faces, keeping them entertained and attentive. I remember buying social media content planning software to help me keep up with how many videos, blog posts, Facebook and Instagram posts, tweets and emails I was churning out every day. It was mind-numbingly tiring.
And it has become very clear that this way no longer works: https://www.insider.com/instagrammer-arii-2-million-followers-cannot-sell-36-t-shirts-2019-5
I don’t kiss and tell, but I had some friends who had over half a million email subscribers. They talked proudly of their open and click-through rates and other email jargon like they were kings of the world. But, in this game, the only size that really matters is your profit at the end of the month.
You can make more money every month with a highly targeted list of 100 email subscribers than a poorly targeted email list of 10,000 or a Facebook page with 100,000 people on it.
When I started on Facebook, I bought five thousand likes and thought I would be rich. But of the few hundred dollars I spent buying those likes, I did not make a single dollar back in sales. I didn’t even get a single click-through from those people.
Please don’t make the same mistake I did. If you are starting on this marketing journey, build a small but targeted audience. Engage with that audience, find out what they want, and help them get it. Don’t make them feel like just a number. Make them feel like everything you do is done to help them.
If you can do that, you will be profitable, no matter the size of your email subscriber list.