How many of your 1,038 Facebook friends would respond to your message immediately? Four, five, maybe 10?
This shows that quality matters more than quantity — the same goes for your email audience.
A list of 15,000 subscribers is useless if they’re not engaging with your content. Tricking people into subscribing won’t pay off in the long run; they’ll either ignore or unsubscribe as soon as they see your emails.
On the other hand, a list of qualified leads who are genuinely interested in your product is far more valuable. These subscribers are more likely to engage and take the actions you want.
To help you better understand why a quality email list matters, we’ll discuss the reasons, followed by the strategies you can use to build such an email list.
6 Reasons you should aim for a quality email list
Sending emails to everyone is only worthwhile if they engage. Including only qualified leads on your prospect lists and segmenting them based on their specific challenges and goals is crucial.
A well-segmented email list can result in 30% higher open rates and 50% higher click-through rates.
Here’s why building a high-quality email list is so important:
1. Higher engagement rates
Your subscribers are likelier to open your emails and engage with the content when genuinely interested in your offerings.
This genuine interest leads to higher engagement because these subscribers find value in your solutions and trust your brand.
With value and trust established, you’ll see higher open rates and more clicks since the emails come from a familiar and reputable source.
This increased engagement also drives more conversions, as subscribers are eager to learn more about what you offer beyond what they already know.
However, there’s a catch: you won’t achieve this level of engagement without qualified leads on your email list.
An email list filled with unqualified leads consists of disengaged and uninterested subscribers who may not open your emails or might even mark them as spam.
On the other hand, high open rates and engagement rates for emails also impact the future performance of your email marketing campaigns.
Algorithms used by email services like Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc., reward senders with a high engagement rate.
So much so that future emails by the same brands could land in the primary inbox, and the ones with lower performance metrics could end up in the spam folder.
2. Better return on investment (ROI)
Now you know it isn’t about casting the widest net but more about casting in the area with the best fish.
Fewer but highly engaged subscribers will bring far more value than a list packed with disengaged subscribers.
Did you know that email marketing campaigns for qualified prospects increase revenue by 760%?
Here’s why…
High-quality subscribers are more likely to perform the desired action. So whether you’re selling products, services, or raising awareness, actively engaged subscribers are more inclined to complete the action or actions.
The ROI can also vary according to the industry.
This happens because your products or solutions are a better fit for the engaged subscribers, and you are the ideal service provider for them.
Moreover, these are the people who have voluntarily subscribed to your emails because they want to be the first to capitalize on your offerings.
Hence, naturally, they are likely to spend more.
3. Lower unsubscribe rate and spam rates
Imagine this: you’ve opened a niche restaurant that serves only Mediterranean dishes and invited everyone to come and enjoy your food for free.
That’s great marketing, but since not everyone is interested in what you offer, do you think everyone will like your food?
Wouldn’t it be better if only the 100 people in town who truly savor Mediterranean cuisine came, and perhaps only two or three left unsatisfied?
Apply this concept to email marketing. By focusing on high-quality lists, you save money and resources by reaching out only to engaged customers rather than emailing everyone—including those who aren’t interested.
A high-quality list consists of subscribers who have chosen you, appreciate your products, and want to engage with your content.
They want to keep hearing from you, which ultimately lowers the unsubscribe rate and ensures your emails don’t land in spam folders.
Reducing these negative metrics keeps your email list clean and effective for future campaigns.
4. Achieve cost efficiency
Email marketing is already popular in every industry for its cost efficiency.
Email marketing strategy comes with cost efficiency, especially if you bring high-quality subscribers into the fold, it’s one of the smartest moves you can pull off.
Not only are you saving money in terms of ROI, but email marketing platforms charge according to your list size. A high-quality list, no matter the size, is much more cost-efficient than an unsegmented and generic list.
Having a list of engaged audiences will improve your campaign’s effectiveness and spend less on converting them into customers.
5. Building better and stronger relationships
People on a quality email list aren’t just your subscribers or followers. They are your potential brand ambassadors and a great source of revenue. You should do everything you can to nurture your relationship with them.
Think about it: who would you want to interact with more in a room — close friends and family or with your acquaintances?
Similarly, with high-quality subscribers, your messages will resonate more, and you can move them from prospects to customers to brand ambassadors faster.
Customer loyalty is a precious thing, and those who have it enjoy benefits like:
- Customers turning into brand champions, leaving good reviews, and doing word-of-mouth marketing.
- They interact often and spend more than others.
- Retain loyal customers, which is much easier and more cost-efficient than acquiring new ones.
- It’s easier to upsell and cross-sell to them.
- Lastly, loyal customers are more likely to forgive if you make a mistake, but if only the mistake is followed by excellent customer service and transparency.
Building better relationships through emails or other methods of engagement translates to sustained business success.
It’s because not only will loyal customers advocate your brand, but they will also defend you on social media. When negative comments pop up about your brand on social media, loyal customers are more likely to step up and defend your brand.
6. Authentic feedback from the target audience
A high-quality email list comprises qualified leads — people who are genuinely interested in your product.
That makes it an excellent opportunity to tap into their interest and potential engagement for valuable feedback. Since they’re invested, their feedback will be honest, even if it’s tough to hear.
Use this input to refine and improve your product and offerings.
For instance, if your SaaS platform helps users create and manage a digital portfolio, ask for their insights on the portfolio-building experience. Their feedback can reveal critical areas for improvement and highlight features they value most.
Surveys and questionnaires should be sent frequently through emails to get feedback. Because these users are invested in creating a compelling digital presence, their feedback will likely be honest and actionable, allowing you to refine your product and better meet their needs.
Did you notice something? A single high-quality email list can do it all — promote your product, boost revenue, strengthen your brand, and enhance your offerings. But how do you create a list like that?
How to build an email list of qualified leads and prospects?
“Email marketers have a common saying: the money is in the list. Spending time and effort creating a list will certainly pay off in the long run. It will let you redirect your approach in the right direction and optimize spending.”
— Vineet Gupta, Founder of 2xsas
1. Use the double opt-in method
Once a user decides to sign up, send a verification message or link to their given email and then confirm their subscription.
This one extra step will filter out accidental sign-ups and uninterested people, effectively keeping your list clean.
Sometimes, when you use lead magnets to attract subscribers, the double opt-in method ensures you don’t get people who only sign up for the incentive.
2. Targeted lead magnets and content
Lead magnets are incentives you give to your potential subscribers in return for their email address. But instead of providing anything under the sky, personalize it and incentivize them with what they need.
You need to solve a problem for them first before you can ask them to join the list.
And if they are genuine prospects who actually need what you are offering, you have just roped in a qualified lead.
For example, say you run a SaaS platform that helps users manage their productivity, and your target audience is interested in exploring additional income streams. You could offer a free guide on side hustle jobs along with a free 20-minute demo of your tool to get subscribers according to their preferences.
3. Host webinars
Host webinars and AMAs where you share information about the product or let people ask questions.
Since attendees are interested in your services they join the webinar and are more likely to share their emails to get more such valuable content.
However, for this to work, establish yourself as a market leader or someone who has broken the code in the industry.
4. Build targeted landing pages
Focus on the word targeted here. These landing pages are personalized to the point that they directly provide a solution for your prospect’s problems.
For instance, if you are offering a tool to automate marketing, the landing page must only focus on the benefits of such a tool and what problems it will solve.
Since you are aligning the page’s content with the lead’s interest, they are more likely to engage and share emails.
Now you know why quality subscribers matter and how to get them. This leaves us with just one other topic to discuss.
How not to build your email subscribers list?
There’s a right way to do things with your subscribers and a wrong way to go about it. Here’s what NOT to do when building an email subscriber list.
1. Never buy email lists
The worst kind of emails you can get is by purchasing them.
People on these lists don’t even remotely know about your brand, let alone engage with it.
These are a bunch of uninterested people who have never subscribed to your emails. Imagine how they would feel after receiving an email with your brand name.
It’s the same feeling as one gets when an uninvited guest comes to their party and in this case, you are that uninvited guest.
So refrain from purchasing lists and it’s also prohibited under GDPR.
2. Never add unsolicited email addresses
All the subscribers you add to the list from the purchased list or in any other way without them knowing are unsolicited email addresses.
Since they have not opted to receive emails from you, it’s more likely for your emails to end up in the Spam folder of the email service provider.
There are checks in place set by privacy regulation bodies like CAN-SPAM, GDPR, and CCPA to stop these practices.
3. Don’t add generic email addresses
info@company.com or support@business.com, etc., are generic or role-based email addresses.
These emails are accessed by multiple people and automated systems in an organization.
And these systems are programmed to send unrelated emails directly to spam.
If you build your email lists through these practices, it will only bloat the number of subscribers, bring down open rates, and hurt several other metrics.
To sum it up
Building an email list isn’t about numbers. Rather, it’s more about building a community of loyal and engaged subscribers. Your focus should be on attracting people who are genuinely interested in your products, and only then can you get high engagement rates and more conversions.
However, you may need to change gears in the near future. Especially with permission-based marketing and hyper-personalization picking speed, you need to sign your strategies with existing industry requirements.
At Encharge.io, we have already prepared a ready-to-use solution package for you built with automation capabilities. We help you nurture leads, taking them from the awareness stage to actually buying from you in four steps.
Want to build a high-quality email audience and send your first emails? Book a demo to know a lot more about how Encharge supercharges your email marketing campaigns.
