This week I tried something totally different with my various lists. The
results have been interesting to say the least.

First of all, let me give some background info on how I normally treat my
lists.

Each list gets a regular newsletter sent out. Some lists have a series of 52
weeks, others 62, and some only 17 weeks or around that amount. But each
list gets good quality content.

The mailings vary. Some lists get mailed once a week, others every 3 or 4
days.

Each list will get a sales pitch mixed in with that about once every 3 mailings.

There you go. That's my normal routine. It has served me very well over
the few years I have been list building.

Sound reasonable? Anybody see any problems? Any comments? Please
feel free to chime in.

Okay, this week I tried something different.

On December 13, I sent a broadcast email to all my lists saying that I
would be running a special 12 Days of Christmas sale starting on the 14th
and that they would be receiving one email a day in addition to whatever
regular email they were scheduled to get, with a different special offer
each day for 12 days.

I then told them that if they weren't happy about getting that many
emails and didn't want to receive them that the unsubscribe link was
below and that they should use it. I put it right below my signature so
that they didn't have to hunt for it.

I was upfront, warned them that this would be unusual activity for their
list and gave them the option to opt out BEFORE they got any of the
emails.

Now mind you, these are lists that up until now, they were receiving
quality content on a regular basis and very few sales pitches. And up
until this point, my opt out level has been virtually non existent.

So what happened?

About 2% of my total list members unsubscribed right away.

2%

That's a pretty hefty figure. And mind you, these are people who were
pleased enough with my content to stay on, some for a very long time.

So, what did this tell me?

It told me this, without any doubt in my mind. These people were tire
kickers, only interested in sucking me dry for all the info that they could
get and had no intention of ever buying a thing from me.

So I say...good riddens to bad rubbish.

But...something else happened.

I had other people emailing me asking me what the specials were going
to be in advance. Naturally I told them they'd have to wait to find out
just like everybody else.

And then, and this is the best part, I guess because of stupid spam filters
and unreliable email delivery, I had people emailing me after the first 4 days
complaining that they didn't get one of the day's offers.

Imagine that. They were upset because they didn't get sold to that day.

The people who are your customers, who value your products and your
knowledge...they want what you have to offer. They'll beg for you for it
even.

So many new marketers think that you can't sell to people, that it's
almost impossible to make sales, that you could give away the store but
as soon as you make a pitch, they're gone.

This experience of mine proves that this just isn't so.

Give the people what they want. Make them an offer that they can't
refuse...and they will beg you to sell them stuff.

Now I have to try to explain to people why they may not be getting
their emails because I have been getting a lot of complaints about this.

And people aren't happy when they can't buy stuff from you.

Don't ever forget it.