In the Daily Deals Game, Bigger (Email List) Isn’t Always Better

It’s frightening to feel like you need a bigger and bigger list of email subscribers to run a lucrative daily deal program….but it’s also false.  Some of the most successful deals are those sent to a small, but loyal following.  A small but active list is better than a massive list with very few engaged recipients. So how do you strike the right balance?

It’s all about your target audience: if you are a small niche publisher for instance, focus on your core competency of creating great content. Organic growth for your list is usually the best solution.  Keys for list growth are:

• Great content: Folks who opt-in on their own are doing so because you have compelling content and taking advantage of your deals is just an added bonus for them.
• In the vein of great content, invite guests to submit their new content. Crowd source, and take advantage of their following to gain exposure to new followers.
• Social Media Engagement: Post your deals and content on any network you are involved with (if you’re not involved, get involved!). Sharing is important.  Remember, having a loyal follower share your deals and content is as good as gold. People feel more comfortable opting in to your publication if it’s been recommended by a trusted source.

If you’re a large media corporation, you have to balance the corporate need for a large audience with the understanding that a large audience does not equate to engagement.  Again, quality over quantity.  You should absolutely use every opportunity to reach people and ask them to join-in on the great deals you are publicizing but you have to do it in a CAN-SPAM compliant and consumer-friendly manner.

• Content is king: Just as we recommend our niche publishers focus on content, it’s just as important for our larger publisher, too.  Making sure what you are doing is relevant to your audience is a basic, but very important idea.
• Promote sharing among your followers; reward them for sharing your content and deals with friends and family.
• Be creative but above board: using your subscribers information in ways they did not intend it to be used will only erode trust.  Running promotions and putting your brand and deals out to your existing subscribers in a creative way is great, but let them decide to opt-in for further communications or you risk being known as spam.

One thing we must stress, regardless of who you are, do not buy email addresses.  Regardless of what a vendor tells you those people did not opt-in to your communications explicitly.  Purchasing email addresses risks your good reputation and ability to reach out to those people in the future.  If you are promoting great deals that speak to your audience you will see success, if you spam people without their permission you risk losing those people forever.