The fallacy of "ooh, look at how big it is!"
It's slightly aggravating when people bragging about email their email list size. You've probably heard the same from some local advertising agency or marketing firm.
Here in Rochester, NY, there is a local advertising company that tries to impress everyone with their massive email list. "Look at how big our list is, pretty impressive, right?" Um, nope!
Don't be fooled by email list size! The size of an email list is rarely related to your return on investment from that list. In most cases, email lists are haphazardly thrown together. Those tend to be "the big ones."
Internet marketing dude Frank Kern has some sage advice on list size. "It's not about the size of the list. It's about the quality of the relationship you build with the list." You should strongly consider Frank's advice, he made over $150,000 in 20 minutes with an email list of fewer than 800 people.
If you're using an email list to market your event, focus on building a high-quality email list. I know this sounds horribly cliched. The quality of the relationship you have with your email list is a huge factor in determining how many people buy tickets to or attend your event.
It's also imperative that you vet any partner lists that you might use to market or promote your event.
Many client projects, both inside and outside, the event industry have helped to drive home the quality versus quantity ideology.
A Canadian event sold $61,450 CAD worth of event tickets in 6 just days with a house list of 3,100 people. Their list of 3,100 people was grown from zero, all online, in less than 2 months with organic traffic, mostly from Google. The only information collected was a website visitor's first name and email address. Oh yeah, there was zero budget for advertising.
Another non-event companies that focused on establishing a meaningful online relationship with their list did amazing at quickly converting new list prospects into buyers. Using an automated 4-email sequence, they were able to convert over 30% of new email subscribers into buying customers in less than 30 days.
You need to ask yourself, "What can I do to have a better relationship with my email list?" Again, horribly clichéd, but massively important.
Want to get more event list advice? Check out the articles below: