In this email, I’ll write about an idea you’re probably heard before. It might not be anything new to you. In fact, you might not want to read this email at all.
Yesterday I was talking to a coaching client. He recently took over the management of an email list with 50k subscribers.
That’s my preferred position, by the way — a kind of Harry Hopkins-like figure, a back-end advisor and scheme man rather than a front-facing figurehead.
Unfortunately I can’t do that with my own emails. Still, I continue to write this newsletter simply because I find the practice so personally valuable.
But back to the coaching call. My coaching client took over the management of this sizable list, and he started sending more regular emails.
At first, he put a paragraph at the top of these emails, warning his audience they would be getting emails more often, along with a link in case they wanted to unsubscribe.
Unsubscribe link right at the start of the email. Result? 50-60 unsubscribes each time.
He then took that paragraph out. Just the usual unsubscribe link left at the end of the email. Result? The unsubscribes jumped to 100.
That’s the idea I warned you about at the start. You’ve probably heard it before.
Really, it’s a tale as old as time, a song as old as rhyme. But these days, it mostly gets attributed to Jim Camp’s book Start With No.
Says Camp, never take away your adversary’s right to say no. In fact, go out of your way, make a show, above and beyond, to assure your adversary you respect his or her right to say no. And mean it.
Camp was a negotiator in billion-dollar deals.
In other words, this isn’t just about cutting your unsubscribes. It’s also about making more sales and making more deals. And most importantly, it’s about continuing a valuable relationship into the future.
I’ve repeatedly promoted my Most Valuable Email course in these emails.
Perhaps you’ve decided this course is not for you. Perhaps you’re just not interested in it. That’s fine.
Otherwise, if you’d like more information about Most Valuable Email, you can find it here: