One of the biggest topics in organizations today is the need and desire to grow their subscriber list. Most companies believe that the bigger the list they have, the greater chance they have to sell more stuff. More stuff sold + more revenue = happy companies.

Some organizations take the hard road and build their list organically and spend money and resources on properly activating and creating brand advocates in their subscriber base. They recognize that the size of their list is not as important as the overall lifetime value of their subscriber. These organizations often have pressure internally to grow faster by out of touch executives with unrealistic expectations on subscriber growth. In most cases though, these companies follow the good path to growth and are prosperous in the long run.

Then, every once in awhile there are organizations that take the easy road. They use so many different channels, spend a ton of money on third parties that promise the world who often are using the same 50 Million Opt In, Can-Spam compliant list to try and bring in as many subscribers as they can. These organizations say they are interested in quality, but often mask that with a “yea butt” statement of “we still need to get to X million subscribers by X date”.  Activation, welcome and engagement strategies are thrown out the window and the focus becomes on getting their X subscribers to buy stuff so their investment is not wasted.

Sit back for a minute and think of acquiring a single or 5 million new subscribers as a party that you are hosting. You certainly would not invite anyone over to your party unless you had cleaned up your house, got the hors d'oeuvres, the drinks, music etc. When your guests arrive, do you open the door and let them stand there or do you give the tour of where everything is so that they can enjoy themselves. As more and more people hear about how great your party is, folks will want a piece of the action and convince you to invite their friends. Eventually it will lead to a bunch of riff raffs wanting in which will eventually ruin it for everyone.

Before you put some super aggressive acquisition plan together, ensure that your house is in order and you are ready to greet your guests. One of my colleagues and fellow bloggers here, Matt Vernhount says is beautifully: “It’s not the size of your list, its what you do with it”

Invest time and money to the more important part of acquisition. You and your subscribers will be glad you did.