Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / Why Email List Velocity Beats List Size for Revenue
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, I was looking at some email marketing benchmarks the other day, and something jumped out at me. You know how everyone's obsessed with list size? Big lists, huge subscriber counts, the whole 'if I just get more emails, more people will buy' mentality. Luna: Right, the classic 'bigger is better' trap. I've seen brands with a million subscribers making less than one with a hundred thousand. Lucas: Exactly. And that's because they're optimizing the wrong number. They're staring at the total count, but what actually drives revenue is velocity — the rate at which your list is growing. And I came across this case study that really hammered it home. A B2B SaaS company, mid-sized, had a list of about 50,000 subscribers. Not tiny, not huge. Over the last year, their list growth had slowed to a trickle — like 1 percent per month. And their revenue from email had flatlined. Luna: So they had a stagnant list, and they were probably doing the usual things — sending the same promos, maybe buying a few lists to try to pump it up. Lucas: Exactly, and buying lists is a whole other disaster we've talked about. But they decided to focus on velocity instead. They set a goal to double their monthly signup rate. Not by buying names, but by revamping their lead magnets, adding a content upgrade to their top blog posts, and putting a simple inline signup form on their highest-traffic pages. Within six months, their velocity went from 1 percent to 3.5 percent monthly. And here's the kicker — their revenue from email jumped 30 percent. Not because their list was massively bigger, but because the new subscribers were coming in hot, ready to engage. Luna: So it's not just about the numbers, it's about the energy of the list. Fresh subscribers are more likely to open, click, and buy than someone who've been sitting there for three years. Lucas: Right. And the thing is, velocity is a leading indicator. List size is a lagging indicator. By the time your list is huge, the growth may have already stalled. But if you're measuring velocity month over month, you can see problems early and fix them before they hurt revenue. Luna: So it's like watching the speedometer instead of the odometer. You can't change the total miles, but you can press the gas. Lucas: That's a perfect analogy. And the beauty of velocity is that it's a metric you can actually influence. You can't just wave a wand and grow a list by 50,000 overnight, but you can tweak your signup form, improve your welcome email, or add a new lead magnet. Those are concrete actions that move the needle. Luna: So for our listeners who want to start measuring velocity — what should they track exactly? Is it just new signups per month? Lucas: That's the simplest version, but I'd recommend going a step further. Track your net new subscribers as a percentage of your total list size each month. That gives you your growth rate. For most healthy B2B lists, you want to see at least 2 to 3 percent month over month. If you're dipping below 1 percent, that's a warning sign. And you should also track the quality of that growth — measure the open rate of your welcome email. If it's above 50 percent, you're pulling in the right people. If it's in the 20s, your lead magnet might be attracting tire kickers. Luna: So it's not just how many, but how good. That makes sense. I remember reading about a consumer brand that had a huge list but a welcome email open rate of 15 percent. They were basically collecting dead emails from giveaways. Lucas: And that's a perfect example of why velocity matters more than size. Those dead emails don't just fail to convert — they drag down your sender reputation. Internet service providers see low engagement and start routing your emails to the spam folder, even for the people who actually want to hear from you. Luna: So velocity is also a deliverability lever. If you're growing fast with engaged subscribers, your sender reputation gets a boost, and more of your emails land in the inbox. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the hidden cost of a stagnant list. You might be sending to 50,000 people, but if only 10 percent are opening, the algorithms notice. You're better off with a list of 20,000 that's growing 4 percent a month and has 40 percent open rates. Luna: So what are some concrete ways to increase velocity, especially for a company that's been stuck in a rut? Lucas: Well, the first thing is to audit your entry points. Are your signup forms easy to find? On mobile? Are they above the fold? A lot of brands hide their form at the bottom of a page or make it a popup that people close immediately. Sometimes just moving the form to a prominent spot can double your conversions. Luna: And those content upgrades — where you offer a free PDF or template in exchange for an email — those work really well. I've seen them boost conversion rates by 10 to 15 percent on blog posts. Lucas: Yeah, content upgrades are fantastic because they're contextual. Someone reading a post about, say, email deliverability is actually interested in that topic, so a checklist or a swipe file is highly relevant. The key is to make it something they can't easily find for free elsewhere. Luna: And once they're in, the welcome email is your first impression. If that email doesn't deliver on the promise, they'll lose interest fast. Lucas: Absolutely. The welcome email sets the tone. But let me give you another strategy that's often overlooked — the 'churn and refill' approach. If you're pruning inactive subscribers regularly, which we've talked about in previous episodes, you're actually increasing your velocity in a way, because you're keeping your list lean and engaged. That means your growth rate calculations are based on a higher quality base. Luna: So it's not just about adding new, it's about removing the dead weight to keep the engine running smoothly. Lucas: Right. And that's why I think velocity is a better north-star metric than list size. It forces you to think about the entire lifecycle — acquisition, activation, retention, and even win-back. It's a holistic view of your list health. Luna: And it's not just for B2B. Consumer brands can benefit too. I'm thinking of a fashion retailer that increased their velocity by offering a 10 percent discount for new subscribers. They saw a spike in signups, but their open rates stayed high because the offer was compelling. Lucas: Good point. The incentive just needs to be relevant to your audience. A discount works for retail, but a free trial or a demo works for SaaS. The key is to test what resonates. Luna: So, what are some common mistakes when trying to boost velocity? Lucas: The biggest one is chasing vanity metrics — like total signups without regard for quality. You can spike your velocity with a giveaway or a viral contest, but if those subscribers don't open your emails, you're just inflating your list and hurting your deliverability. We've seen that happen time and again. Luna: So the quality of the signup matters just as much as the rate. And that reminds me — we should talk about the case we mentioned earlier. How did the SaaS company actually implement this? Was there a particular channel that outperformed? Lucas: They found that their blog content upgrade was the biggest driver, accounting for about 40 percent of new signups. But they also revamped their webinar registration process — adding a reminder sequence that inserted the signup form as a follow-up. That added another 20 percent. So it's about meeting people at multiple touchpoints and making it easy for them to say yes. Lucas: And they also made a smart move — they started asking for the email address at the point of download for their whitepapers instead of requiring a full form. That simple change alone lifted their conversion rate by 15 percent. Luna: So every field you remove from the form increases the likelihood of a signup. It's a reminder that friction is the enemy of growth. Lucas: Exactly. And that's something that applies across the board. Whether you're a solo creator or an enterprise marketer, reducing friction is one of the fastest ways to improve velocity. Luna: And now that we're talking about improving your marketing with these practical tips, I think it's worth mentioning that this is the kind of conversation we're able to have because our listeners support us. If today's episode gave you one idea you can actually use, the way we keep these conversations ad-free is through listener support. You can help by buying us a coffee at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, that's a great point. It really does help us keep the show going without sponsors, so we can dive deep into topics like this. And we appreciate every bit of support. Luna: So, back to velocity — how often should someone actually check their numbers? Is it a monthly thing, or more often? Lucas: I'd say monthly is a good cadence for most. But if you're running a campaign or testing a new signup flow, you might want to check weekly to see if it's moving the needle. The important thing is to be consistent and not get discouraged by short-term fluctuations. Luna: And what about the tools? Is there a simple way to track velocity without a fancy analytics platform? Lucas: You can do it with a simple spreadsheet. Just record your total list size at the end of each month, subtract any unsubscribes or bounces, and calculate the net growth percentage. That's your velocity. Most email service providers will give you these numbers in their dashboard, so you don't need anything fancy. Luna: And one more thing — does velocity apply to people who are just starting out with a tiny list? Like if you have 100 subscribers and you add 10, that's 10 percent growth, which looks great. Lucas: Absolutely. For small lists, velocity is even more important because it's achievable. You can double your list in a month with the right strategy. But you also need to be careful not to get too excited about the percentage. A 10 percent growth on 100 subscribers is still just ten people. But yeah, it's a great sign if you're consistently adding at a higher rate. Luna: So it's a relative metric, and context matters. Lucas: Right. And I think that's the takeaway — don't just look at your total list and assume you're doing well or poorly. Look at the momentum. Are you accelerating or decelerating? If you focus on that, you'll be better positioned to grow revenue sustainably. Luna: And maybe we should end with a question for our listeners. What's your current velocity? If you don't know, it's time to check. Lucas: That's a great challenge. Thanks for tuning in, and we'll catch you next time.