Every week I write email marketing emails for a company and the next day when I check the statistics, I receive the same result, somewhere between 20% and 40% open rate. Despite telling the company every week that it isn’t my subject lines or my content that results in the low open rates and even lower click-thoughs; they never believe me that they have a low-quality list.

What’s a low-quality email list? A list of emails that do you no good because the people who receive your emails are not interested in your content. Hard to believe, but not everyone is interested in your products or services. You can spend hours crafting a quality subject line and excellent content with the perfect combination of images and text, but if it is sent to the wrong person, it’s all wasted time.

How do you get a quality email list? The best way is called “double opt-in” which means the person has to click a link on your website to sign up for the email content as well as click a confirmation link in their email box. This ensures the person really wants to receive your content. If you gather emails (legally, obtaining emails in another post entirely) online, the chances are low that the people want your content. To them, you are just another spammer who is just trying to sell them something they don’t want.

Sometimes people just don’t sign up for your emails. That could mean two things, 1) you are effective in your current communications that emails are unnecessary or 2) the placement of the signup link or the content isn’t targeting to your users. Rarely is number 1 the case. You can always find new channels of reaching people. Some people prefer facebook, others prefer snail mail, and other prefer email. Give people options and stick to the options. Even if you only have 10 people one each list, but have 6 lists, that’s 60 people. Encourage people to share your content, to request content, and to interact with your content.

Email marketing, facebook, and other websites changed marketing. The consumer has always been a major player in marketing, but traditional forms of marketing (direct mailings, newspapers/magazine advertisements, radio spots, and tv advertisements) are one-sided marketing. Consumers’ thoughts and wants are considered, but in the end, it’s about a company giving consumers messages and enticements. With new marketing on facebook, twitter, and email marketing, consumers dictate how you release your messages. They want to feel you are communicating solely to them and not just putting a message out there for everyone to see and hopefully catching your attention.

Think about your consumers, imagine you are the consumer, and talk to your consumers. You may not build a quality list quickly, but remember: quality over quantity. You can have thousands of emails but if no one is reading them, you’re just wasting your time. But if you have a hundred quality emails that people read and follow through on your call to action, you accomplish more.

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