Curious if anyone sets a goal for the number of mailing list subscribers to have before launching their product (or even building their product). Are there any kind of public stats on mailing list to paid user conversion rates that would help set this type of goal? Or anyone have personal experiences that might be helpful?
Thanks!
I’ve set a goal of 500, which I based on something Rob Walling said in an interview:
I’ve seen people try to launch with 100 emails and that’s just not enough because you’re probably going to convert somewhere between 5% and 20% and so, with a hundred emails, 5 customers when you launch is not a lot of customers. I like to think in the several hundreds – I think a good goal is somewhere between 400 and 1,000.
When I tweeted Rob he added:
Hmm…exact number depends on product, traffic source, pricing, etc
Still - something to shoot for.
Exactly what I was looking for @danielstudds, some kind of “ballpark” number to work with. Thanks! Let us know how your “500 in 60 days” works out!
I didn’t have a goal when for launch; just wanted to get as many as possible 
I ended up with around 300 people and had maybe 15% to 20% convert to a paid trial. But like Rob mentioned, totally depends on the quality of the list, whether they’re still engaged, and how the actual launch happens.
Thanks @earthlingworks, that’s good to know. 15% to 20% sounds incredible. Would love to see the same results. As of today we have just over 300 on our [Harpoon][1] mailing list. Probably still a month or two before we do a full launch, so I’m feeling pretty good about the level of interest so far and the amount of time left to grow the list before launch.
We’re trying to keep the list engaged by mailing out a biweekly newsletter with helpful tips and links. But I’m guessing some of these subscribers might start to drop off if we take too long to build the product, so I’m feeling the pressure to get this thing launched.
BTW, I was an extremely happy Bidsketch customer while I was doing full-time client work.
[1]: http://harpoonapp.com