If we ever have used an email autoresponder, you know that you don’t have just one list. You have multiple sublists. The idea is that if you have multiple products, then if someone buys your first product, they end up on your first list. If they buy your second product, they end up on your second list. That way, if you want to mail to just one of your sublists and send out an update to just one of your products you can. But if you want to send a broadcast to all of your sublists, you can do that as well, which gives you the most control.
But then, I hear around, “Well, should I create a sublist for different levels of my membership site as well?” And the answer to that is usually but not always no. Most of the time, you just make a separate sublist for each individual product. But if you have a membership site with different levels that are drastically different, then you would make a sublist for that.
For example, let’s say you had a membership site, you had a full level and you had an advanced level. And when they join the advanced level, they get an extra bonus for signing up but that other than the extra sign-up bonus, both levels are exactly the same. For that situation, I would have just one sublist for both of those because when somebody joins, they can just get a generic message telling them where to go. When you get updates, the updates after that initial purchase are going to be exactly the same. In that scenario, I would only have one autoresponder sublist for the different membership levels.
Now, what if the levels were drastically different. Let’s say you had an audio version of your membership site, so you had the level called “audio,” and then you had a video version of the membership site – now, let’s call it video – and they are different prices. One of them is audio only, one of them is video only. In that case, the videos might have a different content or you might use a different language like “watch this video versus listen to this audio.” For that reason, because all of the content is going to be completely different depending on which package they’re in, in that case, I would have a different sublist for the audio and video levels.
If you have completely different products, that’s a separated sublist. If the products are similar enough so that your email updates can apply to either one, then don’t even bother setting up a sublist. There is such a thing as having too many sublists in your autoresponder, especially if you hardly have any subscribers in each one. You want to keep your autoresponder structure as easy to manage as possible: only make the bare minimum number of sublists that you need to manage your individual products.
Keep in mind that this also depends on how often you’re mailing. Do you mail a once-per-week reminder or do you give out a daily update? If you have a simple once-a-week reminder, you might be able to get away with combining more of your sublists; whereas with the daily update, you probably have to have more sublists than with weekly reminders. One more time, sublist different ones for different products. If the products are similar enough, have the same sublists.