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My email list grew by 900 people in 3 days and it was all one dumb typo
Last Tuesday I set up an exit intent popup on my site using a free tool, meant to offer a 10 percent off code. I typed the discount as 100 by mistake and hit publish without checking. By Wednesday morning I had 300 new signups and my inbox was on fire with people asking if the code was real. I panicked and changed it back, but the damage was done, people had already shared a screenshot of the popup on a deals subreddit. My host sent me a note saying my site had 40 times normal traffic, and my monthly free plan cap got hit by Thursday afternoon. I ended up honoring the 100 percent code for anyone who signed up in that window because I felt bad, which cost me about $600 in sales. Here is the weird part, most of those 900 people still open my emails three weeks later, way better than my normal list. Lesson is not really a lesson, I just want to know if anyone else has had a typo blow up on them like this.
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lunaf679d ago
Something kinda close happened to me with a newsletter giveaway. I offered a free guide and put the wrong link in, so it went to a page that was just blank. People thought it was a puzzle or a test and started emailing me guesses, and a bunch of them actually replied to every email after that because they felt invested somehow. What worked for me was keeping the momentum instead of going quiet. I sent a short note owning the screw up, thanked them, and asked one simple question about what they wanted to hear about. The replies gave me way better content than anything I would have guessed, and the open rates stayed high for months. So my advice is to ride the wave while it lasts and just talk to those 900 like real people, since they clearly like you enough to stick around. The $600 stings but honestly you bought a list that actually reads your stuff, which is hard to do.
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