The size of your email list will no doubt give you comfort over the holiday period. You will probably have increased the number of subscribers after Mega Monday so everything is on the up. The last thing you want to hear is that this is the time to extend your horizons beyond just figures.

The New Year will bring new challenges and the way to overcome them is to concentrate your resources where they will give the best returns. The most costly part of email marketing is populating email lists and this is where most savings can be made.

The first essential is to recognise that your customers differ, and the most important variation to you is how much profit they bring in. In a similar way to that of targeting your emails, you need to find out who would be the best potential subscribers to target.

We have emphasised before the importance of keeping records and here is an example of why. You will have a list of the subscribers who bring in the most profit and alongside you will have lots of other details, such as age, location, and how they came to subscribe.

All you have to do is work out features which are common to the group or, most likely, groups. For instance, the majority of your most valuable subscribers might well have come from shows open to the public. A little calculation will tell you if the investment was worthwhile.

On the other hand you might find that the most valuable customer is one living in a certain area. This will allow you to concentrate on that particular group, knowing that the return is likely to be higher. The data will show if it is better to target location or go for the method of recruitment.

You have all the information you need. All you need to know will be on your email lists and it is simple enough to retrieve it. Going after specific types of subscriber means that you can target recruitment in exactly the same way as you target your emails.