You want to have a good relationship with your list.
 
Part of this could be engagement through reply emails or surveys (more on that later).
 
But the best way to ensure you keep a good relationship with your list is through an “emotional bank account.” (That’s a term my mentor – Ian Stanley – uses, but it’s a great way to explain it. All credit goes to him, and I hope he doesn’t mind me sharing this.)
 
Basically, you just keep a simple spreadsheet with two key columns:

1. Email Title
2. Deposit

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The Email Title is simple. This could be the subject line for the email you sent or some other way of identifying the email. Just use whatever is easiest for you.
 
In the Deposit column, you’ll put a positive value, negative value, or 0 based on the content and purpose of each email. Positive values can be seen as deposits into your list’s emotional bank account. Negative values can be seen as withdrawals.
 
You can use values like +1, -2, 0, etc. Or even +, ++, -, etc. I like using numbers and doing an auto sum formula so I always know the total list balance. 
 
Say you have a big sale going on and you are promoting it hard. Most of those sales emails would likely have a negative value assigned to them since they aren’t really providing much value to your audience. Some may even have a -2 (I’d recommend sticking to 2 and -2 as your largest values so that it’s easier to keep track of. After all, it’s just a single email and won’t have a huge effect by itself).
 
On the other hand, when you’re sharing pure value – maybe even with a soft sale thrown in somewhere – you’ll assign a positive value to that email. 
 
A neutral email could be something with equal parts value and sales or something kinda like the 2nd email you received after joining this list – maybe even the 1st welcome email.
 
The goal of this is to have a net positive balance so that your list doesn’t feel drained from you selling to them all the time. (Some people only send sales emails. And it can definitely work to make sales. But I know personally that I ignore these people much more than the ones that consistently provide value.)
 
If you have a big sale coming up that you want to push, build up a good positive balance before the sale starts. Then after the sale, send some more value/content/story emails to make some more deposits into the bank account.
 
Once you get a feel for your list, you’ll know what they might consider deposits and what they might consider withdrawals.
 
You can also create additional columns on your sheet such as Time Sent, Email Type, Email Description, etc. Whatever might help you out. Don’t make it too complicated because you’ll be less inclined to use it.
 
I hope this makes sense. If not, just reach out and I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
 
– Taylor “+2” Coffin