Email lists usually encounter an inevitable decline with increasing time, for many reasons. Some people will simply lose interest in your products and services, some people will forget their login details and just easily create a new email address, and even some people will die, all reducing the quality of your list due to the depletion over time.
If you build a list today, in the next 6 months, it will be worthless, and even far less in a year. Hence highlighting the importance of cleaning your email list.
Cleaning an Email list in simple terms is the process of “removing subscribers who do not engage your content” so that you can market to people who engage, showing a clear indication of interest. If you do not periodically clean your list, then you are wasting a lot of money and effort on marketing to people who aren’t interested in your business or to abandoned accounts.
It is important to clean up your email list once or twice yearly. Usually, you’ll notice when you need to clean this list from your statistics and analytics, seeing a sizeable amount of reduction in click rates, open rates and an increase in unsubscribe rates, and a lot of spam reports is a huge sign that you need to clean your list and add new sets of subscribers. This is why the collection of email addresses for your list should not stop; you should continue to collect from time to time.
These declining statistics are a huge matter of concern because if your analytics has taken a nosedive, your conversion rate has definitely gotten poorer. Then you’ll be having reduced sales, and as expected lower revenues. Hence, cleaning email lists can help compensate for the deficits.
Segment
Description
New subscribers
Send welcome emails to new subscribers during and after sign-up to introduce them to your brand and encourage engagement.
Preferences
Segment subscribers based on their preferences, such as those interested in blog posts versus those interested in sale notifications. Tailor email content accordingly to improve engagement.
Interests
Analyze purchase history to determine subscribers’ interests and send recommendation emails about related products or services.
Location
Notify subscribers about events or promotions in their area. For businesses with physical stores, inform customers about their closest walk-in store for in-store promotions.
Open rate
Reward subscribers with high engagement (e.g., high open rates) with special offers to maintain their loyalty and encourage continued interaction with your emails.
Inactivity
Reach out to inactive subscribers to remind them of missed opportunities and encourage them to re-engage with your brand by highlighting recent offers or updates they may have missed.
Lead magnet
Segment subscribers based on their lead magnet preferences to send them relevant content. Ensure subscribers interested in multiple lead magnets receive information for all relevant topics.
Shopping Cart Abandonment
Send reminders to subscribers who have abandoned their shopping carts to encourage them to complete their purchase, potentially offering discounts or incentives to incentivize them to return.
Abandoned Form
Capture email addresses of visitors who abandon forms on your website to follow up with them later and encourage them to complete the sign-up process.
Customers Who Didn’t Buy
Offer valuable incentives to visitors who showed interest but didn’t make a purchase to salvage the relationship and encourage future purchases.
Segment by Purchase
Recognize and reward loyal customers with special offers or discounts based on their purchase behavior, such as offering appreciation coupons or cheaper offers to customers who make multiple purchases or large orders.
Change in Purchase Pattern
Monitor subscription-based customers and reach out to those who suddenly stop their subscriptions to gather feedback and address any issues.
Segment by Reviews
Encourage customers to leave reviews by sending targeted emails with friendly reminders. Testimonials can boost brand reputation and encourage others to make purchases.
Segment By Website Activity
Analyze visitor activity on your website to understand their interests and preferences. Use this data to create personalized offers and products tailored to their needs and preferences.
Segment by Gender
If your business offers products or services tailored to specific genders, segment subscribers by gender to deliver relevant updates and promotions. Avoid sending irrelevant content to subscribers by ensuring they receive updates tailored to their preferences.
Cleanliness
Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive subscribers, reducing spam complaints, bounces, and costs associated with sending emails to disengaged users.
Priority Lists
Prioritize cleaning newer lists with active subscribers and older lists with declining engagement to maintain list quality and improve overall email marketing effectiveness.
When you clean your email list, it means that you leave only interested subscribers on your list. Hence, you are assured that the people who get the emails will open and click through your call to action. If you clean your email list of 10,000 people and you weed out 4,000 people, it means that you will have 6,000 people on your list. 6,000 of 10,000 people is a success rate of 60%, while 6,000 of 6,000 is a 100% success rate. After weeding out the unneeded subscribers, you can add a new set of subscribers to your list till you decide to clean your list again.
Reduced Spam Complaints
Cleaning your email list helps ensure that you rid yourself of subscribers who mark your emails as spam because in the long run, many spams complaints from your website will get email vendors like Gmail and yahoo mail to send your emails straight to spam, even from users who haven’t reported you hence losing the potency of your list.
Cleaning your list helps to avoid situations like this because it is a very common occurrence. Some people who subscribed for your content may not be interested again, or for some personal bad mood. They can just mark your mail as spam without your knowledge, of course. To a large extent, many email marketers suffer from this, and the deliverability rate declines quick.
Fewer Bounces
When an email bounces, it means that it doesn’t get delivered. An email bounce could be because of wrong email addresses, misspelling email addresses, or just random errors like typing “gmial.com” the inbox of the recipient may also be filled up and rejecting new emails. Bounces affect your reputation just as much as spam complaints. Your analytics and statistics can tell you your bounce percentage, and upon cleaning, it will definitely reduce. When you discover bounces on your email list, it is worth giving them a second trial. As you now know, emails could get bounce for a barrage of reasons. There are two types of bounces: Hard Bounces and Soft Bounces
Hard bounces are caused by permanent errors that cannot be traced, and your message will never reach the recipient, while soft bounces, on the other hand, are temporary issues that can get fixed.
Hard bounces happen because of wrong domain names, inexistent email addresses, and delivery blockage by the email server.
Soft bounces can happen due to a mistake, or typographical error in an email address, maybe when you are editing or collating the list. Multiple occurrences of soft bounces will lead to hard bounces.
Most email marketing service providers will give you options to correct mistakes that could have led to the bounce because they are quite obvious and easy to correct. You just need to edit the subscriber’s information, and you’re good to go.
Reduced Cost
Your email marketing service provider will charge you according to the number of emails you send, probably per 1,000 emails sent, or according to the number of subscribers you have, or even both. So cleaning your email list helps you ensure that you are not spending excessively on the emails you send, or better put, you are not spending money to send emails to people who will never receive it. Every subscriber on your list that doesn’t engage your content costs you reasonable money. Hence proper email list cleaning helps to boost your ROI by spending less to achieve the same results.
Better Judgment
A properly cleaned list will give you accurate information on how well your segmentation and other strategies are working. If your list is full of inactive subscribers, your analytics reports will be skewed, and you won’t be able to accurately judge your strategy success. Cleaning your list can really help you to judge your strategy progress with accuracy, and when you are sure that a very large percentage of your emails are being delivered, you can find out what you are doing wrong to have low clicks. But if you have many inactive subscribers, your strategy may be working, but you won’t even notice.
Email Lists You should Clean
You probably have a couple of lists upon segmentation, and you want to prioritize the email lists you should clean. Yes, this is recommended because certain lists will drive conversion and leads more than others. These are your most active email lists, and since it brings about better engagements, you should pay attention to them.
Another list you should consider paying attention to is older lists because the older your list, the more you will have uninterested subscribers who will engage less. Although it is recommended not to allow your lists to get too old before you clean them. Two to three times in a year is fine.
Key Insights
The Importance of Cleaning Your Email List: Over time, email lists can decline in quality due to various factors, including disinterest, inactive accounts, and changes in subscriber circumstances. Cleaning your email list involves removing subscribers who don’t engage with your content, allowing you to focus your marketing efforts on those who are genuinely interested.
Frequency of Cleaning: It is advisable to clean your email list once or twice a year. You can identify the need for cleaning through statistics and analytics, such as reduced click rates, open rates, increased unsubscribe rates, and spam reports.
Benefits of Cleaning Your Email List:
Better Open and Click Rates: By removing uninterested subscribers, your emails are more likely to be opened and acted upon by those who remain on your list.
Reduced Spam Complaints: Cleaning your list helps prevent spam complaints, which can negatively affect your email deliverability and reputation.
Fewer Bounces: Cleaning reduces email bounces, both hard bounces (permanent errors) and soft bounces (temporary issues), leading to improved email deliverability.
Reduced Cost: Cleaning your list ensures you are not spending money on sending emails to uninterested or non-existent addresses, thereby optimizing your email marketing budget.
Better Judgment: A clean list provides more accurate data on the success of your marketing strategies, allowing you to make informed decisions and adjustments.
Email Lists You Should Clean: Prioritize cleaning your most active email lists, as they are likely to drive higher conversions and engagement. Additionally, pay attention to older lists, as they may have accumulated uninterested subscribers over time. It is recommended to clean lists two to three times a year to maintain their quality.
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Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
