Getting the right results through email marketing is never easy. You need to be scientific in your approach and keep trying new things as you hope to boost your open rate and click-through rates. This is in addition to the fact that you need to develop proper content and be careful with how frequently you send emails.
However, to keep things running as they should, you also need to clean your email list now and then. This is especially true if you have a large database of email subscribers and you want to optimize the metrics mentioned above. Below, we’ll look into what it means to clean your email list and why it can help you:
What does it mean to clean your email list?
Email list cleaning is one of the best ways to keep your database fresh and healthy. You want to take out all unwanted contacts and ensure that your emails are reaching the right people.
People move constantly. They could change locations, jobs, etc. This means that it is always possible for emails to get forgotten. Someone can get a new job and change email providers, or they could just create a new email that they use.
If your list is not updated, you could keep sending emails to these people and wasting resources. Over time, more people will report your messages as spam and this will affect your open and click-through rates.
Cleaning your email list essentially means updating the list to only reflect valuable leads. You take out people who might have unsubscribed from your emails, as well as those who haven’t been opening your emails for a while. The result? You’re left with an email list that is of the highest quality and which will help you engage more people.
The importance of email list cleaning
It boosts your email deliverability
Deliverability is one of the most important metrics when emails are concerned. If you have a high deliverability rate, you’re doing the right things. But, as your deliverability rate craters, so will your reputation in the industry.
A poor reputation will continue to cause your email deliverability to drop. To avoid this vicious cycle, clean your email list to cut out invalid data.
You can cut down on your bounce rate
The bounce rate is another significant sign that shows your email list’s health. With list cleaning, you can reduce your bounce rate by taking out the emails that are responsible for hard bounces. List cleaning also makes it possible to identify risky emails that could lead to more bounces.
When your bounce rate hits 5%, you begin to see drops in email deliverability. Also, some email service providers like Mailchimp can suspend your account if it exceeds the standard bounce rate metrics. Email list cleaning keeps you on the right path.
Get into inboxes much better
The fact that your deliverability rate is high doesn’t necessarily mean you’re clear. Some of your mails could easily be going into recipients’ junk folders.
Besides just delivering mails, you need to find your way into your recipients’ inboxes to engage with them. You need to have the right email design practices, but list cleaning is another important thing for you to keep in mind. If your company is notorious for sending emails to unresponsive and inactive email accounts, you have a higher chance of getting flagged and being directed to the junk folder.
It allows you to avoid spam traps
Spam traps are valid email addresses that are created to catch spammers. Once they get you, they can go as far as causing you to be blacklisted by your email service provider.
Some email verification services will update their databases to show known spam traps to help you avoid them. However, regular list cleaning can help you to stay ahead of the curve as well.
It helps you to cut down on email sending costs
Every mail sent takes a cost from your pocket. Remember that you’re a business and you need to save as much money as possible. So, why bother working with unresponsive emails? If you haven’t cleaned your email list in a while, you run the risk of paying money to send emails to inactive accounts. No one will recommend that you keep doing this – not even your financial accountant.
