This is the time of year to “clean house”–which also applies to your email list. Read on to learn about the importance of a strong email list, as well as how to keep yours in good shape.
Benefits of a Healthy Email Address List
Keeping your email list healthy and up-to-date helps you reach business goals and stay compliant with regulations. Periodically going through your list of recipients of email newsletters to remove outdated and even defunct addresses can help you retain the subscribers that still desire your content. Remember that, when it comes to your email list, quality is more important than quantity. The best contacts are ones that you know personally, that you make at networking events and in the course of doing business. Purchased lists are best avoided. Sharing content with a smaller list of recipients can help you reap a better return of your digital marketing investment, since you’re sharing your content with engaged customers.
Maintaining a strong email list can help keep your business in compliance with data-protection regulations, too. Making sure all subscribers have “opted in” to receiving your newsletter can not only increase your open rates but lend transparency because you are sending the newsletter with the recipient’s consent. Protecting customers’ data helps you avoid non-compliance fines and maintains trust. Finally, the chance of your email landing in “spam” folders is decreased.
Some Best Practices for Email List Maintenance
How do you know which email addresses to remove from your list? First of all, recipients who have shown disengagement (by not clicking links in the email or not opening the message at all), need to be removed so you can concentrate on those still engaged. Second, some addresses may be invalid, if the recipient is no longer at the address or the email server is defunct. Addresses that have “bounced” or been returned as undeliverable, are also to be culled out.
How often do you need to clean your email list? Any time is good to audit your list, and remove email addresses that are out of date or invalid, or belong to those who have unsubscribed. After an initial cleaning, removing expired addresses should be ongoing.
Maintaining a strong, healthy email list is a top priority if you want to keep reaching new leads and future customers, and satisfying current customers. For help with your email list, contact ClikCloud today.