While email marketing is still one of the best ways to drive sales and communicate with customers, email in general does have its quirks. So many things are constantly changing, like the email addresses of your audience, ISP regulations for spam, and what type of content gets the most engagement from readers. Email delivery is a fickle beast.
That’s why, just like with any other aspect of growing and maintaining your business, it’s important to keep up with the housecleaning duties of your email marketing efforts on a consistent basis. Your email list does have a shelf life if not properly maintained, as it is filled with precious information (email addresses, open rates, click rates, purchase patterns, etc.). It’s critical to keep it healthy for long-term success.
Here are three tips you can use to clean up your list, improve your deliverability rates, and build a loyal audience:
1. Ask your email subscribers if they’re still interested in receiving your content.
While being as straightforward as possible, you basically want to ask your audience if they are in or out. A great tactic to try, if you have a group of subscribers who haven’t engaged with your email content in a while, is to send an email asking them to simply click a link if they still want to receive your messages. Something along the lines of: “Still want our emails? Click here to stay on our list. Not interested? Simply ignore this message and we’ll get the idea” will work just fine. It makes things simple for you and your subscribers.
Simply giving your subscribers the option of opting out works, too. Having one “unsubscribe from this list” button may be your best bet. One click and they’re out. Period. But before they go, you may want to consider using a poll to ask why they chose to opt out. Give them a few options (getting too many emails, no longer interested, etc.) or let them type in their own, unique reason.
You could also try asking them to reenter their best email address. Ask them if they’d prefer you use a different one and to simply click a link to then update their information. Inform them that with this update, their email preferences will be changed and their old address will be deleted.
2. Delete anyone who has not opened or clicked in the last six months.
You wouldn’t continue to try talking to someone who ignored you in person, so why do it with email? I know you want to grow your audience to lots of subscribers, but you should commit to thinking of your list as real people, not just numbers.
If someone hasn’t opened any of your emails or clicked on any of your links in six months (can be more or less, depending on your business), you can safely assume that they aren’t going to do so anytime soon. It’s time to embrace this data point and make it a positive for your email program. A person could have changed email addresses (30 percent of your subscribers will change theirs each year), lost their password, or they may genuinely just not care to open your content.
Either way, after six months (of a defined time frame you decide), it’s time to move on. Delete these inactive subscribers and focus on your next move. It doesn’t benefit you to keep them on your list as it will hurt your deliverability statistics and cost you money if you work with an email marketing service that charges per subscriber.
3. Send a “we miss you” email to those subscribers who haven’t yet hit that six month mark.
Although you shouldn’t hoard your inactive subscribers, you also don’t want to neglect the ones who may have just gone astray for a few weeks. Try making an effort to get them back by enticing them with an offer that will engage them again.
Whether it’s a coupon, a preview, or a special course, they need to be reminded why they signed up for your list in the first place. People love a perceived exclusive or a value add in the form of a sale or coupon—bonus points if you can personalize it just for them. They’ll appreciate that you recognized their inactivity; it also shows how much you value your audience.
Bottom Line: Don’t Neglect List Hygiene
Your email marketing list isn’t something you should “set and forget.” You want to be able to track information about your subscribers, from who they are to what type of content they like to receive. Don’t clog things up with people who haven’t opened your emails since 2003. Ask questions when you need to, delete inactive list members when you have to, and be open to feedback about why they chose to say goodbye. Long-term success and health of your email audience should be your primary goal.
The post 3 Smart Ways to Spring-Clean Your Email Marketing List appeared first on AllBusiness.com
The post 3 Smart Ways to Spring-Clean Your Email Marketing List appeared first on AllBusiness.com.