4 Tips for Cleaning Up Your Email Marketing List

Email marketing – what it is and why you need to clean up your list today.

On average, 99% of people check their email every day, but the average email open rate is 17.61%. Several factors already impact email deliverability, opens and clicks, but how can you help give your marketing email its best chance of making the cut?

According to HubSpot, a CRM platform with services for marketing, sales and customer service, email marketing has greatly evolved since subscriber preferences have shifted toward more personalized experiences. And one of the best strategies for ensuring a personalized experience is a clean email list.

What does a clean email list mean?

A clean email marketing list will help keep your email engagement high and your unsubscribe and spam rates low. Below, HubSpot shares four tips for cleaning up your email list:

1. Identify Disengaged Subscribers

Disengaged subscribers are those who have not opened an email in a while – three to 12 months. They are also subscribers who have not engaged with any campaigns or clicked any links in six months.

Once these subscribers are identified, HubSpot suggests placing them in a separate list and filtering them for common themes to identify a strategy to pique their interest. A couple examples include a discount code or personalized subject line. If reengagement doesn’t work, you can then remove the subscriber.

2. Identify Reasons for Bounces

HubSpot shared there’s a different between a hard bounce and a soft bounce. A hard bounce is a permanent issue like an inactive email while a soft bounce is temporary, like a full inbox. Overall, remove emails with hard bounces and keep an eye on the soft bounces for changes.

3. Check for Spam Filters

Spam filters will hurt your deliverability and reputation. HubSpot recommends removing any subscribers that mark your email as spam immediately.

4. Clear out Inactive Subscribers

A final step to cleaning up your email marketing list is to create lists for all the above categories and remove the emails from your list that are no longer active. While it seems difficult to settle with lowering your subscriber numbers, in the end, you’re helping your deliverability and engagement rates.

Email marketing has become an essential tool in any overall marketing strategy. Give your organization its best shot by simply cleaning up your email list today.