Have you noticed that your email campaigns and newsletters don’t generate enough engagement from people on your email list? Your email list probably needs a cleanup if you’ve been into email marketing since the very start.
There are 4.26 billion email users in the world right now. Many of them check their email as soon as they wake up. Half of them will even open their spam folder every single day. Therefore, it is clear that email is still an incredible marketing tool that can deliver astonishing results.
But when you want your email campaigns and newsletters to be successful, they should reach the right people. Communicating with people who are genuinely interested in your brand will increase the chances of having better open rates.
But before you get there, you need to clean up your email list and keep it that way.
Analyze the bounce rate
Start by taking a closer look at the bounce rate. When an email can’t be delivered to a recipient, it bounces back. Of course, there are several reasons why an email is returned to a sender. Perhaps a subscriber stopped using an email address, and it got deleted. It is prevalent among people who use their work email to subscribe to a newsletter. You should immediately remove these types of email addresses from the list.
The second reason is usually a typo. You could try fixing this problem yourself by finding and correcting the error. Leave these addresses on the list and see what happens. Also, remember that sometimes an email will bounce back because the server is temporarily unavailable. However, this is easily spotted in the bounce rate itself.
Work on the reputation
When you lower your bounce rate, your sender’s reputation will go up. Email Service Providers won’t see you as a potential spammer. Another way to boost your reputation is to motivate the subscribers to interact with your email. It is great if they open the message, click on the provided links, and even forward it to someone else in their address book.
When you clean up your email list, you increase the chances of positive feedback to your messages. It is a perfect way to create a community around your brand or business because those who see your email in their inbox will likely engage with it. Also, verify there aren’t any spam trigger words in your emails. These can also hurt your reputation.
Always send out a welcome email
Sending a welcome email when someone subscribes to your mailing list will prevent confusion and questions once your newsletters arrive in someone’s inbox. A person who doesn’t receive a welcome message might be completely clueless a week later and mark your email as spam. It could create further problems because ESPs might mark you as a spammer.
So say hello to your new mailing list subscribers. Tell them what they can expect from you in terms of content, and don’t forget to thank them for showing an interest in your business or brand. Additionally, you could offer them a link to unsubscribe if they mistakenly signed up. This way, you will maintain a clean email list.
Create separate lists
You will be able to increase engagement almost effortlessly by creating categories of users on your email list. That way, each group of subscribers will get an email with the content they want to see. If you are unsure how to put together these separate lists, you can segment them by a customer’s journey.
Subscribers who have been around for a while and have purchased your products or services would probably like to see a discount or a coupon code in the email. These small tokens of appreciation really mean a lot. Extra offers or even early announcements are welcome too. Then you can take a look at the products they bought from your store and recommend similar items that might be of interest.
Stay in contact
When you clean up your email list, the subscribers who remain on it will be genuinely excited to receive regular updates from you. Set an email schedule and stick to it. This way, users enthusiastic about the content you share will know precisely when to expect to see your name in their inbox. The open rate should be consistent too.
Some subscribers might forget about your business or brand if you don’t send emails frequently. Therefore, when they get an email from you, they might choose to ignore it, report it as spam, or unsubscribe from the list. Remember that it is not the end of the world when someone removes their email address from your mailing list. Chances are they weren’t engaging with the emails in the first place.
