When was the last time you gave your database a good scrub? If your answer is any more than 6 months, you’re overdue for a cleaning to help you answer “How healthy is your email list?”
If a percentage (or all) the email marketing messages you’re sending end up trapped in a spam filter, you’re not doing a good job of reaching important customers.
Run it through the deep clean cycle
The first step involves going through an email verification app. These apps take your list and for a small fee eliminate all invalid, undeliverable or known spam trap email addresses. Services like ZeroBounce, NeverBounce, Pabbly or Email Checker will help identify the really bad email addresses and scrub them off your list.
Take its temperature
The second step to determine if your email list is healthy is to segment between “cold” and “warm” contacts.
Warm contacts are:
- addresses who have provided you with explicit permission to email them
- have been contacted within the last 90 days
- are regularly engaging with your messaging
Cold contacts:
- haven’t been contacted in more than 90 days
- have not provided you with explicit permission to be emailed
- are simply not engaging with your messages
But, what is an “engagement”? Engagement is what people are doing once your email comes into their inbox: either opening or clicking. However, there are actions that can happen outside of the email channel that also qualify as audience engagement. For example:
- the email address has been provided by the user on your website
- the address belongs to a person who’s completed a transaction with your company
While you can continue contacting your warm segment, your cold segment is not ready for prime time and should be benched until it can be warmed up again. Before you remove them into the Inactives segment, send one last email asking them to perform an action (like checking their subscription preferences) before you remove them from your list. This last ditch effort might help retain at least some of those customers.
Don’t delete, segment.
I know it’s expensive to keep inactive lists loaded into your Mailchimp account, but refrain from completely deleting these contacts, there’s hope that you might be able to activate them again by targeting them through a different channel.
Try one of the following:
- Creating a targeted ad toward those email addresses
- Create a free online event that requires a signup
- Send a personal email
- Reach out via snail mail
Stick to a routine
When it comes to email marketing, the best way to keep warm contacts warm is to continue serving them with content. Not too much, but not so little they completely forget why they’re receiving your emails in the first place.
Investigate!
If your email engagement is decreasing, investigate the causes. You might not be sending enough email, or you might be sending too much. You send out nothing but promotional emails that don’t create value for your audience. Your content is just not that good.
Experiment
While frequency and quality is important, staying interesting is always a good strategy. Experiment with new/different mediums: Big on text? Try video. Always static? Drop in some animation. Always short and sweet? Send in longer content. Never send discounts? Share a secret email-only sale. Being relentless in your pursuit of engagement and using your email marketer powers smartly can turn the email channel into the most profitable marketing avenue you own.
Want to nerd out over email? I’m a big fan. Schedule a free no-commitment call and let’s have a virtual coffee about your email problems.
