Cleansing Your Email List? 13 Expert Strategies for Enhanced Engagement and Deliverability

Email marketing is one of the oldest and most popular mediums of promotion that businesses invest in. With over 93 percent of marketers keen to use email marketing, the industry clocked in $7.5 billion in 2020. Such is the magnitude of email marketing.

However, if done wrong, a bad mailing list can cause undue legal trouble and setback for businesses. While email marketing lets a business enjoy $45 ROI on every dollar spent, a poorly maintained email list is neither generating revenues nor getting the desired attention.

So what is the solution to this? How can businesses make the most of email marketing? Read below to find out everything about email list cleaning and some of the most effective strategies to do it.

What is Email List Cleaning?

If you have been paying your email marketing service for the large-sized contact base but not getting any substantial response, it must be frustrating. You often wonder where is all the money you’re spending on reaching out to your potential consumers going and why haven’t you heard back. There’s a high probability that your email list is full of spam emails, incorrect addresses, or audiences that are simply uninterested in your product.

To cut it short, if you want your emails to get you revenue or response, you need an email list cleaning. Email list cleaning is the process of filtering out dead addresses, uninterested audiences, and segmenting the priorities of active users.

_{Why Should You Clean Your Email List?}

Many businesses find email list cleaning an unnecessary or somewhat daunting task. It makes them think of the reduced contact list and the fewer emails they’ll be sending. Well, we all know about quality versus quantity and know that quality matters above quantity, always! Having a huge contact list that’s getting you a higher bounce rate and lower click-through rate is neither appealing nor good for the money.

Here are some of the reasons for you to cut down on your mailing list and filter out the addresses that serve no purpose.

Lower Bounce Rate

Soft bounce (due to a full inbox) or hard bounce (incorrect email address) are two of the biggest challenges marketers face with emails. A higher bounce rate also impacts the sender’s reputation. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) are more likely to mark emails spam if they have a higher bounce rate. But if you have a filtered out, clean emailing list, your bounce rate will be lower – particularly for the hard bounce.

Higher Sender Reputation

Naturally, a lower bounce rate will result in a higher sender reputation. This will allow you to reach your target consumers without amongst the four billion daily sent-out emails. You can also improve your sender’s reputation if the receiver opens your email, engages with it, or forwards it.

Improved Lead Generation

Email marketing is one of the tools for lead generation. It allows businesses to find their prospects and convert them into customers. A poor email list is unable to find your target audience and lacks the ability to generate high-quality leads.

Reduced Costs and Higher ROI

A lot of email marketing services charge their clients for the number of emails that are sent out. While you may be tempted to send more emails, the truth is that only the relevant audience matters. If you want to enjoy a higher ROI for lower costs, opt for email list cleaning.

How to Clean the Email List? 13 Tips Here are 14 tips and strategies to clean your email list.

Start with Double Opt-In

A double opt-in will allow your readers to click the subscribe button in the email. If a receiver doesn’t click the link, you’ll know they’re either inactive, uninterested, or have a fake email address.

Look Into Syntax and Typo Errors

Make sure to check out the addresses for syntax and typing errors. Wrong email addresses are doing nothing for you by being on the list.

Find Out the Dead-Ends

Some email addresses may be correct but inactive for a long time. To find a dead address, do this:

Monitor Engagement Activities

Monitor the engagement activities of email addresses over a period and if you find an irresponsive address for 6-12 months, take the next step for list cleansing.

Revisit Your Email Content

A user typically spends 10 seconds reading an email. If you want to make the most of those ten seconds, rethink your content and improve it.

Incentivize Your Audience

Or you can offer discounts, promotions, and more call-to-action buttons to incentivize your reader to engage over the email.

Consider Re-Engagement Techniques

Email list cleaning and verification is a multi-step process. If everything else fails, send one last email to the inactive address and offer re-engagement. An interested reader will respond to it, and for those that don’t, the next step.

Eliminate the Inactive Respondents

For those that don’t respond within 24-36 hours, you can scrub off their email addresses from the list. Don’t dwell on the number; remember, it’s the quality that matters.

Segment Your Active Users by Preference

And for the readers that respond to your emails, make segments and lists based on their priorities. Personalized content is the way forward to succeed in email marketing.

Make it Easy to Unsubscribe

Making it easy to unsubscribe may seem scary (or foolish). But if you have value-added content, a clean mailing list, and strong copy, those who wish to stay will stay. For the rest, do yourself a favor by making it easy to leave.

Look Into Your List Building Process

You may find an email marketer that provides you with a list of fake email addresses and charges a hefty amount. Optimize your email list-building process and rely on credible B2B email marketing services.

Follow Periodic Clean-Ups

Cleaning the email list once a year is a good idea. However, you can opt for periodic cleaning based on your list and organization’s size.

Hire Credible Email List Cleaning Services

While there’re many automation tools to help you with email cleaning, hiring a reliable email list cleaning service like The Lead Market is always better. We offer sales consulting, lead generation services, email marketing, and contact discovery services on a B2B scale. Talk to us today to get started.