To boost the success of email marketing, you’ll need to ensure you have an updated and well-maintained email list. In this article, we’ll discuss the basics of email list marketing maintenance and why it matters.
The Basics of Email List Marketing
Email marketing enables you to build a relationship with your customers and helps to bring in more sales. With a well-maintained email list, you’ll know you’re reaching interested customers. Once you’ve built the list, you’ll need to manage and optimize it.
Unsafe or typo-filled email addresses will affect the deliverability of your emails. Not only will they lower engagement, but they’re more likely to end up flagged as spam. Over time, this can damage your sender’s reputation and affect your ability to reach all your customers via email.
What Does Email List Maintenance Include?
1. Get Explicit Consent
Getting permission from your subscribers to send them emails is a best practice. Limiting your list to people who agree to receive emails helps build brand loyalty. It also keeps your “unsubscribe” rates low and your engagement rates high. You can ensure your subscribers have provided consent by gathering their contact information through “opt-in” forms.
2. Create a Welcome Sequence
A welcome sequence is an automated message that new subscribers receive after they’ve joined your email list. This email provides your subscribers with the opportunity to get to know your company immediately and to start building a rapport. If new subscribers don’t hear from you after joining, they’ll likely lose interest. Here are a few tips for your welcome sequence:
- Use a casual, conversational tone.
- Ask a question and encourage your subscribers to respond.
- Share valuable content – include a blog post, guide, or product video.
- Keep the emails consistent, but avoid bombarding them with too many emails.
3. Segment Your Subscribers
According to statistics, open rates are 11% higher for companies that send personalized emails than companies that send generic “one-size-fits-all” emails. Segmenting your email contacts into lists based on specific criteria is the best way to deliver targeted emails.
Your segments should be determined by whatever groups of data are specific to your customers. It’s best to determine what these are and how you’ll collect them before you start.
4. Remove Inactive Subscribers
Removing any unengaged subscribers from your email list is a key part of email list maintenance. It isn’t about the number of subscribers, but instead, it is about engagement. Active, engaged contacts are more valuable than those who aren’t interested.
As a rule of thumb, you can deem subscribers “inactive” if they haven’t opened an email from you in the past 90 days. Contact Fat Guy Media to learn more about promoting your business with email marketing.
