Is it past time to clean up your email list? If you have a lot of individuals getting your emails but not interacting with them, it’s possible that it needs to be refreshed.

In this post, you’ll learn why it’s critical to maintain your list clean and how to sanitize it for the best results.

Let’s get started!

Why should you purge your email list?
When you do not properly care for anything, it typically gets unhealthy. Your email list is no exception.

Unengaged subscribers on your list imply you’re losing significant time, marketing energy, and, most importantly, income promoting to individuals who aren’t interested.

And, since email list churn (subscribers who bounce, report you as spam, or never receive your emails) may consume up to 30% of your list each year, it’s critical to keep track of things.

This entails clearing out your email list a few times a year. This, like many housekeeping duties, may seem to be a chore, but it is well worth the effort in the long term.

Let’s take a look at what effective email list cleansing may do for your marketing strategy:

1. Increased click and open rates
   The click and open rates are computed as a proportion of the total number of emails sent. Here are some examples of industry-specific target click and open rates.

While this list provides a starting point, you should also monitor your metrics for trends and variations driven by changes in your strategy as well as other industry and marketing trends.

Cleaning your list of non-openers and non-clickers enhances the amount of individuals who participate vs the number of emails sent.

Even if these are the same individuals who were previously clicking and opening, your clean list has done one very essential thing: it has eliminated the folks who are reporting you as spam.

Google, Yahoo, and other email providers keep track of spam complaints, and if you’ve received too many, they’ll start sending your emails to the spam folder—even if they’re intended for individuals who want to receive them!

This is a huge issue for email marketers, and deliverability has been falling as a result.

Reducing spam complaints increases the likelihood that your emails will reach the inboxes of those who want them and enhances your sender reputation with email providers.

2. Lower bounce rates
   Bounced emails have the same negative impact on your reputation as spam complaints. A bounced email occurs when a recipient’s inbox is full, there is a mistake in their address, or there is a technical problem. In any case, you want to keep your proportion of these low in order to maintain your deliverability.
3. Cost-cutting measures
   There are concrete expenses connected with retaining unengaged subscribers on your list, depending on how you deliver emails.

Most email providers charge based on the number of emails you send or the number of subscribers you have. You’re squandering marketing expenditures if you send a lot of emails to individuals who don’t want them.

Reducing your list to just those that are interested will help you enhance your total marketing ROI (ROI).

4. Revenue growth
   A clean list indicates that your email marketing campaign resources are being sent to those who are interested. This enables you to better understand if your marketing plan is effective and how to improve it if it isn’t.

As a result, a more precisely focused campaign will convert more subscribers into customers, improving revenue and ROI.

Let’s go into the specifics of email list cleansing strategies.

What is the process of cleansing an email list?
Okay, you’ve established that your list is a little dusty and are ready to polish it. What should you do to get the greatest results?

1. Remove the inactive subscriptions.
   Remove someone from your mailing list if they never open your emails. They’re not receiving your messages in the first place, so why let them affect your analytics and perhaps raise your emailing costs?
2. Keep an eye out for syntactic mistakes.
   Someone with large thumbs wrote their email address as “@mgail” instead of “@gmail,” and you now have an inactive email account. You may also have addresses that include excessive spaces and unsupported characters.

Wherever possible, look for apparent syntax issues. Some email cleaning providers provide this option and do it using software.

3. Identify inactive subscribers
   If you send emails weekly and some of your subscribers only read them once a month, you may still want to contact that person—just less often.

Building an email list takes time, and you don’t want to lose a subscriber who may still be interested. However, you’ll want to restrict your communication in order to avoid receiving spam complaints.

Once you’ve identified your low-activity subscribers, transfer them to a different list that receives targeted emails less often.

3. Purposeful re-engagement
   Subscribers with low activity levels may still choose to participate.

Send them an email informing them that you wish to reconnect and asking them to affirm their interest by clicking a confirmation button.

While this Teespring example focuses on website activity, it would be simple to adapt to an email list reconnection email.

If you send a re-engagement email and your subscribers do not answer, you should only send them important product or event news in the future.

If they do react, tell them to whitelist your email account in order to avoid your emails from ending up in their spam box, which might be the reason they were disengaged in the first place.

4. Discover why subscribers departed.
   To keep your marketing on track, you’ll need to understand why individuals are unsubscribing from your list. Did you do:

• Emailing too frequently?
• Not sending enough emails?
• Not providing high-quality content?
• Why not supply them with material that is tailored to their needs?
• Not adding any value?
• Your list might have been affected by any of these flaws, or your subscribers could just be suffering from inbox congestion and opted to unsubscribe.

In any case, understanding why individuals are opting out is crucial for the future health of your list.
To guarantee you understand why customers are leaving, include an opt-out enquiry in your email’s “unsubscribe” option.

This one is simple, but it conveys the fundamental notion. Allowing subscribers to tell you why they unsubscribed can only help you fine-tune your content and communications for greater ROI.

Wrap Up
You now understand that maintaining your email list clean is a terrific method to boost your ROI, get a better understanding of your performance indicators, save money, and ensure your email marketing plan is on track.

Furthermore, a well-maintained list will reduce spam complaints and bounces, keeping your brand’s reputation as clean and shining as your list.

Maintain your email list appropriately by doing maintenance many times each year—or anytime you see a reduction in opens and clicks.

You’ll establish a robust list of passionate, devoted consumers if you maintain your list full of engaged subscribers who are interested in what you’re delivering.

You know, the sort that gives email marketing the fantastic ROI reputation it so deservedly deserves.