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spring clean your email list

5 reasons you should spring clean your email list today

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Cleaning anything is a chore. Cleaning an email list that hasn’t been touched is definitely one of those things. It’s tough enough keeping on top of all you have to do without having to look after a bunch of data.

Well, there are some very good reasons why keeping a clean email list is something every business should do. Below are my five. I’m sure you’ll be convinced once you read them all!

1. Your email results will improve

Having a clean list means you get better results for your email campaigns. It’s as simple as that. Take a look at your email reports. Do your campaigns have a lot of bounces? This is when an email hasn’t been delivered, for a number of reasons, such as the email address is incorrect. Imagine signing up to receive a newsletter, but never getting it because the business owner doesn’t have your correct email address. That’s one less prospect you’re talking to.

Minal’s Tip: make it easier, and less time-consuming, for you by cleaning up the bounces on every email, right after you send it. It will seem like less work and your email results will improve.

2. You can make better decisions

If your list isn’t up-to-date, then it’s hard for you to make any meaningful decisions about how effective your newsletters are. Maintaining a clean list will help you decide which content has the most impact, which readers are your most engaged ones and how you can use these two pieces of information to improve your email results. Whether it’s more visits to your website or increasing sales, or any other objective you’ve set, a clean list will be more effective in helping you get there.

Minal’s Tip: set aside time at least once per month to review your email results. Doing the same things and hoping for different results won’t help to grow your business. Deciding on what to do differently will have a positive impact.

3. You can get more targeted

You may have heard people talk about segmenting their lists and wondered what it means. Well, simply put, you divide your list into groups of people who have something in common. It could be the region they come from, the last time they bought from you, the frequency they read your emails. It’s your choice, but it needs to help you communicate in a way which will impact your business.

Having a clean list will help you to easily segment your readers into the categories you’ve chosen, and, ultimately, give you better results for your emails, because you’ll be able to better target your list with your emails.

Minal’s Tip: work out the segments you want to use before you start segmenting. Whatever your business type, the data you have at your disposal, from sales to email reports, will help you decide the segments that will be most useful.

4. You can re-engage your dormant readers

You’ve noticed that there are some people on your list who haven’t read your newsletter for a while. What do you do about it? Well, one of the results of cleaning your list is being able to identify these people. Once you have, you can send out a campaign to try to get them to start reading your emails again. For example, if your business provides training for other companies, you could send out a free e-book about how to motivate your employees. Everyone loves to get a free gift, especially something that’s useful for their job. Build some goodwill with your dormant readers and they will start reading again.

Minal’s Tip: plan your re-engagement campaign and have a target or goal in mind so you can measure how successful it’s been. You could even try an A/B test with a small segment of your list and use the winner with the rest.

5. You can save money

That got your attention! If you pay for your email service, it’s likely you’re paying according to the size of your email list. So, every email address that is dormant or doesn’t exist anymore is costing you money. If any of the four reasons to clean your list haven’t convinced you, this one should!

Lots of businesses are often reluctant to remove people from their email lists. They think that if people still receive their emails, they may start to read them one day. Be bold with your email list. It’s OK to delete contacts if they aren’t reading your emails, or you don’t have the right email address for them. Just follow step four, above, before you do.

Minal’s Tip: call your email service provider and talk through how you can reduce costs. I can guarantee they will help you, rather than lose your custom.

So, there you have it. A clean email list will really benefit your business. Your emails will be received by people who really do want to read them. You will get better results, not only for your emails but for your business growth.

Ready to get started with your newsletter? My recommendation for an email marketing tool is Constant Contact. But it’s so much more than email marketing. Try it out. I’m sure you’ll be as hooked as I am!