Everything you need to know about mailing list hygiene
On several occasions in this blog, we have talked about email lists and the importance they have in the final results of our Email Marketing campaigns. However, on this occasion we want to focus solely and exclusively on providing all the necessary information to to achieve good hygiene in our mailing lists..
So, in this post, we are going to talk about different topics related to the hygiene of email lists to understand how they work and to be able to quickly spot what mistakes we are making in our own lists.
Let's get started!
What is mailing list hygiene?
The hygiene of mailing lists, is simply a multi-stage process: cleaning, maintenance and verification.. These phases are what help to improve the quality of a brand's email marketing campaigns. In other words, list hygiene consists, roughly speaking, of scanning your list and removing invalid email addresses.
Therefore, we could say that good e-mail hygiene is maintained through a series of regularly established routines.
What are the benefits of good hygiene?
– Improve metrics. If we think rationally, we will see that it does not make much sense to have subscribers on our list who are invalid, or who do not open our emails. Having them there will only make your metrics unclear. and are going to be an impediment when you try to see the results of your campaigns.
Why should I send an email to someone who has not opened it for a long time, what do I gain by sending an email to the wrong address? The answer is very easy, we don't win anything, we just lose.
– Email providers. Another important aspect is that of reputation for our email providers. Let's say that accounts that have a good reputation benefit from this because providers are able to know whether our brand is trustworthy, and as a result, they order mailings accordingly.
– Increases your return on investment (ROI). Every email is made of small amounts of money that are gradually being added up. Therefore, we can say that abandoned, or invalid, email addresses are constantly eating up money.
Recommended actions to maintain its optimal functioning:
1. Have a reactivation email ready. These campaigns are very useful for brands to have an easier time finding and removing inactive subscribers.
2. Maintain a good reputation as a sender. As mentioned above, it is very important that our email providers hold us in high regard. A good reputation is synonymous with a better positioning in the inbox of our customers, and it is therefore in our interest. An example of good practice would be to eliminate spam complaints.
3. Automated Double Opt-in mailings. This technique is really useful for brands, as it is a way for them to make sure that in their listings no invalid e-mails appear. Often, when our subscribers leave their email, they may make spelling mistakes or other errors that can be detrimental to us as a brand. Using this technique that asks to confirm e-mails automatically at the time of registration, we will make sure that only interested people appear on our lists.
4. Do not buy lists. It should be obvious, but we often think that a large number of subscribers on our list is synonymous with success and nothing could be further from the truth. The goal of Email Marketing is to be able to improve the relationship with the customer who has previously shown interest in your brand, therefore, we will not achieve anything if we do not have this prerequisite.
5. Work with a professional. The volume of work and difficulty to achieve successful email marketing campaigns is high. However, there are professionals who perform all these actions and help you achieve success. So, if you are overwhelmed by lack of time or lack of knowledge, you can always hire the services of professionals in the sector.
