Four Things to Dump From
Your Email List Right Now
List
churn is not an uncommon phenomenon; people change personal addresses, leave
their former work addresses, or enter misspelled addresses when opting in. And
that can be a problem if you don't clean your lists on a regular basis.
"Did you know an email list
with a large quantity of invalid email addresses can delay your email campaign
delivery for hours?" asks Marla Chupack at Mass Transmit. But that's only
the beginning; it can get even worse. Sending to a high percentage of bad
addresses "can result in your message ending up in a spam or junk folder,
or prevent your email from reaching valid subscribers on your
list," she notes.
To avoid deliverability disaster,
conduct regular list maintenance, making sure you remove:
- Email addresses that bounce. Even a single hard bounce can indicate you have an invalid or nonexistent address.
- Malformed email addresses. Typos might abound; look for addresses with misspelled top-level domains and missing @ symbols. You might also discover URLs masquerading as email addresses.
- Fake email addresses. People and spam bots enter fake addresses for a variety of reasons. "These usually look abnormal or impersonal as they include lots of random letters/numbers," says Chupack.
- Inactive email addresses. Messages sent to these addresses don't bounce, but neither are they opened. Attempt re-engagement, but if you still don't get a response, remove them from your list.
Conclusion: Things change.
Even a scrupulous opt-in campaign will experience list churn. To protect your
reputation, periodically weed out problem addresses from your list.
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