One of the keys to success with email marketing is keeping your contact list up to date and segmented. Keeping a clean list will make sure that your are sending relevant messages and will improve your open rates.
Having a clean email list is one of those things that everyone understands on an intellectual level, but no one wants to do it. It just sounds like an awful job. But it doesn’t have to be that bad, particularly if you do it on a regular basis and your take advantage of your available tools to automate the process.
The general steps to cleaning your email list include:
- Identifying contacts with low engagement
- Asking them if they are still interested
- Take Action Based on their response
Establishing a regular list scrubbing rhythm (I like every three months)will help you keep a high quality list of contacts.
Let’s talk a little more about each step:
Identifying Contacts With Low Engagement
The first step in maintaining your list is to identify those contacts who are not engaging with you. In step #2, we are going to ask people if they still want to hear from you us. You don’t want to send that message to someone who is in regular contact with you.
Most businesses find it easier to identify and tag their engaged contacts first. The non-engaged list then becomes those contacts without and “engaged” tag.
First, identify the period you want to use to determine which contacts are not engaged. If you are doing this exercise every 90 days, then you may want to use 120 days to identify those who are not engaged. Pick a time period that makes sense for your business.
The next step is to define and mark your engaged contacts. Depending on the software you use, you will use either a tag, category, or a custom field. I prefer tags if they are available. Assuming you are using 120 days, you will want to tag a contact as engaged if they performed any of the following actions in the past 120 days:
- Opened an email
- Clicked on any links in your emails
- Made a purchase
- Filled out a webform or downloaded something from your website
- Engaged in a conversation with you
If you use a tool like Infusionsoft you will be able to automate all these steps. Others tools may be able to help you automate some of the steps but you may also have to perform some of them manually.
Ask If They Are Still Interested
This is a straightforward email message, asking the contact if they would still like to hear from you. You will want to make it as easy for them to respond as possible. If your email tool allows you to embed “action links” in your email, use those. Otherwise, ask your contact to reply “yes” or “no”. Just be clear about what you want them to do.
Take Action Based on Their Response
Naturally, you want to take action based upon what they tell you.
If they indicate they are still interested, flag them as such (or remove the “low engagement” flag). You may also want to follow up and collect more information that will help you place the contact in the proper segment(s).
If they are not interested in hearing from you any more, you must decide to either a) remove them from your list or b) leave them on your list but stop emailing them. Some people like to leave them on their list but flag them as being inactive. Others don’t see the point in keeping someone on their list who doesn’t want to hear from them. You’ll have to decide which approach is best for you.
Follow these steps and you will have a healthy and responsive contact list.
