Email marketing is a powerful tool when it comes to advertising and making your business known out there. It is a component of digital marketing that uses email services to promote your products. As such, your email list must be clean to ensure that all your content lands in the right inboxes. In other words, all your messages should go to customers who are likely to make a purchase. However, emails are very easy to create and this makes them easy to fake. So, how do you ensure that your email list is clean at all times? Read on to find out!
1. Use an Email Validation API
There is nothing as demotivating for a business than sending out emails during a campaign, only to notice that they are fake addresses. Besides wasting time, it also wastes financial resources that could have otherwise, been used in other projects. This is where email validation APIs come in.
Email validation APIs, also known as email verification APIs, help developers build apps that automatically verify the legitimacy of any email address. It enables businesses to have efficient checks for invalid, mistyped, as well as disposable addresses. With the right email validation API, you can be sure of your deliverability and data quality. The best thing is that they are designed to be user-friendly and can be integrated into your systems within seconds.
2. Segment Your Email List
Email segmentation is another perfect way to clean your email address list. It involves automation that can remove duplicate email addresses or segment subscribers based on the rules or criteria you set. With this tool, you can easily filter invalid and outdated addresses from your email marketing list.
Depending on your criteria, it may also remove emails that have bounced two or more times. Setting up two times allows you to verify whether the email is legitimate as compared to just one time. Experts recommend that you set a time limit. For instance, if a person has not opened an email from you in 6 months, you can let them go off your list. This maintains email list hygiene without locking out potential customers.
3. Utilize Double Opt-In
Double opt-in is the best and simplest way for you to prevent or minimize the number of invalid addresses entering your system. It works by setting a double opt-in process where you nail the validation without any extra tools. If you need the email address upon sign-up, have a prompt requiring the users to go to their inbox and confirm that they indeed want to engage with you. It eliminates unconfirmed and spam addresses from making their way into your email list.
4. Re-engage your Previous Recipients
A low rate of engagement or response from your recipients doesn’t always mean that they are disinterested in you. Sometimes, it may be because they do not like the kind of content you have been sending. Before removing all active subscribers, think of other formats of content that they may be interested in or find appealing.
By running a re-engagement campaign, you can motivate them back into activity. Try using offers such as exclusive content, special perks, and gifts or discounts. One good example of how the offers work is how food delivery apps offer you discount codes for your next delivery.
In other instances, your email subscribers may not be bored but experiencing email fatigue. This mostly happens during holidays when inboxes fill up fast. Give them some time and try reconnecting with them via re-engagement campaigns.
5. Remove All Bounced Email Addresses
Emails bounce for various reasons. The most common is that the address doesn’t exist or is inactive. The other reason is due to a full inbox or server technical issues. You might not know the actual reason until you send a second or third email.
If an email bounces multiple times, it only implies that it is inactive. You need to understand how your emails are bouncing before removing them from your email list. Once this is ascertained, remove all the inactive subscribers. This ensures that you only have credible addresses and are sure that your emails are getting to an interested person.
Conclusion
When it comes to email marketing, quality will always trump quantity. There is no need for you to have 300 addresses but only 30 of them are engaging with you. To clean your email list, you must consistently keep an eye on your subscribers and notice how they behave. If you notice low engagement metrics, get to cleaning your list with the above methods. You can never go wrong with a healthy email list.
About the Author/s
The New Jersey Digest is a new jersey magazine that has chronicled daily life in the Garden State for over 10 years.
