Email List Hygiene—Keep It Clean

You want your email marketing messages to have the highest possible engagement, obviously. But are you missing this crucial element?

3 Reasons Email Hygiene is Vitally Important

Email list hygiene, also known as list “scrubbing”, is critical to your Email Marketing Program. Here’s why:

1. Email Service Providers (ESPs) use algorithms to determine when, how, and even if your email is delivered. If your reputation drops because of too many unknown, expired or inactive email addresses on your list, then your amazing message will be sent to spam or possibly even blocked. Therefore, keeping your list clean and fresh will result in higher email deliverability.
2. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) base complaint rates on active subscribers, not total subscribers. So even if you have a large audience, if only a few are active, your complaint rates can appear dangerously high, resulting in you being tagged as a spammer.
3. Expired email addresses can be turned into spam traps or unknown accounts. If an ISP sees you are repeatedly sending to expired or unknown accounts, you will be seen as a spammer and your messages will have major deliverability issues.

3 Ways to Practice Good Email Hygiene

Ready to see improved open and click rates? Here’s how to keep your email list clean and get your email seen:

1. Remove inactive subscribers. You can do this yourself by creating a segment of readers from your list of contacts who haven’t opened your messages in a long time. We recommend sending a personalized message to this group asking if they’re still interested in hearing from you. If they still don’t open, then say your final farewell and segment them out of future broadcasts.
2. NEVER buy or rent email addresses. These are not high-quality contacts and most will mark you as spam, further downgrading the validity of your communication.
3. Use data validation tools or hire an expert. There are many email list hygiene services available online. However, using an expert (or a team of experts) to write, build, and deliver your messages AND doing the important task of maintaining a clean email list are the best ways to maintain effective communication.

While often ignored, good email hygiene is a great (and easy!) way to be sure email marketing remains your most effective mode of communication. Contact us if you have any questions about best hygiene practices!