What is email list management?
List management in email marketing refers to creating a consistent process for removing low quality email addresses, re-engaging uninterested subscribers, and, overall, maintaining a high-quality list of people who regularly engage with your emails and buy your products.
What are “low quality” email addresses? People who intentionally unsubscribe for your email list are one example. And so, too, are email addresses that hard bounce whenever you send to their address — meaning that the email address is outright undeliverable.
A soft bounce, on the other hand, occurs when the email address is deliverable, but for some reason, the email still couldn’t be delivered. This usually happens because the person’s email inbox is too full, the server was down, or the message was too large for the recipient’s inbox. A single soft-bounce isn’t call for removing the address from your list, but repetitive soft bounces might be since that will hurt your IP address’ reputation and risk making future emails less deliverable to your entire audience.
Which illustrates the importance of list management…
Why is email list management important?
At its core, list management is important for the same reason that retaining healthy email marketing metrics is important: the better your deliverability rate, open, and click-through rate, the more your emails will dodge the spam folder, the less your emails will bounce, and the better your overall email marketing performance.
When too many emails bounce (hard or soft), when too few people open or click your emails, or when too many people report your emails as spam, your IP address reputation suffers. And your IP address reputation is what determines the deliverability of your emails (i.e. how many emails even reach your intended audience).
Additionally, by using re-engagement email campaigns, segmenting your list, and utilizing a subscription management center, you’ll increase the number of subscribers who consistently engage with your emails and save people who you may have lost otherwise.
So having a consistent list management process is paramount to having an effective email marketing strategy. Without it, your subscribers might not even see the emails you’re sending.