What is list hygiene?
List hygiene is the process of keeping your email list clean and updated with time. This means removing invalid email addresses, unsubscribing inactive subscribers, and updating your list with email addresses of the new subscribers.
Keeping your email list clean is important mainly for the following two reasons. First, it ensures that your efforts of creating the messages are delivered to the right people. Invalid email addresses can cause your messages to be blocked or sent to spam folders. Second, it helps you avoid sending messages to people who no longer wish to receive them. Unsubscribing inactive subscribers prevents them from receiving future messages and helps you reduce the number of complaints you receive.
There are a number of ways to keep your email list clean. The most common method is to use an opt-in form on your website to collect new subscribers. When someone signs up for your list, you can automatically add them to a list of subscribers who have opted in to receive email communications from you. You can also use a tool like MailChimp’s suppression list to remove subscribers who have unsubscribed or marked your messages as spam.
Regularly cleaning your email list helps ensure that your messages are delivered to the right people and that you avoid sending unwanted messages to the uninterested customers.
What are the benefits of list hygiene?
This helps to ensure that your messages are reaching the correct recipients and improves your email deliverability.
When your email list is clean and updated, it helps to ensure that your messages are reaching the correct recipients
There are some main components of list hygiene that you should keep in mind when sending out your marketing emails:
Sending to subscribers who have opted-in to receive your emails. This is the most important part of email marketing – only send email communication to people who have explicitly asked to receive your emails. If you don’t have their permission, you could end up getting blacklisted by email providers, and your messages will never reach the recipient’s inbox.
Keeping your list up-to-date. Make sure you’re only sending messages to people who are still interested in hearing from you. Regularly remove subscribers who have unsubscribed or who haven’t opened your emails in a while. This will help keep your open rates and click-through rates high, and will also help ensure that your messages are being delivered to the right people. Find some tried & tested tools for list hygiene here.
Avoiding spammy tactics to engage your audience. Don’t use misleading subject lines, buy email lists from third party sources, or send messages to people who haven’t opted in to receive them. These tactics will only get you blacklisted, and will ruin your reputation with both email providers and recipients.
What are the most common mistakes people make with list hygiene?
There are a few common mistakes people often make while maintaining email list hygiene:
Not cleaning their list regularly. If you’re not regularly cleaning your list, you’re going to end up with a lot of invalid addresses over time. This can lead to higher bounce rates and lower open rates.
Not removing inactive subscribers. If you have subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in months, or even years, it’s best to remove them from your list. This will help improve your deliverability rates and keep your list size down.
Not using a double opt-in process. Using a double opt-in process is the best way to ensure that you’re only adding valid email addresses to your list. It can also help reduce the number of spam complaints you receive.
How can you ensure your list hygiene is up to scratch?
Email list hygiene is incredibly important for any email marketer for optimizing their marketing efforts. Not only does it ensure that your messages are going to the right people, but it also helps to keep your sender reputation in good standing. Here are a few tips for ensuring that your list hygiene is up to scratch:
Use a double opt-in process. This is one of the best ways to ensure that your list is clean and up to date. When someone signs up for your email list, have them verify their subscription by clicking on a link in an email that you send them. This will help to weed out any invalid or fake email addresses from your list.
Clean your list regularly. It’s important to clean your list regularly in order to remove any addresses that have been invalidated or bounced. You can do this manually, or use a tool like MailChimp’s bounce management tool to automate the process for you.
Use a good spam filter. A good spam filter will help to keep your list free of any unwanted emails. Make sure to set it up so that it automatically filters out any emails that are sent from known spammers or blacklisted domains. This will help to keep your email reputation intact and prevent your messages from being blocked by recipients’ spam filters.
What are the consequences of poor list hygiene?
There are a few consequences of poor list hygiene, the first and most obvious being that your email marketing efforts will be less effective. If you’re sending messages to contacts who no longer want to hear from you, or who have already unsubscribed, they’re likely to just delete your messages without reading them. This means that your open rates and click-through rates will be lower, and you’ll likely see a decrease in sales or conversions.
Another consequence of poor list hygiene is that you may end up getting blacklisted by email service providers. This means that your messages will be blocked or sent to spam folders, and you’ll have a much harder time reaching your contacts. Poor list hygiene can also lead to negative publicity. If enough people unsubscribe from your list or report your messages as spam, it could damage your reputation and make it harder for you to attract new customers.