Clearing the Deadwood

30 - 60% of your email list is inactive. This group hasn't opened or clicked on any of your emails in 6 months to a year. Sounds crazy, weird and just plain wrong right!?

This number sounds staggeringly high however it's a common place in all email lists. Many factors are at play here: email address changes, people are disinterested in what's being presented or perhaps they aren't even being delivered to their inbox.

While it sounds down right stilly to remove emails from an email marketing list, cutting ties with these emails is best for all parties considered. These email addresses are obviously not interested in what your sending them so why spend the money continually flooding their inbox's with emails.

Internet Service Provider (ISP) relationships is another huge reason we need to say goodbye to these inactive emails. Say an email address changes and is no longer active. The former recipient knows this email is no good, even the ISP's know this email address is no longer valid...but you don't. While you are constantly sending them emails hoping they will sooner or later open one, the ISP's pick up on this. Since you aren't following best practices by removing them, they just assume you're a spammer. This in turn hurts your sender score which can make it hard to get emails to the inbox's to those who are interested in your company. Going through your list once a year and removing the deadwood is key!

After clearing the deadwood, cost per emails is down, results are up

One of our clients, the Breckenridge Resort Chamber, is a great example of how "clearing the deadwood" can be effective. Upon inspection we realized that they had 22K inactive emails. These folks had neither opened or clicked on an email is close to a year. We sent all the 22K an email trying to re-engage them in the campaign. This email was a simple ePostcard with 3 easy options. They could either click the "stay on the list" link, click the "please remove me from the list" link or take no action and be removed. Making this a pain-free process that required no additional information is the best way to try to reel in those unengaged people. From that email we were able to re-engage 3.5% of that list (that may seem like a small number but when your dealing with that many inactive emails it comes out to be almost 1,000 people). In the end we removed around 20K worth of uninterested email addresses. Its only been a short time since the deadwood was cleared but we are already seeing a large improvement in their stats. Breckenridge's previously mediocre stats have already seen a 10% increase in terms of open rates. They're paying less to send out each email campaign and their results have improved.

While list attrition is something that can't be avoided, there are some easy steps we can take to keep those inactive's at a minimum.

1. Have a simple opt-in form. Let the subscriber know exactly what to expect through your emails and how often to expect it. Allowing them to chose how often they will receive emails is a great way to cut down on over-sending.
   After the opt-in form, send them to a landing page confirming their subscription.
2. Send an immediate welcome message to their inbox. Sending a branded email welcoming them to the program right away is a great way to start the relationship on a good note.
3. Send relevant content. Sending relevant, segmented emails that contain value is a great way to retain your customer's focus. A good portion of your list at one point was interested in what you had to offer. If you're not sending them relevant information they're going to check out. If they don't unsubscribe they will "emotionally unsubscribe" where they'll still receive you emails but will immediately hit the delete button without thinking twice of
   opening.
4. Preference center. Have an preference center where the user can update their email address and allow them to change their sending frequency and type of content received.
5. Email Authentication. Authenticating emails isn't a 100% guarantee your email with make it to the inbox but its the best step to ensure it won't be blocked by the ISP's.
6. Only send to those who opt-in to your program. While it is enticing to send emails to every address you can get your hand on, a healthy program only sends to confirmed opt-ins.

While these steps are easy to put in the place, they are critical in keeping your email subscribers engaged.

contact your email account manager to dig into your "Most Active User Report" and start clearing the deadwood today.

Eric Taylor

Email Project Manager