How to clean your email list easily

Email lists are the lifeblood of digital marketing, but contrary to popular belief, their effectiveness hinges on more than just the size – their health and engagement actually matter.

It’s a common debate in email marketing: should you clean your email list or keep every subscriber, engaged or not?

While some might argue for retaining numbers, this article will reveal why an engaged and healthy list is far more valuable. We’ll explore the ‘how’ and the crucial ‘why’ behind cleaning your email list.

If you’ve ever wondered why your meticulously crafted email campaigns aren’t hitting the mark, the answer might lie in the quality of your email list. Cleaning your email list is not just a best practice; it’s a necessity for ensuring the success of your email marketing efforts.

In this article, you will learn:

• Reasons to prioritize email list hygiene.
• A step-by-step guide to effectively purging your list of unengaged subscribers.
• Maintenance tips for keeping your email list in top shape.

Keep in mind that the journey doesn’t end here. I have a compelling case study waiting for you, revealing how nearly 5000 subscribers were analyzed, cleaned up, and with insights gained through ChatGPT about where these cold subscribers originated to build strategies for future engagement with new subscribers.

Why Cleaning Your Email List is Essential

Imagine you have a list of 511,230 subscribers and are about to launch a promotion with a new product your audience has been asking for.

As a membership, this new product will become the business’s future and the core offer for your email marketing moving forward.

You’ve got your well-crafted sales sequence ready to go.

Based on projections, this campaign had to generate revenue well over six figures.

As a membership, the revenue would be recurring.

Ten days later, the campaign barely cracked $50,000

This happened to an online business before working with me.

Despite a decent open rate of around 40%, the click-throughs were dismal, leading to underwhelming revenue from the campaign.

This scenario perfectly illustrates why maintaining a clean email list is so vital. Even though the list was large, sitting at 500,000 subscribers, a good portion were not clicking and engaging with the content.

You can’t collect payment by email; you need your subscribers to click.

If they aren’t clicking, the content isn’t doing its job.

So when the time came for the big promotion, expectations were not met.

Here’s why keeping your email list engaged and healthy is not just a best practice but a necessity:

1. Improves Email Deliverability: A cluttered email list with inactive addresses can damage your sender’s reputation, leading to higher bounce rates and potentially getting flagged as spam. A clean list ensures better deliverability and consistent reach.
2. Enhances Engagement Rates: My client’s experience showed that a large list doesn’t guarantee engagement. Regular cleaning ensures that your audience is genuinely interested, which results in higher open and click-through rates and sales.
3. Cost-Effectiveness: Just about all email service providers charge based on subscriber count. Cleaning your list of inactive subscribers saves money, allowing for more focused and effective spending in your campaigns. I don’t know about you, but if someone isn’t paying attention to me, why do I want to pay for them on my email list?
4. Accurate Metrics for Informed Decisions: With a clean list, your metrics truly reflect your audience’s engagement. A closer look at engagement metrics would have revealed a crucial need for list cleaning in my client’s case.
5. Prevents Email Fatigue: Bombarding uninterested subscribers can lead to email fatigue, risking even your most engaged subscribers. If enough subscribers don’t open or click on your emails, then servers like Google, Outlook, Yahoo, and others start putting you into Junk and Spam folders, making it hard for even your most engaged folks to find you. A clean list respects your audience’s inbox, reducing the risk of disengagement.

This example makes it clear: a smaller, engaged list is far more valuable than a larger, unresponsive one.

Quality truly trumps quantity in email marketing.

How Effective List Building Tactics Can Impact Email Subscriber Quality

Different marketing methods like referral programs, online events, and connecting with other audiences can help grow your email list. Still, each method has its challenges in keeping the list high-quality.

Regular list cleaning becomes essential to address these challenges.

Referral Engines

These are platforms that leverage other businesses to help you grow your list. When a subscriber opts into Creator A’s list, they can also join your list.

Conventional wisdom says this should work well in growing both lists with engaged subscribers and meeting them where subscribers can get value from both. The truth is that the subscriber only raised their hand for Creator A.

Where your content is valuable, it may not be what the subscriber is looking for.

Sparkloop, ConvertKit’s Creator Network, Beehiiv’s Boosts, and Substack’s Network are just some of these platforms.

Don’t get me wrong, these can be tremendously beneficial to your marketing efforts.

However, the engagement levels may vary, and you must know that.

For instance, in my revealing case study, out of 4996 subscribers analyzed, I found a surprising 1,777 to be from referral engines.

No great rewards ever come from a “one-click button.” The only true winner is the email platform, because it now can charge you and “your friends” for the same subscriber.

Online Summits and Webinars

Attracting a large number of subscribers quickly, these events often require subsequent cleaning to retain those genuinely interested in your content.

Whether you are a speaker at one or host your own, these can garner a massive influx of new subscribers.

“After hosting my first online summit my email list tripled to 1500, I made $16,000 in sales which was quadruple what I was used to making in a month, I booked out my services for 6 months in advance, and I was suddenly the go-to developer in my industry.”

Krista Rae, Summit in a Box

The kinds of results Krista had is what draws many to the idea of hosting online summits.

Hosts of online summits will often retain and engage their subscribers better than those of a speaker.

So, if you are speaking, have a specific opt-in or lead magnet attendees can raise their hand for. These lead to higher quality subscribers than agreeing to share the complete attendee list.

Either way, you’ll want a transition sequence or a single email to welcome attendees to your list and set their expectations with what they will receive from you.

Borrowed Audiences from Collaborations

Collaboration expands the reach and necessitates vigilance in monitoring list engagement, ensuring subscribers align with your brand values and content.

A collaboration is a partnership that can take many forms. The high-level objective is for both parties to gain exposure to one another’s audience.

Like online summits, you’ll want a transition sequence welcoming and setting the tone for those new subscribers.

Make them feel seen and welcome.

Paid Advertising Leads

Building your list through paid campaigns can include subscribers who are less invested in your brand and more interested in what your ad promised. Using Facebook and TikTok ads to grow your email list can be a great strategy.

It also takes some time to dial in and get it right.

In the early days, those subscribers weren’t exactly your ideal ones.

So, having a process that actively prunes your cold subscribers keeps your list healthy as you tweak your ad strategy.

Giveaways

Giveaways are one of the ways to grow your list fast. They can help you reach new audiences and boost sales too.

A giveaway is a strategy where a business offers prizes or services to attract new subscribers and potential customers. Most of the time, the entry is to sign up for the email list.

While good in theory, you mostly attract people who want the prize, not you or your content.

Are you growing your list using any of these methods? Discover more in this comprehensive case study, where I delve into the outcomes and future strategies addressing cold subscribers, particularly those from referral engines. This study illuminates the impact of these strategies and lays a path forward for more effective email list management.

Signs Your Email List Needs Cleaning

Recognizing when to clean your email list is as important as knowing how to do it.

Here are some key indicators it’s time for a thorough clean-up:

1. High Bounce Rates: A growing number of undeliverable emails clearly indicates invalid or inactive addresses in your list.
2. Inconsistent Open Rates and Email Privacy: With privacy-focused email clients obscuring open rates, a declining trend might be misleading. However, it becomes a more reliable sign when combined with other indicators, such as unexpectedly low campaign revenue.
3. Decreasing Click-Through Rates: If your emails are opened but are not leading to clicks, it may suggest that your content isn’t resonating fully with your readers or that many subscribers are uninterested in going deeper with your content.
4. Decreasing Replies: More art than science since you can’t track this efficiently. You still have a good idea of how many replies you get every time you send an email. If you aren’t seeing as many as you once did, it may be time to clean your list.
5. Increased Spam Complaints: A rise in spam complaints is a serious sign that recipients no longer find your content relevant or may not have opted in willingly.
6. Stagnant List Growth: If your list isn’t growing or new subscribers aren’t outpacing the loss of unengaged contacts, it’s a sign that your list might become stagnant and need attention.
7. Unmet Revenue Expectations: As seen with my client’s case before we started working together, a sizeable list not translating into expected revenue levels can be a telltale sign that your list contains many unengaged subscribers, underscoring the need for a clean-up.

Regularly monitoring these and understanding their nuances, like the impact of privacy-focused email clients on open rates, is critical to maintaining a healthy and responsive email list.

Addressing these signs sooner rather than later can prevent long-term damage to your email marketing performance.

Step-by-Step Guide to Cleaning Your Email List

Effectively managing your email list starts even before the need for cleaning arises. By proactively monitoring new subscribers’ engagement, you can significantly reduce the number of unengaged individuals on your list.

Here’s a comprehensive guide, including this crucial initial step:

Step 1: Implementing Double Opt-In and Early Engagement Monitoring

Double Opt-In: Begin with a double opt-in process to ensure subscribers genuinely want your emails. This adds a layer of consent and engagement right from the start.

ConvertKit calls this the Incentive Email.

However, I would encourage you to go deeper and consider a more modern way of getting consent that your content is wanted.

First 30 Days Engagement Tracking: Monitor the engagement of new subscribers during their first 30 days. This early assessment helps identify those who are actively interested and will stay on longer. By closely monitoring this initial engagement, you can address potential issues early, reducing the likelihood of accumulating unengaged and cold subscribers.

Step 2: Identifying Cold Subscribers

Segment your list to identify cold subscribers, as shown in this video for ConvertKit users.

Use engagement metrics to categorize subscribers into active, inactive, and dormant segments.

Don’t solely rely on what your email service provider says. You want to consider your business, customers, VIPs, and other segments as described in the video.

Step 3: Check for Invalid Email Addresses

Use tools like Neverbounce for identifying and removing invalid email addresses.

Look over your list with your own eyes. Manually correct addresses with apparent errors or remove them if uncorrectable.

The automation guy is telling you to check your email list manually. You work hard for those email addresses, and if you can correct an email address of someone who typed in “.cmo” instead of “.com”—do it!

Step 4: Check for Role-Based Addresses and Privacy-Protected Emails like Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP)

A role-based email address could be an email address that starts with “info@,” “help@,” or “hello@.”

These often are monitored casually or by multiple people. Unless tied to a purchase, you may want them on your list.

Privacy-focused platforms, like hey.com, and email addresses protected by Apple Mail Privacy Protection (MPP) block senders from tracking metrics.

If you don’t have that luxury, you’ll want to be aware of MPP at least and that a percentage of your list will use it.

Step 5: Re-engagement Sequence

Create a re-engagement campaign for inactive subscribers. Follow this ConvertKit guide for an effective sequence.

I’ll warn you now that the results will hurt. Don’t be surprised to see open rates below 10% and click rates below 1%.

Keep in mind these people aren’t opening your emails in the first place.

Step 6: Removing Non-Responders

The scariest step and that’s removing anyone who hasn’t engaged.

In ConvertKit, you want to unsubscribe them, not delete them.

Unsubscribe retains the history. If the person comes back in the future, you’ll have their history.

Delete will remove all the data.

If you aren’t on ConvertKit, see what your platform does with the history and take the appropriate steps.

Step 7: Automating the Cleaning Process

Automated cleaning processes can be highly effective.

Putting this in place isn’t set-it-and-forget-it.

You have to keep an eye on this and adjust it as needed. Too many subscribers may be identified as cold, so you need to turn the dial down on the trigger.

Or you may find a good percentage of re-engaged cold subscribers. That could mean they would fall into the privacy focused segment mentioned in Step 4.

Stay tuned for a video where I show you how to set this up in ConvertKit.

Step 8: Ongoing Maintenance

Regular cleaning of your list should be a part of your routine to keep your email marketing effective and an asset for your business.

How often should you clean your list?

That depends on many of the factors I mentioned above. Typically though, if you are actively focused on growing your list, I would encourage you to check once a quarter. If you are growing at your average rate, then every 6 months.

Tools and Services for Email List Cleaning: Comparing Effort and Features

Choosing the right tool for email list cleaning depends on your specific needs, the size of your list, budget, email service provider, and how much effort you’re willing to invest.

Here are my recommendations of various tools based on their ease of use and key features:

1. Neverbounce: Defacto standard in scanning your list. Neverbounce helps you identify invalid email addresses on your list. It’s great for quick cleaning with minimal effort for removing invalid addresses and reducing bounce rates. You can scan your list for free, and it will tell you the percentage of your list with invalid email addresses and suggest whether or not you should clean your list. But for a fraction of a penny per email address, it’s well worth it.
2. List Cleaning Automation in ConvertKit: For ConvertKit users, this offers a more automated approach. This is perfect for those who want to integrate list cleaning into their regular email marketing workflow.
3. ZeroBounce: Similar to Neverbounce in ease of use, ZeroBounce offers a bit more in-depth analysis, identifying spam traps and other quality issues. It’s suitable for those with massive lists and enterprises who need a balance between automation and detailed reporting.
4. HubSpot’s Email Health Tool: Best for HubSpot users, this tool requires moderate effort but provides valuable insights into list health. It’s ideal for businesses that already rely on HubSpot for their marketing efforts.

Each tool has its strengths, from automated cleaning to in-depth subscriber management.

Your choice will depend on how much control and effort you put into the cleaning process and the specific features you need for your email marketing strategy.

Checklist for Email List Maintenance Best Practices

Maintain a healthy email list with this handy checklist.

For more in-depth guidance and the latest in email marketing and automation, consider subscribing to Evergreen and subscribe to NurtureKit’s YouTube Channel.

1. Set a Regular Cleaning Schedule: Quarterly or bi-annually.
2. Monitor Engagement Metrics: Watch open rates, click-through rates, and bounce rates.
3. Implement Double Opt-In: Ensure subscribers are genuinely interested.
4. Segment Your List: Based on behavior and preferences.
5. Conduct Re-Engagement Campaigns: Reactivate dormant subscribers.
6. Personalize and Optimize Email Content: For higher engagement.
7. Mindful Email List Growth: Focus on attracting engaged subscribers.
8. Listen to your audience: Ask for and get replies. You aren’t engaging without them.
9. Stay Updated with Email Marketing Best Practices: Subscribe to our NurtureKit Newsletter for regular updates and tips. Also, check out our YouTube Channel for helpful tutorials and insights.

Remember, a well-maintained email list is key to successful email marketing. Use this checklist as a guide to keep your list in top shape.

Recap

In this article, we’ve explored the critical importance of maintaining a clean and engaged email list, essential for the success of any email marketing campaign.

From identifying when your list needs cleaning to employing the right tools and strategies for effective maintenance, we’ve covered everything you need to help you enhance the quality of your email list.

Key Takeaways:

1. Regular cleaning and maintenance of your email list are crucial for high engagement and deliverability.
2. Tools like Neverbounce and ConvertKit offer various features for efficient email list management.
3. Proactive measures like double opt-in and early engagement monitoring can significantly improve long-term list health.

Don’t forget to subscribe to Evergreen to delve deeper into effective email marketing and stay updated with the latest strategies and tips.

For more strategies, insights, and tutorials, NurtureKit’s YouTube Channel is a treasure trove of valuable content.

Remember that a clean and well-managed email list is more than just a collection of contacts—it’s a dynamic and engaged community eager to hear from you. Keep nurturing this community, and you’ll see the fruits of your efforts in your email marketing success.

Next Steps:

Interested in a real-world case study on email list cleaning?

Get a detailed case study where I dive into cleaning nearly 5000 subscribers, learning valuable insights on subscriber engagement, and planning future strategies for a healthier email list.

This case study offers practical examples and insights to apply to your email list management efforts.

When you treat your email list like humans, amazing transformations happen.