Maybe you’ve heard the term “email list hygiene” before…

…or maybe you haven’t.

We’re sure you know what spam is and how important email deliverability can be to your business.

The pulse of successful email marketing relies on proper email list hygiene.

A clean email list will prevent your email marketing campaigns from becoming sick…

…and help prevent you from being marked as spam.

The truth is email providers are much smarter today than they were when email first started.

Your email marketing metrics of opens, clicks, unsubscribes, inactivity and spam complaints are just some of the variables looked at when determining a good sender.

And you want to be a good sender in the eyes of the Internet, right?

That’s why list hygiene is so important.

So it’s time to roll up your sleeves, put on some rubber gloves, grab some Windex, and get to work on your email list hygiene.

What is email hygiene?

Email hygiene is defined as the removal of invalid Email Addresses from your email database and subscriber list.

You know, the bad email addresses.

So, what makes an email address bad?

Well there’s a few reasons:

Bad Format

There’s a simple formula to any email address…

[email protected]

But if any of those elements are missing, or duplicated, then the email address is not valid.

Bad Domain

Sometimes a domain gets misspelled when a lead enters it in.

For example, if we said our domain was @delivvra.com the ESP wouldn’t be able to find the email server associated with our domain.

And that would be an invalid email address.

Bad Account

Maybe the domain the lead entered in is correct, but the account name is not.

Same as above with a bad domain, the email server won’t find the appropriate account to deliver your email.

Why is email list hygiene so important?

The data quality of your email list is one of the main factors in determining whether your email is delivered properly.

As the quality of your email list deteriorates, ISP recognize this and increases the odds your email will end up in junk or spam folders.

Or worse, you get blocked all together.

Here are five reasons why email list hygiene is so darn important:

1) Avoids negative sending efforts

When you have an email list full of inactive or garbage email addresses you’re more likely to end up in spam traps.

2) Enhances deliverability

When you can determine bad email addresses and remove them from your list, it can improve the overall deliverability of your campaigns.

3) Improves online reputation

ISPs pay close attention to deliverability.

Once you start sending email campaigns that hit spam traps or complaints, your reputation is in jeopardy and you run the risk of getting blacklisted.

4) Delivery speed increases

A list of bad email addresses is like waiting for water to pass through a clogged drain.

Email servers are more likely to receive emails faster when the list of recipients is good.

5) Increases ROI

Especially if you’re in retail or commerce, if the delivery of your email campaigns is in danger so are your chances of making revenue.

Email list hygiene best practices to improve deliverability

To start with, it’s a good rule of thumb to make reviewing and cleaning your list a recurring event.

We recommend looking at the health of your list every 3-6 months.

Here are some additional tips to help keep your email list in good health:

Don’t purchase email lists

This is probably one of the most common reasons companies run into deliverability problems.

A purchased list of email addresses is notorious for poor hygiene.

Many of the email addresses in these lists are harvested from online.

They will always cause a spike in spam complaints, and some will contain hidden spam traps you won’t even notice.

Be strategic about list building

Assess each lead before adding them to your list.

Many times names received in contests are just entered to win a prize and not engage with you.

A good rule of thumb is to not automatically include them in your primary mailings.

Send them a request to be added to your main newsletter list.

Use double opt-in

If you aren’t familiar with double opt-in, it’s pretty straight forward.

When a lead signs up for your list, you ask them to verify their subscription by sending a triggered email with a link they must click to activate their subscription.

This practice ensures all email address you collect are valid.

Monitor hard and soft bounces

A hard bounce occurs when an email address becomes inactive, the account doesn’t exist, or the domain does not exist.

These types of email addresses will get flagged in most email marketing software platforms, but the contacts still need to be removed manually.

Remove inactive email addresses

A fat list of email subscribers is really a vanity statistic.

Sure, you have over 10,000 contacts in your database but only a fraction open your emails.

If subscribers are not engaging with your emails, you should stop sending them.

A good idea to revive any of these inactive contacts is a re-engagement campaign.

This can be done by asking them to update their preference center or something else in order to get them to show they’re still interested.

If you need a refresher on email deliverability, download a copy of our guide here. It has everything you’ll need to help navigate you through deliverability.

Article From: www.delivra.com