Keeping your email list squeaky clean is a non-negotiable best practice every serious email marketer must adopt. Yet it’s equally astonishing and frustrating that up to 30% of contact data decays yearly.
With inbox algorithms getting stricter and subscribers’ tolerance for irrelevant emails shrinking, you simply cannot afford “dirty data” anymore.
When your sends generate spam complaints, hit the spam folder, or straight bounce back more often than not, it damages your domain‘s sending reputation and impacts future email deliverability.
The costs of an unclean and inaccurate list are massive – from wasted time and resources to frustrated customers and lost revenue opportunities.
The good news? Cleaning your subscriber list is entirely within your control.
Follow this comprehensive guide to learn:
- Why list hygiene is non-negotiable
- Impacts of dirty email data
- Steps to thoroughly clean your lists
- Tools to validate and verify contacts
- Best practices to maintain pristine lists
Let‘s get cleaning!
6 Compelling Reasons to Kickstart Email List Cleaning
Here are six data-backed reasons to prioritize inbox hygiene starting today:
1. Boost Email Deliverability
Invalid, outdated or complaint-attracting contacts drag your sender score down. Major ISPs like Gmail track domain reputation to determine inbox placement.
Per Validity research:
- Gmail rejects up to 25% of emails from low-reputation senders
- Yahoo drops this number to as high as 50%
By removing problem-causing subscribers, you ensure actual readers get your emails reliably.
2. Increase Open and Click-Through Rates
Messages only reaching engaged users who want to hear from you convert better.
According to Campaign Monitor, the average email open rate is 21.33%, with a CTR of 2.9%.
With an unsubscribe rate of 12.7%, over 1 in 10 recipients don‘t even want your emails. Removing them leaves only genuinely interested contacts who drive higher engagement.
3. Save Time and Money
Ever felt you work thrice as hard for half the typical response? It likely means you’re emailing disengaged contacts.
As an example, a B2C retailer sending their promotional newsletter to 100,000 subscribers includes:
- 10,000 subscribers who haven‘t opened emails in 6+ months
- 5,000 contacts with invalid addresses that constantly bounce
- 15,000 people who haven‘t clicked on any link over the last year
That’s 30,000 contacts who almost definitely won’t convert. Yet, the retailer pays to contact them and invests time in designing relevant campaigns.
Cleaning eliminates such waste, allowing you to focus efforts only on hot leads.
4. Build a Trustworthy Sender Reputation
Inboxes don’t take kindly to spammers. As per a 2021 Validato report:
- Over 25% of emails sent globally end up blocked or blacklisted
- Leading ISPs filter emails even before they reach the intended inbox
Such stringent filtering stems from subscribers reporting emails as spam when sent unwanted messages.
Relevant communication to users who signed up builds sender trust and inbox placement. Else, bulk useless emails jeopardize domain reputation, with long-term impacts.
5. Obtain Clean and Actionable Data
Marketing reports full of data on disengaged users provide little value. Targeting informed campaigns to accurate and segmented data is what drives responses.
Per a Continue report, cleaning email lists every month gives segmentation power. You can group together:
- Active recent openers for promotions
- Engaged clickers to educational content
- Purchasing customers for personalized offers
Such segmentation drives higher conversions off accurately-targeted communications.
6. Future-Proof Deliverability
Inbox filters grow stricter by the day, requiring senders to step up standards. Email opens and clicks have dropped up to 20% in two years as users get bombarded.
Fiercely competitive domains survive via good standing. Get ahead by maintaining pristine email hygiene as the norm. Gain subscriber trust to continue engaging them amidst intensifying inbox algorithms.
In summary, clean emailing isn’t optional – it determines your entire email program’s success!
Now let’s get tactical. Here are step-by-step instructions for comprehensive email list cleaning:
How to Deep Clean Your Email Lists in 5 Steps
Follow this start-to-finish game plan to scrub your lists squeaky clean:
Step 1: Export and Review Entire Subscriber List
Pull out your entire contacts database into a spreadsheet. Avoid sampling small batches as that leaves scope for overlooking problem areas.
Scrutinize parameters like email addresses, names, dates subscribed, campaign engagement metrics, etc.
Look for:
- Missing key details like names or dates
- Visibly invalid email addresses
- Contacts with minimal or no opens/clicks
- Unsubscription requests or complaints
Use email verification tools (more later) to validate formats. Detection logic helps uncover issues like:
- Typos ([email protected])
- Disposable/temporary emails
- Spam traps (with non-existent domains)
flag all suspicious-looking and non-compliant email addresses at this stage.
Step 2: Confirm Opt-In Consent
Legally, subscribers must double opt-in under anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM.
So verify by:
- Checking opt-in records to ensure subscriptions were intentional
- Tracking confirmation activity via confirmation links/emails
- Documenting permissions to demonstrate compliance if needed
For non-compliant contacts like acquired/purchased lists, seek specific consent. Inform subscribers about your email content to refresh permission.
Remove any contacts who don’t re-confirm interest post such communication.
Step 3: Eliminate Bounced Emails
Hard bounces signal invalid or deactivated accounts:
- Hard bounces: Email non-deliverable (user not found)
- Soft bounces: Temporary delivery failures
Hard bounces tend to remain permanently undeliverable. Remove them without trying to re-contact to ensure your emails reach inboxes.
Flag soft bounces for follow up before deleting. Attempt contacting once or twice more before removing non-responsive records.
Email verification tools also predict bounces by detecting issues via real-time mailbox checks. Such predictive capability further shrinks lists preemptively.
Step 4: Prune Inactive Subscribers
nordicClick’s research revealed 38% of subscribers stay inactive despite being signed up.
Go beyond the basics to segment engaged users, passive recipients and non-responsive contacts. Based on activity levels:
- Delete non-openers/clickers in 6+ months
- Remove those with 3+ years of inactivity
- Flag semi-active contacts for re-engagement
This leaves only hot contacts who drive conversions.
You can also directly ask subscribers to reconfirm opt-in after periods of inactivity. Non-responders get removed after such automated prompts.
Step 5: Supplement With Email Verification Tools
Software streamlines cleaning at scale identifies issues human scrutiny misses.
Here are five top-rated email list cleaning and validation tools for 2022:
1. ZeroBounce
- 98% email validation accuracy
- 24/7 support and deliverability expertise
- Real-time mailbox checks to preempt bounces
- Blacklist monitoring to protect sender rating
2. Mailgun
- Bulk and API-based email verification
- Checks for typos, disposable emails, etc.
- Flexible plans for mid to large-size lists
- Free spam check for 100 emails
3. Hubspot
- Seamless integration with CRM data
- Automates hygiene via adjustable preferences
- Aggregate reports to compare email metrics
- Free monthly credits for basic cleaning
4. SendinBlue
- Intuitive bulk email verifier and cleaner
- Spam traps and syntax checker
- SMTP validation testing deliverability
- 300 free credits monthly
5. Email Marker
- Lightning-fast processing up to 1000/second
- inbox placement with major ISPs
- Click-level engagement scoring
- 15,000 free credits monthly
After eliminating undeliverables, non-responsives and unsubscribers, export and save cleaned lists within your CRM. Correct any persisting flawed data before starting sends to these revived contacts.
Now let’s discuss how to keep them pristine moving ahead!
4 Best Practices For Maintaining Clean Email Lists
Scrubbing your CRM database just once won’t suffice with contacts constantly in flux. Follow these tips to sustain hygiene long-term:
1. Frequently "Spring Clean" Your Subscribers
Treat email list cleaning like the habitual spring cleaning of your home or office. Set quarterly or bi-annual benchmarks for comprehensive hygiene reviews.
Checking old campaign reports will reveal subscriber status changes you may otherwise miss. Identify:
- New hard bounces indicating those needing removal
- Recent unsubscribes, spam complaints needing attention
- Previously active contacts disengaging over time
Additionally, use email validators before large sends to cover all bases.
2. Monitor Engagement Closely
Implement automated workflows that track subscriber activity in real-time beyond opens and clicks.
Examples of key metrics to monitor:
- Email engagement scoring based on interactions
- Subscription status like multiple failed sends
- Complaint feedback revealing frustration
Keep tab on changes and remove or re-engage recipients accordingly before issues compound.
3. Create Subscriber Preference Centers
Too many irrelevant emails cause people to tune you out. The solution? Preferences centers.
These let users self-update details like:
- Email address changes
- Relevance of current content categories
- Preferred communication frequency
- Opting into/out of types of messaging
Accommodating their needs keeps subscribers happier to stick around. You also avoid assumptions that risk annoyances.
4. Ask for Updates Regularly
Manually surveying subscribers also provides email list hygiene. Every 6 months or annually, send out repermission surveys.
Keep it concise with simple questions like:
- Is this still the best email ID to reach you?
- Would you like to continue receiving emails from us?
- Please share topics most relevant to you currently:
Doing so helps revise your assumptions if interests change over time. People provide cues to inaccuracies you can address via removing or updating details proactively.
