Having a lot of subscribers doesn't mean that your business is going to get a lot of sales. In fact, let us tell you one thing; Quality is more important than quantity.
Isn't it better to send a newsletter to 100 subscribers and have 50 open you? Without a doubt, this is preferable to sending 10,000 emails and having only 1,000 open to you, don't you think?
Therefore, cleaning your email databases from time to time is a task that you must do, as it will help you define and design your email marketing strategy and improve your content.
Email database: Why clean it and when?
The email database is a key piece for your business. This means that a user gives you their email because they are interested in your content or something you offer. And that email is of great value to you, since you can chat with them and create a special connection.
So, taking into account the importance of having quality databases for the email marketing strategy of your business, it is inevitable that we also talk about why and when it is convenient to clean up your contact lists.
Go for it!
➽ What does it mean to clean an email database?
When we talk about cleaning email databases we are referring to eliminating those contacts that are inactive (or that were subscribed many years ago) in your database.
The ideal is to keep your email list updated, leaving only your active subscribers, who are the ones who really have an interest in you and are fans of your brand.
Yes, although at first you might be scared to delete them, since it took you a lot to get those subscribers ...
➽ Why clean the database for email marketing?
Cleaning email databases will help you guide your email marketing strategy but, specifically, it will help you:
- Save costs: Since from a number of subscribers and shipments, you have to go from a free plan to a paid one with any of the email marketing tool you use.
- Focus more on your target: That is, in users who are interested and have shown interest in your products or services and who, therefore, expect that email.
- Get fewer subscribers but with greater engagement: Wouldn't you rather have 5,000 subscribers and an open rate of 50 %, than have 500,000 subscribers and only 1,000 interact?
- Offer a better experience to your users: And it is that you will take better care of them, thanks to a segmentation, where you will better adjust your shipments.
- Make sure they are real contacts: Those who consented to receive your emails.
➽ When is the time to clean email databases?
Whenever you send an email and receive spam, block notifications and bounces, you should clean your contact list. Although it is also likely that you should do it in some cases when the emails arrive in the inbox of your subscribers.
These are the indicators that will alert you that you should do a cleaning:
- The open rate begins to decline over a period of time.
- Disinterested subscribers who are not interested in your brand.
- Subscribers who don't interact with your brand (but you don't know why).
- Invalid and suspicious email addresses.
Cleaning the email database step by step
Now that you know the importance of having a clean database for email marketing, it's time to take the plunge and take action.
We tell you below what are the steps to clean your email list and we give you some creative ideas to keep it healthy.
➽ How to clean your email list?
In order for your subscriber list to find your emails attractive and your campaigns to be effective, you must perform the following steps:
Delete inactive contacts
Get rid of users who have not responded to you in a long time. One way to find these quickly is through segmentation.
For example: Segment your list based on the interaction of your subscribers. This will allow you to immediately find those who did not open your emails in a long period (6-12 months).
Then send them a reactivation email to find out why they didn't click on your emails. If they do not respond to you, it is because that person lost interest. So you can now delete it and you can focus on those who do want to continue receiving your notifications.
Discard kills, rebounds and blocks
After each campaign, stop and look at your subscriber list. From your email marketing software, access your statistics of the campaigns you have already sent and filter them for bounces, unsubscribes and spam.
From there you can delete those contacts that are of no use to you.
Delete suspicious contacts
If you see contacts with strange names, invalid symbols or emails that seem suspicious of spam, delete them as well.
This will ensure you have a safe and healthy database!
Avoid duplicate data
If you find two identical data, you must decide which is the real one and which is the false one. And although your email marketing tool cannot detect it, it is a task that will require testing and analysis.
➽ 5 Tricks to maintain a quality database
If you want to have a healthy email database for email marketing, these are some ideas that we suggest:
1. Ask your subscribers
We know that having a retained subscriber just because it is of no use to you. It does not add any value to you. Therefore, to find out if someone has subscribed by mistake, is no longer interested in your posts or for what other reason they do not click on your emails, you should ask them directly.
To do this, we propose these ideas:
- Send them a survey to conclude if they would like to see other types of content or if they like the ones you give them.
- Ask them about something new that you just released.
- Ask their opinion on what frequency of sending emails they prefer.
After sending these questions to them, make a targeting list of those who answered you and those who didn't. The latter must be eliminated to avoid dirtying your email database.
2. Implement a double confirmation system to subscribe
Another trick to get a healthy database for email marketing is to implement this system; in order to send a second email to the user who has just subscribed to confirm their subscription, by clicking on a link.
With this, only the interested parties will bother to click to confirm the subscription and it will prevent you from entering false addresses.
3. Send a reactivation campaign with these elements
It may happen that a subscriber interacts little with your content because they already read your posts in other ways, because they do not have time or because the mail has been lost. So be careful because a subscriber who interacts little may be interested in your brand.
For this it serves to send a reactivation email, to understand the behavior of these subscribers and to know the exact reason why they do not show interest.
Therefore, a campaign of this type must have some elements like these:
- A matter that generates excitement and arouses curiosity.
- An attractive image.
- In the body, ask them directly why they do not interact and leave them several options (A, B, C…) so that they can answer you quickly.
- Give them the option to unsubscribe if they are not still interested in your business, guiding them with a call to action.
- Offer them an advantage like a discount or access to your most valuable content.
- And close by reminding them of the reason for your email, stating how important your subscribers are to you.
Note: After this email, depending on the responses of your subscribers, you may be in for a surprise. You may come to the conclusion that most of them are inactive because they read you more on Instagram. So then you will have to rephrase your email marketing strategy and create new content on this channel.
4. Don't hide your unsubscribe button
The subscriber must find at the end of your emails, an easily accessible link to unsubscribe if they wish to do so. It is a way to avoid being marked as spam.
5. Forget about buying email lists, it's bad practice!
It is not recommended to buy an email database. Do you want to know more about this topic?
We leave you this post to deepen on it >> Purchase of email databases: Yes or no?
CONCLUSIONS:
Cleaning your email database will allow you to get closer to your subscribers, generating interesting conversations, and what is more important ... You will be able to draw conclusions and refocus your email marketing strategy based on this data!
We invite you to reflect. Why do you want to take up space in an inbox if that person is not interested in you? Start your cleaning now and tell us about your experience.
Have you ever launched a revival campaign ?; What conclusions did you draw?
