WE'VE MOVED!

We are proud to announce our NEW community destination. Engage with resident experts and fellow entrepreneurs, and learn everything you need to start your business. Check out the new home of StartupNation Community at startupnation.mn.co
Options

Have You Cleaned Your E-mail List Lately?

DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
edited August 2007 in Marketing
According to Forrester Research, each year 25% of e-mail addresses on your list will go bad. By bad I mean undeliverables and opt-outs.
This means that if you aren`t cleaning your list regularly, your e-mail marketing efforts are probably being wasted?
Which begs the question...have you cleaned your e-mail list lately?
Dale KingDKing2007-8-9 8:37:57

Comments

  • Options
    vwebworldvwebworld subscriber Posts: 40
    When you send out a newsletter or email to customers, that email should have an opt out feature. If you send out communication on a regular basis, then your list will be updated (with opt out) regularly.
    ~Roland
  • Options
    patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    what is being wasted by sending e-mails to bad addresses?  what is gained by sending out e-mails to only good addresses?  if there was postage to consider, you might have a point.  since there is no postage or additional time required, your suggestion would be a total waste of time.
  • Options
    dgunterdgunter subscriber Posts: 1
    Hi Dale--I just cleaned my list when I changed email service providers.  Bad news-- I lost 66% of my list.Good news-- of the 33% who opted in to the new list, more of them actually open my ezine now (20% open rate to a 50-60% open rate) than before..LOLOverall, I`d say it was a great experience!Warmly,Donna
  • Options
    DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    Hi Dale--I just cleaned my list when I changed email service providers.  Bad news-- I lost 66% of my list.Good news-- of the 33% who opted in to the new list, more of them actually open my ezine now (20% open rate to a 50-60% open rate) than before..LOLOverall, I`d say it was a great experience!Warmly,Donna
    Hello Donna:
    Thank you for your post. You just helped make my case for cleaning your list:
    The cleaner your list, the more responsive it is!
    Dale King
  • Options
    patentandtrademarkpatentandtrademark subscriber Posts: 103
    Your statement, which is posed as a question [?] for some strange reason, was: "This means that if you aren`t cleaning your list regularly, your e-mail marketing efforts are probably being wasted?"
    You have not shown any market effort that is WASTED by having e-mails bounce.  Further, as hostclick said, some software removes names automatically.  There may be some advantage to spending the time to weed out a list, but preventing "waste" clearly is NOT one of them.
  • Options
    DaleKingDaleKing subscriber Posts: 141
    PatentAndTrademark - You might be correct except that your bounce rate directly effects how your hosting company treats you with regard to sending future emails.  For example my host has a certain bounce threshold before your automatically treated as a spammer. 
    That`s absolutely correct, and the penalty for too many bounced e-mails is that you run the risk of being blacklisted and having your account closed down altogether.
    Dale KingDKing2007-8-9 15:49:52
Sign In or Register to comment.