Even though we all know that email list hygiene - maintaining updated, active email addresses in your database - is crucial to the overall success of email campaigns, many marketers find it difficult to discard addresses that have not engaged with email for an extended period of time, or simply have aged.

But the fact of the matter is that sending emails to old and inactive email subscribers can cause deliverability issues that are difficult to recover from, contaminating your list all together. By keeping such inactive email addresses on your list, you run the risk of hitting a higher number of spam traps and higher bounce rates which are frowned upon in the eyes of the ISP. This is especially important as ISPs are now focusing more on the interaction of their users with your emails to determine delivery into the inbox.

Nevertheless, if you find it painful to part with your old email subscriber base, try re-engaging your aged email subscribers as one last effort. A targeted email marketing campaign that provides an incentive such as a special offer can assist with recapturing their attention.

Here's a simple 5 step re-engagement / list cleaning process you can try:

1. Segment your list by email subscribers who have not engaged in over 6 months. This allows you to review the deliverability statistics separately from your active members.

2. Send to increments of 500-1000 members starting with those people who have not opened or clicked your email messages in over 6 months, then work backwards through the list of older inactive subscribers closely monitoring your spam complaints and bounce rates.
NOTE: spam complaints should not exceed 0.1%.

3. Ensure that all hard bounced email addresses and those that reported your message as spam are permanently deleted from your mailing list.

4. Once your complaint level exceeds 0.1%, stop sending emails to any remaining aged members as this will inevitably cause deliverability issues.

5. Be prepared to discard those old members with high spam complaint rates. Consider trying an alternative marketing method to encourage them re-subscribe (i.e. direct marketing initiative).

Though it seems the larger the list, the better, by regularly cleaning your list in this manner you'll quickly see the difference quality makes over quantity.

For more information read:

• Re-Engaging Inactive Email Subscribers
• How do I Avoid Sending Re-opt-in Messages to Engaged Readers?
• How to Re-Opt-In Your Email List
• How Do I Re-Opt In My Email List?
• 12 Tips To Re-Engage Your "Inactive" Recipients
• How to Reduce Email Bounces - 14 Quick Tips 

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About The Author

Shanel Choi is an account manager at Lyris, working with clients to improve their online marketing initiatives and programs. She provides clients with strategic and best practices knowledge to help them meet their e-marketing goals.

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• Download free online-marketing guides, tools and webinars in the Lyris Online-Marketing Resource Center.

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