Maximize email ROI using this six-step checklist

A clean list is the key to better email marketing performance. Sending emails to invalid addresses negatively affects your sender reputation causing ISPs to filter and block your email. The higher your reputation, the more of your email gets delivered to the inbox.

Use this checklist to ensure your email list is clean, you’re mailing the right subscribers with the right message, and you’re getting the most out of your email marketing investment:

1. Remove inactive subscribers (people who have neither opened nor clicked in the last year) from your list. This will help increase deliverability metrics including Inbox Placement Rate.
2. Validate your existing data. For a variety of reasons, organizations might have mailing lists that contain inactive or invalid email addresses. Fear not, there are services that identify whether or not an email address is valid and deliverable so you can be sure you’re not mailing harmful email addresses. Be sure to get your list(s) up to date before your next email deployment.
3. Verify all new email addresses. Removing harmful and invalid email addresses pre-send results in improved email marketing performance. The services described in #2 can also be used for incoming data.
4. Make sure you are removing unsubscribes. This is obvious, and is also required by law. Marketers should make it easy to unsubscribe, as it’s a good method for reducing complaints. A short exit survey will help you understand why a user wants to unsubscribe and try offering the option to opt-down instead of opt-out. If you want to re-engage a user, allow them to select a mailing frequency and other options in a preference center.
5. Segment your data and send relevant content to each segment. Bad content won’t prevent your email from being delivered, but if your content is boring or irrelevant, people won’t engage and they might mark your email as spam.
6. Choose the right email service provider (ESP) for your business. This last point is crucial to the success of your email marketing operations. Make sure the ESP you choose provides you with all of the data required to optimize your campaigns and engage your user list in the best way possible.

Marketers should be sure to follow these steps before the holiday season to maximize the number of subscribers you are able to mail with holiday promotions. Be sure to check-out this video on email validation.