How To Sort The Wheat From The Chaff In Your List…

If you’ve managed your list long enough, you’ll eventually notice the response rate go south.

• Sometimes your subscribers will lose interest in your topic or niche. They may trash emails directly without even opening them.
• In other cases, they will no longer check their emails, so your emails will pile up… unread.
• They might even set aside your email to read later, with good intentions… but, those emails tend to be forgotten.

Whatever the reason, your list is growing cold. But the good news is… there are things you can do to warm it up again. This will save you money (if you remove inactive ones), boosting response rates and reducing spam complaints.

Let’s look at what you need to do…

Step 1: Move to Confirmed Opt-In

If you[‘re using a single opt-in, you’ll want t move to a confirmed one (sometimes called a double opt-in). This is where the person opts into your list and then needs to click a link in their email to confirm they want to be on your list.

As you can imagine, confirmed opt-ins create a more responsive list because only interested people confirm their subscriptions. They also help you avoid spam complaints because sometimes, people forget they’ve subscribed, so hit the spam button when your email arrives.

Step 2: Check Your Stats for Bounces

The first thing you’ll want to do is to notice if you’ve any “hard bounces.” When an email address is no longer valid or working, the email “bounces back” to the sender. Most ESPs clean out hard bounces automatically… but you’ll want to check with them to make sure.

Secondly, check email stats for “soft bounces.” This is when a temporary problem with an over-quoted inbox bounces back all new emails. Many email service providers delete these if they soft bounce too often… so keep an eye open for it.

Step 3: Dump Bad Email Addresses

People sometimes forget they’ve joined your email list, and when they are sucked into your funnel… they join again! – Now you have a duplicate address to deal with. So make sure you delete the appropriate address before it’s noted as spam by those smart algorithms. (that’s if your ESP doesn’t do it for you).

Also, get rid of anything that looks spammy… for example, anything that looks like this:

E88a994t@yahoo.com

NOTE: spam accounts tend to use free email like Gmail, Yahoo and similar.

Step 4: Re-ignite Cold Subscribers

Your next step is to check who’s been inactive for several weeks to a month or more. The best way to re-engage them is to send a campaign focusing on re-igniting that fire within. And if you want to learn how to do that… I’ll show you in lesson number sixteen.

If the subscribers don’t re-connect after your campaign, you can safely delete them.

Step 5: Improve Your Email Practices

Finally, you’ll want to ensure you’re not directly contributing to a list growing cold by following these tips and best practises…

Check Your Spam Score

Use an email tester to be sure your subject lines and body copy aren’t triggering spam filters. For example… if you email includes a phrase like “quick and easy CASH,” it’ll be swallowed up by the filter.

Some ESPs include these in the dashboard, so you can check emails on the fly. There are also loads of free tools such as Mail-Tester.com.

Ensure Emails Are Mobile Friendly

Many subscribers are likely reading your emails from their phone. So, you’ll want to ensure your emails are “mobile friendly,” and look great acrose multiple devices. If they don’t, you’re likely to get people opening your emails but never clicking your links. Eventually ceasing to open your emails if they’re experiencing too much “hassle.” (a sensitive bunch) BTW… see lesson thirteen in my digital library for more information about how to create mobile-friendly emails.

Send Targeted Emails

Finally, make sure you’re sending content and offers your audience wants and expects. Don’t re-purpose your list and don’t send out offers to help out another email marketing friend… especially if their content and offers aren’t relevant.

WARNING… this applies to seemingly benign activities too – like promoting a charity… especially one that’s NOT relevant to your list. For example…

If you’ve a dog related list, then they may be fine if you occasionally promote a dog rescue charity. However, they might stop opening your emails if you do it too often. Or if you promote unrelated charities. They might be for a good cause, but it’s not what your list signed up for.

Conclusion

Scrubbing your list regularly helps boost your converison rates, reduce spam complaints and even save money. That’s why you’ll want to make a habit of keeping good list “hygiene,” which includes getting rid of in-actives on a regular basis… also checking your own list practises.