Spring Cleaning Works For Your Mailing Lists Too!

A mailbox with stand.

Out with the old, in with the new.

To grow beautiful, new flowers you have to get rid of all of the old dead plants left over from the winter. Even if you are like us and don’t start Spring Cleaning till July, it’s always better late than never. Things are constantly growing, new opportunities are arising, and no matter what, you need to remove the old to make way for the new during any season.

Did you know that this same holds true for your business? To make way for new growth and success, consider pruning from time to time. Even if it isn’t Spring, regular pruning anytime in the year is good for business.

In particular, your mailing lists could always use good trimming. Consider regularly removing people who aren’t opening your emails, deleting dead email addresses, and reengaging inactive subscribers. Doing so can provide benefits ranging from increased sales to higher conversion rates, to a decreased risk of being marked as spam. (Emails are more likely to continue to land in your readers’ inboxes if your engagement rate is consistently high.)

So how do you clean your mailing lists up?

Most email marketing tools can automatically do this for you. But the first step is to always pull a report of inactive email accounts—people who are not responding to your emails at all. If they are high-value clients, try to re-engage with them personally. But if they are just general info@ type emails or emails of people you haven’t talked to in a long time, it’s ok to remove them from your mailing lists.

For people who were actively engaging and then dropped off, create a re-engagement strategy to get them back. A good place to start is to create a special offer and more personalized content to get people to feel like you are wanting to personally connect with them (since you are!).

Finally, grow your lists with new people who are active and engaged. Create calls to action, offers, and services that can entice people to join your list and receive regular content from you.

By getting rid of the old and unwanted, you will make space for a lot more actively engaged readers—and grow more successful.

Want to learn more about email list management? Drop us a line.