What is email list management

Why email list management is important  

• Improved deliverability 
• Better engagement 
• Cost-efficiency 
• Better sender reputation

Key practices for maintaining a healthy email list  

Regularly clean your email list  

• Remove invalid emails: Bounce rates increase when you send emails to invalid or outdated addresses. Regularly remove hard bounces from your list to ensure only valid emails are in your database. To know how to check list of bounced contacts in Zoho Campaigns, you can refer this help document.
• Eliminate inactive subscribers: Subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails in the past 6–12 months should be re-engaged first through targeted campaigns. If they remain inactive, consider removing them to improve list health. Access the inactive contacts in Zoho Campaigns by referring to our help resource.

Segment your email list  

• Engagement-based: Segment your list based on how subscribers have interacted with your emails. Create segments like active subscribers, dormant subscribers, and re-engagement targets.
  
  
  
• Demographic: Use demographic information such as location, age, and industry to send more personalized and relevant content.
  
  
  
• Behavioral: Segment based on behaviors like past purchases, website visits, or specific link clicks in your emails. This allows you to send highly relevant messages that drive conversions.
  
  
  
• Custom preferences: Ask subscribers for preferences at the point of sign-up (e.g., frequency, product interests, content type) and use this data to create more targeted campaigns.

Use double opt-in for signups  

• Why double opt-in works: With a double opt-in process, after a user subscribes to your list, they receive a confirmation email to verify their email address. This ensures that the subscribers on your list are genuinely interested in receiving your content.
• Fewer invalid emails: This reduces the chances of typos or fake emails entering your list and prevents spam traps.
• Higher engagement rates: Since users are confirming their interest, double opt-in lists tend to have higher engagement rates than single opt-in lists.

Monitor and clean up spam complaints  

• Pay attention to spam reports: Regularly monitor spam complaints and unsubscribe rates. If certain content or practices are causing an increase in complaints, adjust your approach. You can make use of Zoho Campaigns' Reports module to find unsubscribes and spam markings for each campaign.
• Feedback loops: Sign up for feedback loops (FBLs) with major email clients (such as Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) to be notified when a recipient marks your email as spam. This helps you address any issues early.
• Identify spam traps: Spam traps are fake email addresses used by email clients to catch spammers. They can harm your sender reputation if you send to them. Use a reputable email verification service to minimize the risk of hitting spam traps.

Regularly update your preferences center  

• Allow subscribers to manage preferences: Make it easy for subscribers to update their preferences like topics of interest. This ensures they are getting the content they want. You can embed the Contact Preference ( $[LI:SUB_PREF]$ ) merge tag in any campaign you send so contacts are aware that they can update their preferences.
• Prevent unsubscribes: By giving subscribers more control, you can reduce unsubscribe rates. If they don't want daily emails, offer weekly options instead.

Importance of list hygiene in email deliverability  

Avoiding blacklists  

• If you send emails to too many invalid or spam-trap addresses, you may end up on an email blacklist, which can significantly impact your ability to reach inboxes.
• How to stay off blacklists: Regularly clean your list, monitor feedback loops, and use authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to establish your credibility with email clients.

Clean lists help land your emails in the inbox

• Better chances of inbox placement: Regularly cleaning your email list helps ensure that emails are sent to valid and active addresses. When you remove inactive or invalid emails, you're less likely to send messages that result in hard bounces, which negatively affects your sender reputation.
• Reduced spam complaints: By maintaining a healthy list of subscribers who actually want to receive your emails, you reduce the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam. This plays a significant role in how your emails are treated by spam filters.
  

Minimized bounce rates  

• Hard bounces (emails that fail to deliver because the recipient's address is invalid or non-existent) and soft bounces (temporary delivery issues, like a mailbox full) can hurt your sender reputation. Consistently sending to invalid email addresses or inactive users increases these bounce rates, leading to email providers flagging you as a potential spammer.
• List cleaning: By regularly removing inactive, invalid, or non-responsive contacts, you ensure that you are only sending emails to legitimate and engaged subscribers, reducing bounce rates.

Protecting sender reputation  

• Your sender reputation is determined by various factors, including bounce rates, spam complaints, and engagement levels. Regular list hygiene helps keep these metrics in check by ensuring you're sending messages to valid, engaged subscribers.
• IP/domain reputation: A poor sender reputation can result in your IP address or sending domain being blacklisted. This means that all your future emails might be blocked, resulting in lost communication with your audience.

How to grow and maintain a healthy email list  

Focus on organic growth  

• Avoid buying lists: Purchased email lists can contain invalid or low-quality addresses, which will harm your deliverability and sender reputation. Always focus on organic list-building methods.
• Promote sign-ups across channels: Promote your sign-up form across various platforms—on your website, social media, blog, and even in offline events.

Clean your list regularly  

• Monthly/Quarterly clean-ups: Set aside time every month or quarter to clean your list. Remove inactive subscribers, correct typos, and update information as needed.
• Analyse engagement: Keep an eye on the engagement data. If someone hasn’t opened or clicked in the last six to 12 months, consider sending a re-engagement campaign before you remove them. 

Why sending consistency matters for list health

Look out for spam traps 

1. When you use purchased mailing lists
2. When you don't handle email bounces properly
3. When email addresses provided by your contacts expire

Wrap up