Why You Need To Clean Out Your Email List
We recently did something that’s a little different here at May Smith Media, it’s a little out there, in fact, you could say that it goes against what the majority of other marketing companies or any company would do…
We asked people to unsubscribe from our email list.
Yes, you read that right! We sent out an email blast asking people to unsubscribe from our email list.
I know what you’re thinking, 'but email lists can make you money, why on earth would you ask someone to unsubscribe? You’re basically throwing money away'?
Well, the reason that we did this, and the reason that you should do it too, is to clean out your email list.
We asked people to unsubscribe from our email list.
Yes, you read that right! We sent out an email blast asking people to unsubscribe from our email list.
I know what you’re thinking, 'but email lists can make you money, why on earth would you ask someone to unsubscribe? You’re basically throwing money away'?
Well, the reason that we did this, and the reason that you should do it too, is to clean out your email list.
What Doe's Clean Out Your Email List Mean?
It’s simple really. We do not want anyone on our email list who does not want to be there.
We don’t want anyone on our email list that roll their eyes every time they receive an email from May Smith Media because they subscribed for a free guide that one time, or because they provided their email address when they joined our Facebook group that one time because they wanted to have a peek inside our group and then left.
When people receive your emails who don’t want to receive them, they normally don’t open them or just delete them straight away.
This means that the more they don’t open your emails, the more likely your future emails will go straight through to their spam folder and let’s face it, no one wants to end up there!
This will then show up in your email report where you can check your open rate.
So, what’s the point in having someone on your email list if they’re never going to open your emails? The only thing that people like this do is have a negative impact on your open rate.
We don’t want anyone on our email list that roll their eyes every time they receive an email from May Smith Media because they subscribed for a free guide that one time, or because they provided their email address when they joined our Facebook group that one time because they wanted to have a peek inside our group and then left.
When people receive your emails who don’t want to receive them, they normally don’t open them or just delete them straight away.
This means that the more they don’t open your emails, the more likely your future emails will go straight through to their spam folder and let’s face it, no one wants to end up there!
This will then show up in your email report where you can check your open rate.
So, what’s the point in having someone on your email list if they’re never going to open your emails? The only thing that people like this do is have a negative impact on your open rate.
How Can You Clean Out Your Email List?
The best way to do this is to include a sentence at the bottom of your emails, about once every 2 - 3 months advising people that they can unsubscribe whenever they want.
People already know they can unsubscribe, but if you include a sentence politely advising that if they don’t find value in your emails or enjoy them, then the best thing to do is to unsubscribe.
Be real about it.
However, if you’re already filtering through to someone's spam folder then they may not receive your invitation to unsubscribe.
In this case, the best thing to do is log in to your email automation system and depending on which automation system you use (we use Active Campaign), you can check to see who hasn’t opened specific campaigns. This way you can manually check to see if the same people aren’t opening your campaigns, and then you can remove them from your list.
Alternatively (you can do this with Active Campaign but I’m not too sure about other email automation systems), you can turn on engagement tagging automation which will automatically track those who haven’t engaged with your emails, so that you can then remove them from your list.
In conclusion, it’s better to have an engaged email list than a big one. It’s all about quality over quantity, which should be the case with your other marketing too. Every couple of months you should have a clean out of your email list and then you can watch your open rates soar!
People already know they can unsubscribe, but if you include a sentence politely advising that if they don’t find value in your emails or enjoy them, then the best thing to do is to unsubscribe.
Be real about it.
However, if you’re already filtering through to someone's spam folder then they may not receive your invitation to unsubscribe.
In this case, the best thing to do is log in to your email automation system and depending on which automation system you use (we use Active Campaign), you can check to see who hasn’t opened specific campaigns. This way you can manually check to see if the same people aren’t opening your campaigns, and then you can remove them from your list.
Alternatively (you can do this with Active Campaign but I’m not too sure about other email automation systems), you can turn on engagement tagging automation which will automatically track those who haven’t engaged with your emails, so that you can then remove them from your list.
In conclusion, it’s better to have an engaged email list than a big one. It’s all about quality over quantity, which should be the case with your other marketing too. Every couple of months you should have a clean out of your email list and then you can watch your open rates soar!
If you would like some more information on email marketing then feel free to reach out to me (Blanaid May) over on the contact page.
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