2. Embrace Good List Hygiene
As ISPs move towards engagement-based reputation metrics it is more important than ever to follow best practices. If your strategy still includes blasting out as many messages as you can to as many email addresses as you can find – STOP! Those sending practices will not only turn off your subscribers but they’ll ruin your reputation and prevent your messages from reaching the inbox. You’ll be throwing money away sending emails that don’t have a chance to succeed because they won’t make it through the filters set up by ISPs.
| Bad |
Email Blasting – One-to-All Messaging
Pros: Cheap and easy – can nudge the needle.
Cons: Limited or no relevance, not personal. Will lead to list attrition and deliverability issues. |
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|
| Good |
Segmentation – One-to-Many Messaging
Pros: More targeted content. Delivers higher conversion than blasting.
Cons: Will be relevant to some members of the segment, but not every member |
| |
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| Best |
Dynamic Content / Drip Campaigns – One-to-One Messaging
Pros: Highly targeted and relevant messaging. Connects on a personal level. Generates highest conversion rates/ROI.
Cons: Data dependent. Time and resource intensive. |
In 2010, align your email marketing strategy to focus on metrics that positively impact your bottom line. Again, instead of focusing on the number of subscribers, measure the level of subscriber engagement. Email provides more data than any other channel – it is very easy to monitor which subscribers are reading and clicking on your messages and which ones aren’t. Use your data to send relevant messages to your engaged audience and try to re-engage your inactive subscribers. If the re-engagement campaigns don’t work, remove the subscribers from your list. It might seem counter-intuitive to remove addresses but if you cut the unresponsive subscribers you can nurture the engaged members of your audience.
Pruning your email list is similar to pruning your rose bushes in the fall – if you trim the dead parts and problem areas the plant will grow stronger and more beautiful in the spring. Inactive email addresses could be spam traps monitored by ISPs. If so, you’re putting your reputation at risk. At the very least, the inactive addresses aren’t interested and you’re wasting time and money trying to recapture their attention when they’ve tuned out.
A better approach is to nurture the active email addresses by creating one-to-one drip campaigns and closed loop marketing messages that speak personally and relevantly to each subscriber. Listrak can automate delivery of these messages to ensure you reach the right subscribers with the right messages and offers.
An automated event triggered messaging solution is one of the best tools you can use to distinguish yourself from spammers. The required subscriber interaction eliminates the threat of sending to invalid addresses or unresponsive subscribers. And the automated delivery resolves the frequency issue, which is discussed below.
First Name:
Last Name:
Email:
Phone:
Company Name:
L_Submission_ResourceSource:
Campaign:
L_Submission_Newsletter:
L_Submission_ResourceID:
L_Submission_ResourceTitle:
L_Submission_TrackingID:
L_Submission_TrackingLabel:
L_Submission_CampaignGroupID:
L_Submission_CampaignGroup:
L_Keyword:
L_Source: