Episode 85: Spring Cleaning Your Email List

Send us Fan MailSpring has sprung and the weather is improving here in Michigan where I am recording this episode, which means it's time for spring cleaning!I know, I know, this podcast is called Imperfect Marketing but hey, spring cleaning is great for a variety of things—including your email list.So, let’s talk about list hygiene.Would you rather have an email list of 3,000 people OR a list of a few hundred SUPER engaged subscribers?Don't get me wrong, a large list does sound amazing, but it all boils down to engagement. All systems keep getting smarter and many will dock your deliverability if you have low engagement rates.What it boils down to is this: does your list size matter if many of them do not read or look at your emails?Don’t get me wrong, I do love that email marketing keeps you top of mind whether someone reads an email or not; unfortunately, we do want them opening or looking at some of the emails.If you don't, email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo will start flagging your emails so they go into spam.You need to create content that people want to read and engage with, and the more your subscribers engage with your content, the better Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo think of you.So, how do we do that? Spring cleaning your list!Look at your metrics and select anyone who hasn’t engaged with your emails in like 6 months. With Apple pre-opening your emails, you could use “opens” to be more conservative, and it won’t exclude everyone. Send these subscribers an email to see if it is time to go your separate ways. If they want to stay on your list, have them click a button and take them to a thank you page you create on your website just for that.Then, pick everyone who didn’t click on that button and remove them from your email list. I usually give it a week or two.If you want to give people more time, you can separate your email database into two segments. Those who haven’t engaged with your emails and everyone else.This will allow you to add some copy or pre-header into the version of the email that goes to those who haven’t engaged to see if this is one of the last emails they are going to get from you. If this is the first time you are doing this, the number of people you remove from your list could be staggering, and it hurts. I know. I've been there! Why pay for those contacts who aren’t engaging with your content, don’t want it, and won’t buy from you?A big list doesn’t mean anything without people who are engaged and want to receive content from you.Have you done any spring cleaning on your email list? How did it go? Let me know at [email protected]. Free email marketing tools:A beginner's guide to email marketingLearn how to craft compelling subject linesReach your first 1,000 subscribersIdentify your list-building strategy Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube. From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain. Watch here