Let's face it - email is here to stay. It's been the cornerstone of our communication for decades, and it's not going anywhere.
Can you even imagine life without it? Weird, right?
Emails have completely changed how modern communication works. Studies show that 99% of email users which is a crazy number and seems almost impossible.
But here's the thing: just like a messy desk can slow you down, a messy email list can ruin all your communication and marketing efforts.
And this is exactly where email hygiene steps in.
What is Email Hygiene?
Email hygiene refers to maintaining a clean and accurate email list. It's like spring cleaning, but in this case, it has nothing to do with dusting—it's all about organizing your digital contacts.
What does this mean exactly?
Email hygiene includes removing invalid email addresses from your list, eliminating unengaged subscribers, and updating any outdated information to ensure you're sending relevant content to the right people at the right time.
Basically, a clean email list ensures your emails actually reach people and that they reach the right people who are genuinely interested in your content.
Why is Email Hygiene Important?
So, why does all this matter, and why is it so important?
Email hygiene, like personal hygiene, is all about keeping things clean and organized. In today's world, this can be a total game changer for your email campaigns.
Let's take a look at some of the reasons why you should never overlook the importance of good email hygiene.
Lower Bounce Rate
Well, first things first. If you don't clean your email lists regularly, you risk having invalid email addresses. If you send emails to those addresses, chances are they'll bounce right off. Once they start bouncing, you can wave goodbye to a good sender reputation and say hello to your new friends in spam folders.
For instance, you have a new product coming up and want to inform your subscribers about it. You start writing an email with an intriguing subject line and eye-catching graphics, and you even offer them an early sale.
Now, what can go wrong?
If you haven’t thoroughly cleaned your email list before sending those wonderful emails you risk having invalid emails in it. This means that your perfect email might go to waste or at least negatively impact your reputation with email service providers, which is something you need to avoid.
No one wants this to happen, so don't let email hygiene slip your mind. Learn how to clean email lists as soon as you can.
Better Email Deliverability
It's quite obvious that good email list hygiene ensures that your emails will likely reach the intended recipients and their inboxes. Your emails get delivered, meaning your target audience will probably see them, which is already a solid first step.
According to one email deliverability study across 15 ESPs, the average email deliverability rate is 83.1%, which means 16.9% of all emails never reach the intended recipient’s inbox. This is a staggering number, and it should make businesses reconsider their email strategies.
Increased Engagement
Now that we have a clean email list and know our emails reach the subscribers, we can also deduct that they'll probably also engage with them, open them, click on links, and respond to our CTAs.
Improved Sender Reputation
By combining all of these elements we mentioned above, we get low bounce rates, high deliverability, and good engagement metrics, which automatically build a positive sender reputation with email providers.
How often should you clean your email lists?
We have already learned about email hygiene and why it's so important. Now, it's time for the next big question: How often should you clean your email lists?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer and no magic number that works for everyone.
Many experts suggest cleaning your email lists at least every three months, but this is not set in stone. Your frequency may vary depending on how fast your list grows, what kind of emails you send, and how engaged your subscribers are.
Here's a pro tip: There’s no need to clean your entire list all at once. You can break it down into smaller chunks by focusing on different groups of subscribers or specific campaigns.
Remember, the goal is to keep your list in good shape without driving yourself crazy in the process.
Find a frequency that works for you and stick with it!
6 Email Hygiene Best Practices to Follow in 2024
At this point, there is no doubt that a messy email list can have a huge impact on your overall marketing efforts. Maintaining good email list hygiene is crucial for maximizing the effectiveness of your campaigns, as we have already mentioned.
So, let's discover how to clean up email and the six best practices in email hygiene you can start following today!
1. Remove Invalid and Outdated email addresses
One of the main goals of cleaning email lists is to remove invalid email addresses. This allows you to identify email addresses that might no longer exist or even those that simply never existed and remove them before they can do any harm.
These addresses, due to typos, domain closures, or even user inactivity, result in bounced emails, aka emails that cannot be delivered. Bounced emails are not only a waste of valuable resources but also a bad influence on your sender's reputation, which creates a whole new chain of issues.
To effectively find these emails and remove them, you have to regularly track and monitor email bounce rates, use email verification tools even before adding subscribers to your list, and get rid of the problem before it even becomes an actual problem.
Pro tip: set aside a specific day for email list cleaning. Make it a habit, like Taco Tuesday, but for email hygiene.
2. Make Double Opt-Ins Your Best Friend
The signup process is your first interaction with potential subscribers. By using double opt-ins, you are adding an extra step to the regular process, which allows users to confirm their subscription by clicking a verification link in a welcome email.
Here's how it works: When someone signs up for your emails, you send them a quick "Are you sure?" message. They have to click a link to confirm if they really want to take that specific action.
It might seem like an extra hoop to jump through, but it's actually super helpful, as it leads to;
- Reduced Risk of Invalid Addresses
Typos during signup are a common cause of invalid addresses. Double opt-in forces users to confirm their email, which means if they have typos when trying to subscribe, they can't get the verification email. This will make them double-check their email and write the correct version.
Double opt-ins streamline your work because if potential subscribers verify their email addresses from the get-go, you won't have to face bouncing issues later on.
- Increased Engagement from Confirmed Subscribers
By requiring confirmation, you're filtering out those who might have subscribed accidentally or on a whim. Double opt-in subscribers are more likely to be genuinely interested in your content, as you can be a hundred percent sure that they wanted to subscribe in the first place, and they even validated this choice. The best thing is this small action will end up leading you to higher engagement rates.
3. Say Goodbye to Unengaged Subscribers
Once you start your email marketing campaigns, it's important that you understand and accept the fact that, at some point in time, your subscribers might not be interested in or, dare I say, care about your emails anymore.
When you notice subscribers who haven't opened your emails in ages, it's time to face facts. Holding onto these inactive subscribers is like keeping clothes that don't fit anymore - they're just taking up space.
Once you accept this, you have to let go of inactive subscribers and refrain from keeping them just for the sake of it. Yes, it doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but keeping them in your lists means you'll have lots of emails that are simply not being opened and engaged with in any way, shape, or form.
And this, obviously, will be a setback for your email hygiene and cause you harm.
So, how do you find these email addresses?
Start by tracking key metrics for your email campaigns, such as the open, click-through, and unsubscribe rates.
Then, set an approximate threshold for inactivity that you are willing to accept, such as not opening emails for six months.
Before completely removing unengaged subscribers and erasing them from your memory, consider running a re-engagement campaign. This could involve offering exclusive content or discounts to reignite their interest. Yes, email hygiene is important, but you don't want to risk actual leads. Maybe all they need is just a little push to come running back to you.
If that doesn't work, well, it might be time to say goodbye. Just make sure you always include an easy-to-find unsubscribe link in your emails. Which brings us to our next point...
4. Make it Easy for Subscribers to Unsubscribe
Building trust and transparency with your subscribers is of utmost importance. And providing a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe link in your emails is only one step toward this trust. This small gesture, besides the fact that it's usually a requirement, is also a demonstration of respect for their choices.
First of all, adding an unsubscribe button allows you to maintain a list of genuinely interested recipients. Not to mention it saves time you would've spent identifying these addresses manually when conducting your regular email hygiene checks and is the most effective way to remove only those who are truly not interested, which ultimately translates into higher engagement with your content.
Moreover, frustrated subscribers who can't unsubscribe or find it challenging to do so are far more likely to mark the emails as spam. A clear unsubscribe option minimizes the risk of spam complaints and protects your sender reputation from such reports.
Consider this scenario: You bought shoes from a website years ago and still receive emails you never open. If you can't easily unsubscribe, you'll likely become annoyed and mark those emails as spam. A clear unsubscribe option prevents this, protecting your sender reputation.
It's worth mentioning that in many countries, including an unsubscribe option isn't just a good practice—it's the law. Commercial emails are required to have a clear, functional unsubscribe option to protect users' choices.
5. Use the Right Email List Cleaning Tools
Maintaining a clean list is undoubtedly time-consuming, and if you start doing everything we mentioned here manually, you probably won't have time for any other tasks.
But don’t get us wrong. No one is telling you to do it manually; quite the opposite. It is highly recommended that you use email list cleaning tools to help simplify this whole process.
These tools can automatically detect and remove bounced email addresses, saving you time and ensuring your list remains up-to-date and is at the top of the email hygiene game.
They can also easily identify email addresses associated with spam traps – honeypots used to catch spammers and remove subscribers with spam trap addresses to protect your sender reputation.
Some tools can even assist you in segmenting your lists into different categories, which enables targeted cleaning efforts and allows you to focus on specific segments that might require more attention.
One of these amazing tools is mailfloss!
You can forget about keeping your email lists clean and investing hours in email hygiene if you start using maifloss.
With mailfloss' email hygiene solution, you can automatically remove bounced and invalid email addresses, segment your lists for targeted campaigns and easier cleaning, track key metrics to monitor the health of your email list, and even schedule regular cleanings to maintain a clean and healthy list.
You can simply integrate mailfloss with the email service providers you already use for email marketing and let it take care of the rest. Sounds perfect, right?
6. Regularly Analyze Your Email Campaigns' Performance
Like almost any other part of marketing, email marketing is an ongoing process. You can't say you're done after taking care of your email hygiene once. Successful email list hygiene best practices require constant monitoring and tracking.
Here's what you should focus on throughout your email marketing journey:
- Track Key Metrics
Monitor bounce rates, open rates, click-through rates, unsubscribe rates, and conversion rates. These metrics provide a clear picture of subscriber engagement and list health.
- Identify Trends
Analyze trends in your metrics over a certain period of time. Always look for patterns in bounce rates, engagement levels, or unsubscribe rates across different segments of your list, as they might signal something crucial to you.
- Tailor Your Hygiene Practices
Once you've looked at the data, it's time to change your cleaning approach.
If a specific group of subscribers has many bounced emails, don't ignore it. Instead, try to figure out why this is happening. Then, give that part of your list extra attention. It might need more work than the rest.
Remember, the goal is to clean smarter, not harder. Use what the numbers tell you to make your email list cleaning more effective.
By carefully monitoring your email marketing efforts, you can troubleshoot and solve issues in a timely manner.
Keep Your Email Lists Clean
Email hygiene isn't just some fancy marketing term—it's a game-changer that deserves your attention. By implementing these best practices, you'll not only clean up your list but also improve the quality of your email marketing campaigns.
Remember, a clean and healthy email list is the foundation of any successful email campaign. Consistent effort towards a clean email list ensures your content reaches the right people, maximizes engagement, and ultimately drives results.
So waste no more time, get your cleaning supplies, and let's improve your email hygiene.
FAQ about email hygiene
How often should email lists be cleaned?
There is no definitive answer to this question, but cleaning it regularly is a good place to start.
What is a healthy email list?
A healthy email list has engaged subscribers who opted in, always open emails and don't mark them as spam.
Should I clean up my email list?
Yes, removing inactive subscribers and invalid addresses can completely change your campaign and its results.
How do you keep your email clean?
To keep your email clean, you should delete spam content, unsubscribe from unwanted lists, and use filters.