How do I clean up a large email list?
There are a few ways that you can clean up a large email list to ensure that your mailing list is accurate, but manually checking each address is time-consuming and often ineffective.
Email validation and email hygiene are two ways you can declutter your list. These services scan your emails against databases of valid and invalid addresses. It is especially important to use these services, as some active address threats like bots, spam traps, temporary domains etc. often go undetected by a regular verification check.
Therefore, in order to avoid any future headaches, be sure to pick the best solution for your company.
Additionally, be weary of free email list cleaners as they may not always be able to meet all of your needs. This is why you should take a sample of your list and test with multiple free bulk email list cleaners to see who provides the best results to you. Then you can purchase the service you feel confident in.
How often should you clean your email list?
Depending on the email activity of your business, you may have to clean up your email list more frequently. Monitoring your metrics and email frequency can help you determine if it’s time for a cleaning. If you’re using a verification API for your forms, run your list through a hygiene provider at least once per year.
How do you clean up old email lists?
Regularly clean your email lists, regardless of how new or old they are. If you notice a large number of bounces, poor deliverability and sender reputation, it’s time to invest in a verification and hygiene provider. This is especially crucial if you’re starting a new job and don’t know when the previous employee last cleaned the list.
How to clean up your email from spam traps?
If you are concerned about spam traps in your email list, the most effective way to manage them is not with an email verification solution, but rather an email hygiene solution.
Here’s why: Spam trap email addresses are active accounts used by real people. If you use a verification provider, spam emails will still pass the verification check because they’re active addresses. Email hygiene is able to catch the active yet dangerous accounts known as spam traps.
How much does clean email cost?
The provider you choose for your email list cleaning will largely impact the quality of the service. Most providers have a credit system where you’re charged per email address, which can be adjusted depending on how often you need it cleaned, the size of your list, and other elements.
What are email list cleaning best practices?
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Don’t purchase lists
It is evident that email marketers and lead gen staff need to reach individuals rapidly. List providers are constantly soliciting you when you are in a pinch to generate new revenue. On the surface, it may seem great to buy an enormous list on the cheap. However, steps should not be cut by cheating the system and Instead of buying email lists. In other words, just don’t do it.
2. Set up your IP and Domain Address
A. Enable IP and Domain Authentication for your email programs.
IP Warming and Authentication, though common subjects within the industry, are still quite misunderstood.
“IP warming should be done methodically, beginning with a low volume of your most engaged subscribers. Over time, that volume should slowly be increased in order to build your sending reputation, allowing mailbox providers the opportunity to monitor your behavior and determine whether you are a trustworthy sender”.
Though it may take some time, double-checking your email list for accuracy is a crucial prerequisite to send out any emails.
B. Segment by different IPs and subdomains
Brands often send emails to different segments of people from the same IP and Domain, which can be problematic. If a mistake is made on one list, it could affect all lists because many marketing automation subscriptions use a shared IP by default. For example, if you have one domain for all your emails and someone on your marketing list marks you as spam, the support and transactional emails being sent to customers will likely go to their junk mail too.
By incorporating subdomains, you can ensure that if something compromises one subdomain, the others will remain unscathed. This is important because it allows you to still reach your more crucial customers. You should consider talking to your provider about the costs of a dedicated IP address to see if it’s a feasible option for you. Otherwise, an impact on deliverability might occur.
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Clean your lists with the right provider
A. How to choose the right provider
The issue is that almost any verification company will simply “clean a list.” In the past, email validation has been one part of an overall deliverability tech stack for marketers, but it’s no longer enough. Why not?
So many email addresses are being spoofed, attacked by bots, and used for other harmful activities that solely depending on the email list verifier can negatively influence deliverability.
Webbula is an email threat detection provider that can keep your lists healthy. By using Webbula, you can verify emails and group them into categories according to their risk level (high-risk to low-risk threats). This gives you the power to decide which emails to send, providing extra protection for your list.
B. How often should you clean your list
List cleaning heavily depends on how frequently you’re sending emails and reviewing metrics. For example, many people choose to clean their lists quarterly if they’re checking stats regularly. On the other hand, if you only gather email addresses from protected forms and follow a sporadic sending schedule, it’s not unusual to wait until once a year before cleaning your list.
“But I’m not a spammer, so I shouldn’t have any deliverability threats hiding in my email database?”
Legitimate email marketers doing everything right, including following consent to communicate rules and utilizing an email verification tool, may still have these nefarious threats hiding in their deliverable email lists.
– What kind of email threats should you be aware of?
A few of the many dangers you should be cognizant of include bots, temporary domains, blocklisted domains, and duplicates.
Bots: There are three types of bots: good, bad, and ugly. The good ones subscribe or purchase something from you. The bad ones never open your emails.The ugly ones will open and click your links multiple times a day at first, but then they’ll stop all activity after some time has passed in order to study your content.
These bots can come from anywhere at anytime. A competitor could, for example, sign up for hundreds or thousands of emails across different platforms like Yahoo, Gmail, and Hotmail. They would then use those email addresses to enter your forms and sweepstakes en masse.
Temporary Domains: People create these email addresses intending only to use them for a short time in order to get a discount or coupon.
Blocklisted Domains: These are email accounts that have been reported for spam, so email delivery is no longer possible.
Duplicate Emails: Pretty simple, these are just more than one entry of the same email address.
C. Why You Need Email Verification + Email Threat Detection
Webbula’s Verification + Threat Detection system is a cutting-edge, proprietary technology that scans for over 50 hidden email threats before you even send your campaign. By monitoring inbox placement, DMARC, and blocklists before an email campaign has already been sent, Webbula guarantees a higher deliverability rate. Here at Webbula, we group email risks into various categories including Reputation Threats, Fraud Threats, Deliverability Threats, and Conversion Threats. With this newly found information from our threat flags, marketers will be able to improve their acquisition skills as well as results from every campaign and transactional email they send out.
Webbula Verification + Threat Detection not only improves the deliverability of your email campaigns, but also helps to identify and isolate threats or poor acquisition strategies. By using this process, your team can focus on creating successful email campaigns – which is what every marketer wants.
D. Protect Your Forms: Double Opt-In & Real-Time Verification
If you’re looking for a way to reduce spam emails, consider using ReCAPTCHA and double opt-in on your website forms. Double opt-in means that after someone signs up for your mailing list, they’ll receive an email with a confirmation link. That way, you can be sure that it’s a real person who wants to hear from you and not some automated bot.
The most reliable method to block bots from your forms is by using a threat detection service. This works in tandem with your CRM, email service provider, or lead capture forms. Consequently, only high-quality leads that are relevant to your business will be added to your lists.
A real-time email cleansing API can quickly and easily determine if the email being submitted is valid or not. This will save you time, money, and effort by weeding out any bad data before it gets to your campaign forms. Ultimately, this will create a better experience for both you and your customers.
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Tackle your inactive subscribers
A. Develop an internal business definition of ‘inactive’
You can consider customers inactive if they haven’t interacted recently and don’t appear likely to convert or purchase soon. It’s also good to remember that “recently” is relative based on your company’s business model as well as your customer lifecycle and email program goals.
B. Determine the root causes of subscriber inactivity
To start, establish the time period in which the biggest percentage of unengaged subscribers starts to disconnect. Once you’ve determined the time period, look at the changes in your strategy to discover what might be motivating people to stop being active. A few examples could be:
– Within two weeks of opt-in: it was probably a discount, offer, or whitepaper they wanted.
– If it was a high percentage after two months – your email program simply isn’t delivering on expectations.
C. Develop proactive strategies to minimize subscribers from going inactive.
Fix the problem: Opt-in pages that are outdated can use a revamp–change email frequency, add segmentation or personalization, automated messages based on behaviors, etc. You could also improve the quality of your content.
Manage Expectations: Your website’s potential customers will likely only sign up if they believe that the content you’ll send them is valuable and cohesive with what they saw on your website.
A Re-onboarding track for subscribers going inactive: If you want to ensure your subscribers stay active, put them into a “re-onboarding” program when their behavior indicates they might be losing interest. This kind of program reminds recipients of your brand’s value proposition with content that is sure to please, special offers, and questions/links that help you capture preference information.
The billboard effect: A common point that Dela Quist, CIO and Founder of Alchemy Worx, makes is that companies should be cautious when examining inactives. Just because subscribers haven’t opened a message recently doesn’t mean those messages can’t still be causing conversions offline or online.
5. Segment your lists
Segmentation is key for businesses because every company has different needs. Segmentation allows you to customize your email list so that everyone on the list is getting information they’re interested in and will actually read, instead of sending a general email that goes unopened or deleted. You may segment based on factors like customer intent data, where they are located, what kinds of things they have recently bought from you, and more
6. Pay attention to reporting and metrics
Although monitoring your reporting may not be the most fun task, it’s important to do in order to boost conversions and ROI. Unsubscribes, bounces, complaints, clicks, opens, and conversions are all aspects you should keep an eye on – along with your reputation.
Why should email marketers utilize Webbula – The Best Email List Cleaner
Bulk email list cleaning solutions are beneficial for determining which email addresses on your list are invalid, however spam trap emails are active and go undetected. This is where email hygiene comes in handy as it’s much more reliable
At Webbula, we don’t give you a list of which email addresses are spam traps. Instead, we prefer to pile the email threat from most severe to least damaging on your campaign countdown so that you can make more informed choices for your marketing strategy.
Even if you follow all the best practices, sometimes things can go wrong. For example, a bad address might end up on your list and drag down your deliverability or damage your sender reputation. While there’s no foolproof method to guarantee perfect outcomes, taking precautions can help avoid some disasters.
