Do you have an old mailing list?
It’s quite well known that email marketing has an excellent return on investment (ROI). The kicker is, it’s only as good as how clean it is. A messy mailing list can lead to a big bout of issues. For instance; if you have a list that you haven’t used for a while, it can be very frustrating for both the sender and the receiver. It can come with all kinds of brain aches :)
Keen for the why, the how, the what? First, let me give you some insight into a project that I am currently working on. I have a client who has a huge list, we’re talking 60,0000 people are subscribed to this list. Most businesses would be thrilled with that turnout, however as a marketer, hearing this amount on any given email list, will send some red flags our way. It’s in our nature to then audit the list to make sure that every single person on this list is a) engaging with your content and b) a real person.
Unfortunately for my client, as they were growing their list, they didn’t use 2FA so the mailing list is full of spam and bots. 2FA may seem like you are causing someone more friction to subscribe, but believe me, only those who are interested in you will go through the process. A deathly quiet email list, full of crickets is not worth a penny. You want to only have engaged subscribers otherwise this can really hurt your open rate analytics.
If I used this junk-filled mailing list as it is what would happen?
Most email marketing services will stop your account from sending if you have a number of spam or bounces. They deem it suspicious behaviour; so they stop you from sending out any more emails and suspend your account until you sort it out…cue the brain ache I was going on about in the above!
Not only this, but like a disease it can affect other areas of your digital footprint too. It’s possible that the domain would be affected by a bad spam score.
When an Internet Service Provider (ISP) sees that you’re sending to a large number of unknown accounts, they will suspect that you are a spammer. If you email unknown accounts at a rate higher than 5%, it is very likely they will send your emails directly to the spam folder or will block you altogether. Which is really of no use to anybody.
What are the steps to sort out an old mailing list?
1. Clean out your list
2. Sign up for a Newsletter Service Provider
3. Authenticate your domain
4. Create your first email and use an email checker before you send it
5. Email your clean list
A clean list is a healthy list. A healthy list will do your business wonders…don’t knock it till you try it! Ensure that your list is in working order so you don’t have the headaches that many of my clients had before they came to me.
I hope this post has been helpful!
Until next time
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Hi, I am Lara
I started working in web in the 90s, essentially at the start of the internet, when nobody used it. It’s changed a lot! WordPress has been my work and hobby for the last ten or so years.
When I am not working with Wordpress, I am probably tinkering with Wordpress haha.
I love learning and am constantly revising things to make my builds exceptional. I am rather obsessed with site speed and love a tidy dashboard and database.
I specialise in providing fast, focused WordPress solutions with VIP Intensives, helping businesses and entrepreneurs troubleshoot issues, implement complex builds, and optimise their sites for success. I also offer personalised 1:1 training to empower you to manage your WordPress site confidently.
I love blogging and sharing my knowledge. I write about a lot of different topics, mostly because of questions I am asked when teaching clients or when I am testing something and I can’t find any blogs that already exist on the topic.
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