Building an email list can be an exciting journey to prospective email marketers.

It does take a little effort, but the results can be magnanimous when the right practices are followed.

As a marketer, it is paramount that you check your email list now and then to be sure they are in their best condition possible.

One of the mistakes email marketers make is not being consistent when it comes to monitoring anomalies which are bound to happen, and as such, they keep wondering why their marketing efforts aren’t yielding the expected results.

There are many ways to maintain the health of your email list, and one of them entails cleaning up your list, to know what you have there. Ask yourself;

• Are there any inactive members?
• Expired email address nobody uses anymore?

When you come across a situation whereby some emails are inactive or perhaps, bots, then do the needful by weeding them out of your list.

In this article, you will be guided on how to maintain your email list health in four easy-to-follow steps.

1. Using Your Welcome Message To Your Advantage

A specific practice which is known to set you on the path of conversion is to send a welcome message whenever a new subscriber opts-in to your list.

An email marketing automation is triggered when a new member sign immediately in and it is advised you make it customized and personalized as possible. This is because potential converters want to be recognized as a person, not as a group.

Learn how to Generate 320% More Revenue with a Welcome Email.

It is also in your best interest to make sure that your email design is friendly and straightforward. Your color scheme has psychological effects and using them well can make a difference in your marketing results.

Look for the best email designs and steal some ideas.

Another methodology which is commonly used to convert potential subscribers to customers is by asking them to add you to their safe/approved sender list. Also, set expectations to ensure that you are keeping interested subscribers on your list.

An annoying feature which subscribers hate is when they are unable to opt-out from your list. You have to make the opt-out button very distinct, to give the uninterested subscribers the option they seek. That is how to build a healthy email list.

2. Create A Preference Center

According to Econsultancy, 66% of email recipients say that how often a company sends is their reason for unsubscribing. To be on a safer range, send emails occasionally. Too much can seem annoying and spammy to your subscribers.

What Is A Preference Center?

An email preference center is a tool that helps establish a healthy communication cadence with your email recipients. This tool aids your subscribers to manage their emails by giving them the option to control what they receive and how often they receive your emails. In the email marketing world, unsubscribes are inevitable. No matter how thrilling your contents are, some recipients are bound to use the opt-out button.

Why this happens isn’t far-fetched. They probably felt overwhelmed with the number of emails they were getting and decided to take a break. The way out of this menace is to incorporate a preference center, by giving them a better option by giving them control over the content they receive and how frequently they want it.

Apart from the reasons above, another advantage of having a preference center is to improve the overall customer experience, to keep CAN-SPAM complaints at bay and to help create a re-engaging opportunity.

Time-Based Preference Center

This tool is designed to help subscribers receive fewer emails. Not just that, you need to give them the option to go on a break whenever they feel overwhelmed or better yet, give them control over the number of emails they receive either on a daily, weekly or monthly.

Content-Based Preference Center

This type of preference is the best cause it gives the subscriber the ability to choose the kind of content that appeals to them. More like, a targeted content which they can never get tired of no matter how frequently they come.

Not all subscribers want to see all the buck emails you send forth, by having this content-based preference center in place, you give them the power to see only their favorite and the most helpful. The truth is, some subscribers are more interested in your blog updates and not your promos or discounts, while some are more focused on promos and discounts other than the blog update.

To make sure that your marketing efforts aren’t a waste, make sure you segment your subscribers appropriately. Benchmark email services are email specialists who help in your email marketing endeavor.

3. Perform Proper List Hygiene

Up to 25% of your email list will drop off each year. This is because people often get new jobs and abandoned their email addresses. Some lose interest in your services and so on. If it is essential that you weed off inactive subscribers from your list.

Check your mail reports, some subscribers aren’t engaging with your emails, and the reasons can be diverse.

• Bored with your emails
• Can’t find the time
• Perhaps they aren’t even getting your emails

To re-engage them, comment about removing inactive or unengaging subscribers – everyone wants what they can’t have. Another strategy which has been known to spill in the impressive result is trying out coupons or discounts. It works like magic. Other tips are using polls & surveys, asking trending questions they can quickly answer, etc. Try something unique, something zany and out of the fiend that they wouldn’t expect, while also trying to stay within your brand. Do this, and you will witness a spike in engagement.

To build a healthy email list, follow the three points below

1. Remove Inactive Subscribers:

Like previously said, a lot of factors can cause your email subscribers not to engage with your post anymore. In that case, don’t hesitate to remove them from the list. The chances are that they will never convert to customers no matter how mouth-watering your offers are. In other words, they are eating up resources and become a burden to your performance metrics.

After you have removed them from your list, you will feel the difference right away because you now have a full list of people who are interested in your services.

2. List Verification

This is a measure every email marketer is advised to indulge you, to make sure you are wasting money on useless contacts that don’t exist. This is one of the core practice you must not overlook in your quest to build a healthy email list.

Many email tools come with their list verification systems or have partnered up with third-party solutions, so they don’t have to worry about the process too much.

How often you verify your email list is dependent on the email sender. Do you blast emails daily? Irrespective if your email schedule, it is paramount that you check your email list once every 90 days.

For a marketer who sends a newsletter once in a month, verifying your mailing list once in 6 months is ideal.

Another pointer to look out for is your email report. Ig your marketing efforts aren’t yielding the desired result, perhaps that is a sign to verify your list once again.

3. Make It Easier To Unsubscribe

To not fall victim to CAN-SPAM complaint, it is mandatory you have a distinct ‘unsubscribe button’ that helps uninterested email recipients opt-out from your email marketing list. This act shows good customer relationship management.

Only keep subscribers who want to be there, none should feel caged to your email services. Sticking to this rule will make sure that your emails don’t get flagged as spam. That could spell doom for your business.

What Benchmark Email offers is to help businesses to quickly and easily turn their most valuable marketing asset, their email list, into relationships and sales.

4. Customer-Centric Marketing

This is prioritizing your customers’ needs over other factors, that is, making your customers your central focus and treating them like the kings they are. Without them, there is no business and that in turn can spell doom. This is the reason customers should never be joked with or taken for granted.

Potential customers should not see you like a green monster who is out to drain them of their life-force – money. When you fail to project a selfless and emphatic personal to prospective customers, convincing them to take a specific action can become a daunting task.

Never take your customers for granted. See through their view and make sure they get what they anticipated. Doing this right means more customers and recommendations from satisfied customers.

Ways To Improve Your Customer-Centric Marketing Efforts

1. Make sure your website is mobile responsive, fast and easy to navigate to avoid frustrating customers when they are browsing through your contents.
2. Content is king, and if they are helpful to your customers and positively affecting their lives, they are satisfied which can lead to recommendation or referrals.
3. Having good customer support is very necessary for marketing. This is what helps to rectify whatever issue or complaint a customer might have. If customer support is terrific, your customers will stick around.
4. One of the best way to better serve your customer is to know and understand them. This is done by collecting as much data as possible and using them to your advantage. If you have data about their birthdays, sending a birthday greeting can mean the world to them. Other data can also help disclose their interest, thereby guiding you on the kind of content that leads to conversion.
5. Lastly, always put your customers first, before your needs. When customers are convinced of your genuine and unquestionable urge to help, they will empty their pocket for your sake.

Growing And Managing A-List

Every email marketer aims to develop an enormous targeted list of people who will be interested in the services they have to offer.

Building an email list does take some effort and planning.

Here is a list of 15 Ways to Grow your Email List.

Managing a list takes some work as well since you will always have to check list hygiene to weed out inactive or unengaging emails.

When you work list management into your email marketing plan, it becomes routine.

Learn how to Create and Execute Your Email Marketing Plan.

Wrapping Up

Building and managing a healthy email list is easy if you know what to do and the practices to follow.

Ensure you weed out inactive subscribers, give your subscribers the option to control the content they receive and how frequently they are to receive them.

Benchmark helps businesses quickly and easily turn their most valuable marketing asset, their email list, into relationship and sales. Get started free today.