How to Manage Your List Effectively

Transcription

1 How to Manage Your List Effectively A short guide by MailWheel 1

2 Discover What s Inside After you ve acquired enough addresses and created your opt-in and opt-out forms, you are probably wondering: what s next? Is there anything left to do with your list? In fact, there are a number of things you ll want to get just right. A properly managed list is an integral part of any successful campaign, for having bad addresses can quickly result in a deliverability problem. In this guide, we you will learn about the final steps you ll need to take to keep your list in its best shape. Table of Contents: 7 Tips To Manage Your Lists Effectively Determining Your Lists and Groups: Segmentation & Personalization Typical Mistakes in List Management Checklist 2

3 7 Tips to Manage Your Lists Effectively: 1 Perform simple data check after acquiring new s Performing a simple check to correct typos and misspellings made during the acquisition phase is the first step toward healthy lists. It s a simple way to clean up simple errors, so you don t send your s to invalid addresses. Also we recommend that you delete all distribution and system addresses (like system@company.com;sales@company.com) and addresses with the word spam in them. Many marketing providers have list hygiene tools built-in to their services. 2 Avoid bounces Undelivered s continue to be the cause of frustration for many marketers, as the bounce codes lack standardization across different clients. However, this problem is not that difficult to handle. And you don t have to decipher every bounce code, you just have to manage hard and soft bounces. 3

4 A soft bounce is a temporary deliverability problem, such as a full inbox or a server that is down. It s okay for you to resend s to these addresses a few more times because there s a good chance they will go through next time. A hard bounce is a permanent deliverability problem, such as an invalid address. Since there is no way the will ever get delivered, it s important to remove these addresses once and for all. If you generate too many bounces, internet service providers (ISPs) may block your messages. As a result,this will negatively affect your ratings. To steer clear of hard and soft bounces, most senders suggest a threshold of 3 to 5 bounces before you remove an from your marketing database. 3 Get rid of inactive or non-engaged subscribers The very thought of deliberately removing subscribers from your list who haven t personally unsubscribed might sound a little crazy. However, it is now a common practice among marketers to improve their ratings by making sure that their lists only contain subscribers who are engaged. Although, before you 4

5 remove subscribers, try a re-engagement campaign to see if they are still interested at all. You might offer a special incentive to recapture their attention. If the subscriber remains inactive, remove them from your list. Remember: a successful marketing campaign isn t a campaign with a huge number of subscribers, but a campaign with quality subscribers, the ones that are able to take an action after reading your . 4 Monitor feedbacks Another criterion internet providers use to assess your reputation is the number of complaints to your s. Even if you followed all the best tips to build your list and subscribers opted in to receive s from you, they still can report your messages as spam. We strongly advise you to monitor feedback loops so you can identify complainers and immediately remove them from your lists. 5 Don t store inessential subscriber data Consider using groups or segments to target different content to the users, instead of managing multiple lists that have many of the same subscribers. A subscriber can update their information or preferences at any time. So if they update their address or other personal information on one of your lists, but not the other, that could decrease their engagement with you or even worse, increase your bounce rate. 5

6 6 Delete is different from unsubscribe: don t delete lists unless necessary When a subscriber unsubscribes, they will no longer receive campaigns from you. However, you will be able to find their profile in your database, where they will have the unsubscribed status. There is hardly any service provider that doesn t have the unsubscribed status, and this means that their addresses can never be reimported. By contrast, deleting the subscriber completely removes all the subscriber information from your list. When that information is gone, you could accidently add back people who previously unsubscribed or bounced. This can mean increased hard bounces and complaints, which don t do you any favour. 7 Monitor opens and click-throughs High open and click-through rates are an essential part of any successful campaign. An average open rate is somewhere between 20 and 30%. If your open rate is low, then your subscribers aren t as engaged as they can be. Regularly check to see if people are opening your s and clicking your links after you send out a campaign.mailwheel provides you with easy-to-get statistics on opens, clickthroughs, bounces etc. so you stay up to date with your campaign all the time. 6

7 Determining Your Lists and Groups: Personalization & Segmentation Personalization marketing seems to be the best fit for getting personal with your customer. Why not use this option and add a personal touch to your s? A recent study by Experian shows that personalized s had 29 percent higher open rates and 41 percent higher click-through rates than s without any personalization. How to use personalization in a campaign? Gathering information: you can start with something simple like name and location by adding the relevant lines to the sign-up forms. You can always go a little deeper and look for what your user has purchased or what they ve searched for. There is a line between personal and creepy. Customizing everything based on what a user has previously searched for may quickly set you on the path of becoming Big Brother. Including relevant personal data: What benefit does your personalization offer users? You shouldn t be 7

8 throwing in personalization just because you can, but giving your users something valuable based on their past purchases or preferences.think about your specific content that relates to your product. Make sure the personal data you want to include doesn t have any typos or misspellings in it. It s better not to get personal at all than to write incorrectly. Otherwise the message will look automated and rude. 3. Adding logic: In order for your to look personal, adding names and birthdays isn t enough. All the details should make sense so the message doesn t look automated. Segmentation The common definition of segmentation is that it s a process of pulling out parts of your list of those who are most likely to respond to this or that offer and then giving them that offer. The following criteria are recommended: GENDER Gender references are useful for offering certain categories of goods / services. (For example: discount on makeup / tires 30%!) However, it doesn t end there. Even marketing techniques and images appeal differently to different genders ; LOCATION There are so many reasons for you to segment list by geographic region. Local 8

9 speak, references to local events, use of local colors, and even the reference to the weather are just a few. DATE OF REGISTRATION / SUBSCRIPTION This data can be used for sending special offers on the occasions like registration anniversary or sending reengagement s if the customer registered and did not do anything afterwards. What else is there to look at: In fact, list segmentation process turns out to be completely unique to everyone, but there are some common ways to split your list up. Customer Activity: Whether a customer has actively purchased or interacted with you can impact the type of offer or they can get.it s common to send less generous offers to active customers and larger offers to lapsed once to try to stimulate them. Purchasing History: What types of products has a customer purchased? This can tell you a lot about what kind of offer or they will respond to. 9

10 Typical Mistakes in List Management Managing your list is not just adding new s and sending out campaigns with just one click. It requires critical thinking and planning ahead.that s why we have selected typical mistakes that marketing rookies often make so that you don t follow their footsteps. Mistake #1: Scraping s from websites Don t assume that you can just add sales@ or info@ to the front of a company s domain name in order to reach someone. It takes only a few complaints from these addresses to get you blocked and you reputation harmed. Quick fix: Include only verified addresses into your list, so that you know it is real people you send your s to. Mistake #2: Having the same addresses on different lists Having unique addresses appear on more than one list may lead to over- ing certain customers. No need to remind you what happens next. Over- ing might be just as dangerous as not sending out s at all. You can easily be marked as spammer. Quick fix:take the time to run an extra check to make sure that you haven t accidently added the same people on multiple lists that are being sent at the same time. 10

11 Mistake #3: ing everyone in your address book at once Your address database may contain addresses that you don t even know are there, such as technical support you ve requested help from or companies who have sent you order receipts, friends and coworkers. They didn t sign up for your company s list. Quick fix: Be selective about who you send your campaigns to. Small time spent on selecting your lists can have a big pay-off in the future Mistake #4: Using too muchpersonal information It s always nice to establish personal contact with the customer. But there is a fine line between personal and creepy. Otherwise you ll make your customers feel like you are watching their every move. Quick fix: Respecting your customers privacy is a thing to remember.don t overwhelm your customers with their personal info.use only the personal data that is relevant to your product. Mistake #5: Having single opt-in forms If you use the single opt-in method in your sign-up forms, your list may be vulnerable to typos, prank submissions, spambots, etc. Quick fix: always use double opt-in not only to acquire engaged users but also for your own sake: to keep your list clean of bots and pranksters. 11

12 Checklist And one last thing. If you are a beginner, this guide could be too much information to absorb at once. So before building your list, take a look at this checklist to make sure you have everything under control. Simple Data Check after Acquiring New s Avoid bounces. Get Rid of Inactive or Non-Engaged Subscribers Monitor Feedbacks Don t store inessential subscriber data. Delete is different from unsubscribe: don t delete lists unless necessary Monitor Opens and Click-throughs Scraping s from websites Having the same addresses on different lists ing everyone in your address book at once Using too much personal information Having single opt-in form 12

13 About MailWheel MailWheel provides the most effective way to send s to your customers. Designer templates and useful tools are always at hand to help you create unique and efficient campaigns. Using our Inbox Viewer, you can create s that will be correctly displayed anywhere. Drag&drop builder with its unique designs and flexible layouts will make your campaign building easy and fun. MailWheel Spam Doctor will make sure your s don t get caught up in spam folders. Customization, segmentation, A/B testing- you name it. We keep an eye on all these features while you stay focused on your business. Please visit for more information Get Started With MailWheel Learn more about us More tips about marketing on MailWheel Blog Sign up by DigitalContact 13