Quality Over Quantity
In the world of email, it’s all about the list. We are sold the idea of building a great big list with millions of subscribers as the goal, because we believe it is a list that can continue to produce results for years to come. But the reality is that owning a great big email list you can “blast” is not a formula for success. Even a very small list that is permission-based and highly engaged will build a better business for you long-term than a haphazard mess of names who don’t know or care about your brand.
TL;DR
List integrity is critical to your program’s success.
Why the Biggest List Doesn’t Actually Win
Clients come to us every day with long lists of names they have acquired from questionable sources, convinced it is a goldmine of data. In order to protect their domain and sender reputation, we often recommend scrubbing these lists to remove expired, invalid and questionable email addresses.
It can be very frustrating to see your list size drop dramatically with a scrub, but remember that invalid names do not produce results. Fake people do not buy things or spread the word about your company. They don’t become brand advocates or boost your Google search rank. Spammy addresses on your list do nothing but hurt your sender reputation which eventually hurts your company and brand. The sooner you remove them from your marketing program, the better.
Instead of focusing on list size, watch your level of engagement. From clicks to survey responses, from purchases to replies, the signs of a successful email program are the stats around subscriber engagement. The cleaner the list, the higher those numbers climb.
Not sure what data points to measure or how to measure to determine if your list is performing well? We can help you parse the data and determine the KPIs that will tell you what’s really going on.
Learn more about KPIs and the data to measure for your campaigns in this clip from our monthly Marketing Workshop.
