A good practice is to clean your email list from scratch every three months. Think of it as a quarterly maintenance task . As you grow your email list , shorten the intervals between cleanings to keep up with the increase in volume.
Warning Signs That You Should Clean Out Your Email List
In addition to setting specific time frames for cleaning your email list, you should also watch out for warning signs that your list is bloated. Here are three main warning signs that signal a scrubbing issue.
1. Your open rates are lower than ever
Some businesses don't even follow open courses. Hopefully, you're not one of them.
A low open rate indicates that many of your subscribers may not be interested in your marketing messages. They may have left with a competitor, already purchased your product, or no longer need your service.
The reason doesn't matter because you can't control it. However, you can eliminate any downtime by cleaning up your email list.
2. The CTR (click-through rate) of your emails is also much lower than usual
Click-through rate measures the percentage of subscribers who click on the CTA in your email. If your CTR drops sharply, you’re walking a dangerous line.
As mentioned above, CTR will almost always be much lower than the open rate. People often read emails without engaging with them further.
However, if you see a big drop, it’s a red flag. Cleaning up your email list could improve your CTR and increase engagement.
3. You receive a lot of spam complaints and your bounce rate is also high
Recipients can do two things with an unsolicited email: trash it or send it to their spam folder. The latter is the most dangerous for your business and brand.
When inactive or inactive subscribers send your emails to spam, they send a message to their email clients: “This message student database is junk and unsolicited.”
The email client pays attention to spam complaints . If you reach a certain threshold, your emails will be automatically sent to spam.
Pay close attention to abandoning emails when they reach a certain threshold . If an email bounces as undeliverable, there is likely a problem with the address itself or the owner's email client.
The answer is: As often as you can.
You can start at three months, but if you have a large list and have never cleaned your email list, it's time to start.
The faster your list grows, the more often you need to clean it.