Email List Hygiene
Congratulations! You’ve got a big list of email subscribers. Now what?
One of the biggest mistakes we see our clients make is not taking the time to really understand, and then take action on the knowledge, of who exactly is “in” their email list. We hesitate to even call this a “mistake” because it’s both extremely understandable, and changing it requires a not insignificant new workload for your team.
That said, smart list segmentation can have a tremendous return on investment in the form of more action, dollars and engagement from your email list. Below are three of the first ways to rethink how you’re using your list. You probably have already done this once – is it time to do it again?
1) Very Active vs. Active vs. Passive Subscribers. One relatively easy, but highly useful list segmentation comes in the form of slicing by activity levels and then tailoring the difficulty of your information and ask to suit each list.
Let’s say 1% of your list is very active subscribers who open nearly every email you send and take action most of the time. These individuals could be getting emails that contain slightly more complicated information, along with more time consuming asks – because they’ve proven they both want and can handle the information and tasks.
Then, let’s say another 10% of your list sometimes opens your emails and occasionally takes the action asked of them. These individuals could be getting messages that are more direct, easier to read and have quick & simple action asks. As they become more informed and more engaged, those would then be moved into the “very active” list.
Then you have the other 89% of your list. This group rarely (if ever) opens your emails, and thus rarely (if ever) takes action. It’s often a good idea to step back a bit with this segment and put together a series of brief, education-oriented messages and reiterate the importance and value of your issue, with the goal of reminding them why they bothered to sign up with your group in the first place. Since we are big believers in asking someone to do something as the best way to get and keep them interested with an issue, you should always have something for these individuals to “do” – even if it’s “Click Here to Learn More.” Then, after a few months, take those that have opened several of the emails and move them into the “Active” list so they begin getting the slightly bigger asks.
2) New registrants vs. long-time subscribers. It can often be helpful to keep your “new” folks separate from your “old” folks for up to 3-6 months and tailor your messages a bit. The new folks can get value from messages that contain a little bit more background information (beware of the weeds however – carefully edit here!) in order to get more up to speed on your issue. Those who have been on your list for a while we can assume already know a little something and so can get slightly more direct messages with less background data. The asks can usually be the same – especially if they are the quick & easy tasks – but packaging them a bit differently can often yield much greater results.
Once an individual has been on your list for a predetermined period of time, you can move them into the “long-time” segment and just keep them there.
3) Opt-In Source. Often, knowing where an individual came from can help you decide how to begin communicating with them via email. Did they google your issue, find your website and spontaneously sign-up or did they randomly get one of your action alerts from a friend and decide to just sign the petition? One of the best ways to turn a moderately interested person into an uninterested person right quick is to overwhelm them with too much information and difficult asks too soon. And, that engaged person will be turned off if their interest and willingness to help isn’t being put to good use up front. Thus, separating those who came to exist in your list “more casually” from those who were more proactive – and then talking to them differently, at least to start with – is an excellent way to turn that casual person into an active person and keep that eager person involved for the long term.
Utilizing all of the above segments simultaneously would be impossible – or at least more complicated than it might be worth. So, you should think about your goals for your email list and choose one way to segment – whether it’s one of the above suggestions, or a different way altogether – and then run with it. Test your segmenting for a few months and see if it’s having an impact on your open rates and completion rates. If not, it might be worth trying a different approach. The bottom line is your list is comprised of many different individuals who all want, need and are able to do different things. Treating your list like one, amorphous blob is simply not the best way to take advantage of their talents and potential.
We hope this helps! As always, we are available to help, so please be in touch if we can be of use to your project or organization!