Let me ask you something. When was the last time you took a hard look at your email list? Not just the total number of addresses. Not your open rate. I mean actually digging into the quality of the contacts sitting in your database. If you’re not quite sure about the last time you did a deep dive into your list, then it likely means it’s time to do it now.
Email marketers spend a lot of time and energy focused on growing their lists, which makes sense. A larger audience means more opportunity to drive engagement and revenue. But, there’s a flip side to the growth conversation that doesn’t get nearly as much attention: the health of the list you already have. Sending to an unengaged or outdated list isn’t just likely to drive poor performance. It can actively hurt your deliverability, your sender reputation, and your program’s long-term performance. That’s pretty much the opposite of what every mailer is looking for.
So, here are four signs that your email list is overdue for a good review, along with some thoughts on what to do about any issues you find.
1. Your open rates have been quietly declining.
Open rates aren’t an accurate or overly valuable standalone metric anymore (if they ever were). However, if you see them changing quickly or just steadily over time, this should be a warning signal. It can creep up on you gradually, making it harder to spot. If your open rates have been trending down over several months without a likely cause (no major content change, no shift in send frequency), there’s a chance your list has accumulated a group of disengaged subscribers who are simply not opening your emails anymore.
The answer isn’t to panic and blast your whole list with a “we miss you!” campaign. Start by segmenting out subscribers who haven’t engaged in the last 90, 120, or 180 days, depending on how frequently you send. Look at the makeup of each group and consider what to do with one in separate sends. A targeted re-engagement campaign may be worth trying for some of those folks. For others (likely the ones that haven’t engaged in the longest time), the smartest thing you can do for your email program is to remove them from your active list. The usual caveat applies that your best approach will depend on the unique characteristics of your specific email program.
2. Your bounce rates are creeping up.
Bounces happen. Someone changes jobs, abandons an old email address, or a domain goes dark. It’s part of the natural churn in every email list. A handful of hard bounces on any given campaign is to be expected. But if you’re seeing hard bounce rates consistently above 2%, that’s a problem worth addressing now, rather than later.
Undeliverable addresses don’t just drag down your performance metrics. They send a signal to inbox providers that your list hygiene might not be up to par, which isn’t a message you want to be sending. Make it a standard part of your process to remove hard bounces after each campaign. If specific email addresses repeatedly soft bounce, those may also need to be suppressed. If it’s been a while since you ran your list through any kind of email validation tool, that’s a worthwhile investment to get your list hygiene back in line.
3. Your spam complaint rate is rising.
Most email marketers are familiar with the general benchmark here: Gmail and Yahoo! want to see spam complaint rates below 0.1%, and you’re definitely going to face challenges if you’re pushing past 0.3% regularly. But even before you hit any specific threshold, rising complaint rates are a red flag about list quality and your email program itself.
Spam complaints often come from people who don’t remember signing up, who feel like they’re being mailed too frequently, or who just can’t find a clear unsubscribe option and hit the spam button as a shortcut. All three of those scenarios point to an email program that needs attention, whether that’s removing older or less engaged segments from your list, reviewing your opt-in process, or making it easier for people to unsubscribe.
Speaking of which…
4. Your unsubscribe link isn’t all that easy to find.
If someone wants to unsubscribe from your emails, you want them to find that link easily. A subscriber who can’t easily find the unsubscribe link has two options: just keep deleting your emails or hit the spam button. Neither of these options is good for your email program. One leads to lower engagement and overall performance. The other can damage your sender reputation, leading to lower deliverability in the future.
If your unsubscribe link is buried in a wall of tiny light-gray text at the very bottom of your email, it might be time to rethink that design choice. An easier opt-out process may lead to fewer spam complaints. Fewer spam complaints lead to higher deliverability. Better deliverability means your emails actually land in front of the people who want to read them. It’s a cleaner outcome all around.
Keeping your list healthy is a continuous project.
Fortunately, none of these tips requires a massive overhaul of your email program. Most of them just involve making list hygiene a regular part of your workflow rather than something you only deal with when an issue arises.
To learn more about email deployment, email compliance, and other industry insights, check out our full blog here.
