Stop Losing Money: Get Rid of Invalid and Inactive Email Addresses Now

Posted by: Cornelis Tuesday, 07 February 2012

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Found in: List Management

Now that you have a growing list of subscribers, you need to manage this list to ensure the most profitable return for all your hard work. Email list management is more than just creating a series of clever or sales-driven bulk emails periodically – you must also monitor this list closely and remove invalid or inactive addresses often. Failure to do so could reduce profits.

What is an Invalid or Inactive Email Address?
An invalid email address is one that is misspelled or incorrect in some way. Examples include:

• janesmith@yaho.com

• Johns.com@gmail

• jsmith@yhaoo.com

If you try to send mass email to invalid addresses, they will be returned ('bounced back') immediately. This is an incredible waste of your time and increases your bounce back rate, which could result in the blocking of your address by ISP's.

Inactive accounts are more difficult to spot because you need to find a pattern of inactivity first. If, after two months of sending messages, the subscriber doesn't make a purchase or asks to receive additional information, consider the email address inactive.

Quality over Quantity
The first lesson in email list management: Quality over Quantity. Building a list of a thousand addresses only to discover that 20% or more are invalid or inactive will not yield much profit in the long run. Instead of trying to build a list that includes thousands of subscribers, your goal should be to capture the addresses of those most interested in what you have to offer. After capturing these addresses, removing those who are least interested allows you to focus on subscriber segments that will yield the most profit.

Double Opt-In
To reduce the number of invalid or inactive email accounts, use the 'double opt-in' method. Create a landing page on your website that includes an opt-in box. After a subscriber enters in the address, send a confirmation email that includes a link they must click on to receive future email from you. This way, you are ensuring the addresses you capture are from those seriously interested in receiving messages from you.

Frequently weeding out invalid and inactive accounts allows you to send high volume email to a targeted group – those most interested and willing to make a purchase.

List Management Tips
In addition to the 'double opt-in' method, you need to remove invalid or inactive addresses that make it onto your list. Here are a few simple ways to do this:

• Conduct a sweep of your email list using a list management software program or Internet marketing service that can help find misspellings or other inaccuracies.

• Monitor your list to find subscribers that have not made a purchase or requested additional information within two months of subscribing (software or marketing service can highlight these subscribers).

• Send a follow-up email asking if inactive subscribers want to continue receiving email from you.

• Remove all invalid and inactive email accounts once a month to ensure you maintain a quality list.

Remember, that it's quality over quantity when creating and maintaining a profitable email subscriber list.

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