Everyone's got an email list these days. And thankfully, most people use email vendors of some sort. That's because an email list is the most valuable marketing tool a business can have. Why? Because the email subscribers chose to be on that list. That's permission-based marketing.
Yet, some email tool vendors think you should “clean” your list. These vendors believe they can tell when people open your emails and when they don’t. And they think that people who don’t open your emails are “cold” contacts.
First, some email readers prevent the vendor from knowing if someone downloaded, opened, or read the email. (Yes, there's a difference between all three states.)
But second—and in my experience—more important, the act of “cleaning” a list means the business does not trust its email subscribers.
When small businesses, such as consultants and writers, build their email lists, the more they trust their subscribers, the more valuable the list is. And that includes “cold” subscribers.
Define “Cold” Subscribers
Most email vendors define a cold subscriber in these ways:
- An undeliverable email address. If you're lucky, the email vendor will separate undeliverable emails from “cold” emails.
- An email address that has not opened your emails in a “reasonable” time.
But what's a reasonable time? I suspect I'm like many of you. Because I subscribe to many email lists, I filter them into relevant folders or mailboxes. Then, when I have time, I read them. Sure, I might miss out on time-relevant offers. I can live with that. But the people who offer me great content? I read that when I have time. All because content does not spoil.
Email newsletters with great content are much more like books than bananas. Bananas spoil after a few days. Great written content does not spoil over time.
That said, you might review your undeliverable subscribers periodically.
Consider When to Review Your Undeliverable Subscribers
Back when I had under a thousand people on my email list, I (obsessively) reviewed the undeliverable subscribers. I looked for their new emails and checked with them to make sure it was okay if I changed their email.
I don't do that any longer.
In fact, I don't review my undeliverable emails, except to make sure my email vendor's delivery percentage is reasonable. But if you still have a relatively small list, you might want to review the undeliverable emails every month or two.
However, I've discovered that IT departments and ISPs change their rules all the time for which emails get through. Several of my long-time email subscribers recently congratulated me on “restarting” my Pragmatic Manager email list. (Their ISP stopped letting my vendor's emails through.) I explained I hadn't stopped it and pointed them to the Pragmatic Manager Newsletter archive so they could catch up with what they missed.
I can't do anything about that, so I don't worry about it.
That's because I trust my subscribers.
Trust Your Subscribers
I trust my subscribers to choose when to read my emails. I also trust them to change their email address, unsubscribe, re-subscribe, and anything else they want to do.
Would I like them to read my emails when I send them? Of course. And would I like them to stay on my list “forever?” Also, of course.
But people float in and out of my ecosystem. I'm okay with that. All because I trust them.
If an email vendor wants you to clean your list, ignore the vendor. They don't know what they're talking about. Instead, write great content. Send that content to your list. And trust your subscribers to do what's right for them—and keep your list clean.
This is one of an intermittent series of consulting tips.
(Interested in the consulting workshop later this year? See the Successful Independent Consulting Workshop page for the details and to subscribe to a notification list.)