When you ask an average e-marketer what makes him the happiest, then the answer often is ‘a list with email addresses as big as possible’. Another e-marketer which calls himself smart, would rephrase it differently.
Of course everything starts with having email addresses at your disposal. No discussion about that. So we create different gateways via different channels – offline and online -, through which email addresses come into our email lists. Often we track the channel through which the address came in. Of course all this runs via a correct opt-in procedure. But, the longer an address is in our database, the less relevant the origin of that address becomes.
People change
Look at yourself, the person you are today, definitely changed a little from who you were yesterday. In the digital word everything goes even faster than fast. Count on one year that the origin stays relevant. After that, you need to take action. Because the accidental subscriber could have become your biggest client or fan by now. Your client that subscribed at a sales point earlier, could maybe be your ex-customer today. Therefore the principle of differentiation has been invented. That’s right, because a customer should receive another message than a non-customer.
People are constantly changing
But ever since you have made the differentiation in your mailing list, how long has it been that you have verified it? Are all email addresses in your e-marketing list customers, or still customers? Or in a B2B environment, is the person hidden behind an email still active in that company? How often an email address continues to exist and taken over by another colleague? Who moves your email directly to the bin? And these are only the most obvious arguments.
People don’t like repetition
We even go a step further in our reasoning. Imagine, you have a nicely cleaned up list of non-customers and ex-customers. You have checked them off against your sales system. The list is only originating from one certain source, take for example the opt-in form on your website. Should the contacts that have subscribed a year ago, receive the exact same information as those that have subscribed to your e-marketing list on the same day? Repetition gets boring and boring means no more reading. It’s as simple as that in email marketing. So in even the cleanest list, it is important to differentiate with already passed on knowledge.
That is why you should set up a decent management plan for your emarketing lists…
How frequently will we evaluate the addresses in the emailing lists again on their status? Yearly or based on another frequency? Which statuses are we using? What are the cycles we should maintain with regard to a certain list? When does repetition appear? Will we split up the list after a month? After a year? Or do we use other intervals? Should we split up or move addresses from one sub list to another? Should a storyline with the relevant e-marketing be similar to one single e-marketing list? If not, when we combine the methods, how fresh does the revaluation of the statuses of the addresses have to be? What is the moment and what are the conditions to commit hygienic maintenance? An address that has not reacted for a year, should we get rid of it or keep it? But then move it to another list?
Connect lists with CRM
You see, there are enough questions to be answered. And if you further philosophize about it, then the maintenance is purely in the interest of the conversion. Because that way, you will not only waste e-marketing forces, but you can also communicate more efficiently with the readers as regards your content. Would you like to do it rather quickly? Then you have to figure how to connect your e-mail marketing platform to your CRM. There you can let certain things happen automatically. With a workflow you can add a new customer to the appropriate emailing list. Then you don’t have to be concerned about the status, but you still have to set up your management plan. Because from there you will have to control all the workflows. We are curious to read a few examples of our readers!
