As an email marketer, you’ve likely heard that email deliverability is crucial to your campaign’s success. However, what many people overlook is that one of the easiest ways to improve deliverability is to clean your email list regularly.
If you’re sending emails to outdated or invalid email addresses, you’re not just wasting time—you’re also harming your sender reputation, which can lead to poor deliverability.
In this guide, we’ll take a deep dive into how to clean an email list, why it’s important, and how often to clean your email list to keep your campaigns performing at their best.
Why Cleaning Your Email List Is Important
First, let’s start with the basics. Why is it so important to clean your email list in the first place?
The short answer is—deliverability.
Deliverability refers to whether or not your email actually reaches your recipients’ inboxes. A good sender reputation is key to ensuring your emails get delivered. If you’re sending emails to inactive or invalid email addresses, your sender reputation will take a hit. As a result, your emails may end up in the spam folder, or worse, not reach their intended recipients at all.
Email providers generally determine a sender’s reputation by assessing factors like:
- Bounce Rates: Both hard and soft bounces can impact your sender score.
- Spam Complaints: If recipients mark your emails as spam, it raises red flags with providers.
- Unsubscribe History: High unsubscribe rates may suggest that recipients are not finding value in your emails.
- Spam Traps: Sending emails to spam traps (addresses used solely to catch spammers) negatively affects your reputation.
These metrics influence whether your emails make it to the inbox or get sent to spam.
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The Dangers of a Dirty Email List
Having a list full of unengaged or invalid contacts is risky. Here are a few reasons why:
- Increased Bounce Rates: A high bounce rate—especially a hard bounce (when an email is sent to an address that doesn’t exist)—signals to email service providers (ESPs) that your list is unclean, which could hurt your reputation.
- Spam Complaints: If you’re sending emails to people who didn’t opt-in or aren’t interested, they’re more likely to mark your emails as spam, which further hurts your reputation.
- Low Engagement Rates: If you’re constantly emailing people who aren’t engaging with your content, it lowers your open and click rates. Low engagement signals to ESPs that your emails aren’t valuable, which can negatively impact future campaigns.
- Waste of Resources: By sending emails to invalid or non-responsive contacts, you’re essentially throwing money away. This wastes your marketing budget and your time.
How to Clean an Email List: Step-by-Step
Now that you understand why it’s important to clean your email list, let’s go over exactly how to do it. Follow these steps to ensure your email list is fresh and ready to perform:
1. Remove Hard Bounces
The first thing you should do when cleaning your email list is remove any hard bounces. A hard bounce happens when an email cannot be delivered because the recipient’s email address is invalid. This could be because the email address no longer exists or the domain is incorrect.
Most email service providers (ESPs) will automatically flag hard bounces, so it’s easy to identify them. Once you’ve found them, delete these addresses from your list. If you don’t, you risk hurting your sender reputation and damaging your deliverability.
2. Look for Inactive Subscribers
Next, identify any inactive subscribers. These are people who haven’t opened or clicked on your emails in a while. Keeping them on your list is not only a waste of resources, but it also lowers your engagement rates.
How do you identify inactive subscribers? Look for contacts who haven’t interacted with your emails over the past 3-6 months. These people are no longer engaged with your content, and it’s time to either remove them or send them a re-engagement email to try and get them back on your list.
A good practice is to segment these inactive subscribers and send them a “We miss you” or “Last chance” email with an incentive to stay on the list. If they don’t engage with that email, then it’s time to remove them.
3. Remove Spam Traps
Spam traps are email addresses used to catch spammers, and they come in two main types: pristine and recycled. Understanding the difference between them is crucial for maintaining a clean and effective email list.
Pristine Spam Traps
Pristine spam traps are the most straightforward type of trap. These are email addresses that were created solely to catch spammers. They’ve never been used for anything other than that purpose. Think of them as “bait” — these addresses don’t belong to real people, so if you’re sending emails to them, it’s a clear sign that you’re targeting a list that either isn’t permission-based or hasn’t been cleaned properly.
Sending to pristine spam traps is a big red flag to email service providers (ESPs), and it can seriously hurt your deliverability. In some cases, it may even lead to blacklisting, making it harder for your emails to reach anyone’s inbox.
Since these traps are designed to catch unsolicited emails, it’s a strong indication that you need to take a closer look at your list management. Make sure you’re only emailing people who have opted in and that you’re regularly cleaning up your list to avoid targeting outdated or non-existent addresses.
Recycled Spam Traps
Recycled spam traps are a little trickier. These email addresses used to belong to real people, but the owners have since abandoned them. Instead of just sitting idle, these addresses are repurposed by email service providers and blacklists as traps for spammers. When you send an email to a recycled trap, it doesn’t immediately signal that you’re spamming, but it’s still an indication that your list hygiene might not be up to par.
Recycled traps usually come into play when email addresses have been inactive for a while. If your list isn’t regularly cleaned or updated, you may be emailing old, abandoned addresses without even knowing it. While recycled traps are less obvious than pristine traps, they still damage your sender reputation over time. They signal to ESPs that you’re not properly managing your list by removing inactive or invalid email addresses.
Why Does This Matter?
Both pristine and recycled spam traps can significantly affect your email deliverability. When you hit a pristine spam trap, it’s a direct signal to ESPs that you might be sending unsolicited emails. Even though recycled traps don’t usually trigger an immediate response, they indicate that you’re not actively removing inactive addresses.
Both types can cause your bounce rate to spike, lower your open rates, and — in worst-case scenarios — get you blacklisted by major ISPs.
To avoid both types of traps, it’s crucial to maintain a clean, permission-based email list. Regularly review your list to ensure you’re not sending emails to outdated or non-existent addresses. This will help you stay in the good graces of ESPs and improve the chances of your emails actually making it to the inbox.
The good news is, you don’t have to tackle list cleaning alone. Tools like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, and HubSpot offer resources, tools, and services to help you clean your list effectively, ensuring that your email marketing remains on track.
4. Remove Duplicate Contacts
Another easy step to cleaning your email list is removing duplicate contacts. If someone is on your list more than once, you could be sending them multiple emails, which not only annoys the subscriber but also impacts your engagement rates.
Most ESPs will have a tool that helps you find and remove duplicates. Check your list regularly to ensure you’re not sending duplicate emails.
5. Check for Invalid Email Addresses
Sometimes, people make typo errors when entering their email addresses. If your list contains a lot of invalid email addresses (like “gnail.com” instead of “gmail.com”), those emails will hard bounce.
Using an email verification tool is an easy way to check for these types of errors. You can either run a one-time clean-up or set up real-time validation to catch typos when new subscribers join your list.
Things to Take Into Consideration Before Cleaning Your Email List— Conducting a Re-Engagement Campaign
When it comes to cleaning up your email list, it’s easy to get the urge to just cut ties with inactive subscribers. But before you do that, why not give them another shot?
A re-engagement campaign can work wonders in reigniting their interest in what you offer. After all, having a bigger, more engaged audience is always better than shrinking your list too soon.
Here’s the deal: take a moment to identify those subscribers who haven’t opened your emails in a while. Show them some love. Send them a special offer, a discount, or even a free gift as a way of saying, “Hey, we miss you!” This can be a great way to win them back without having to throw away potentially valuable contacts.
If you really want to take it up a notch, ask for their feedback and encourage them to follow you on social media. It’s a great way to keep the connection going outside of just email. Plus, if you haven’t been linking to your social media profiles in your emails yet, now’s the perfect time to start!
But, let’s be real — sometimes all the special offers in the world won’t bring certain subscribers back. If, despite your best efforts, they remain disengaged, it may be time to consider whether parting ways is the best path forward.
Keeping inactive subscribers on your list can hurt your deliverability and engagement rates, so it’s best to clean house. By re-engaging and then cleaning up your list, you’ll have a much more effective email marketing strategy that’s primed for better results.
Read this next: How to Create Re-engagement Emails that Actually Work
Bonus Tips for Maintaining a Clean Email List
Maintaining a clean email list doesn’t end once you’ve cleaned it up. It’s an ongoing process, and keeping your list in good shape is just as important as the cleanup itself. Here are a few tips to ensure your email list stays fresh and effective:
1. Use Double Opt-In
This is a simple but effective way to ensure that only those who truly want to be on your list are added. When someone subscribes, they’ll need to confirm their email address by clicking a link in a confirmation email. This reduces the risk of fake or invalid sign-ups, giving you a more engaged and genuine audience from the start.
2. Segment Your Subscribers
One of the best ways to keep your emails relevant is by segmenting your list regularly. Whether it’s based on behavior, demographics, or engagement, segmentation helps you send the right content to the right people. This ensures that your messages feel personalized and valuable, boosting your overall engagement.
3. Monitor Engagement
Keep a close eye on your email performance metrics, like open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. A sudden drop in these numbers could signal that your list needs some attention. It might be time to clean up inactive or disengaged subscribers, which helps improve your deliverability and ensures you’re connecting with the people who care.
4. Offer Easy Unsubscribe Options
This might seem counterintuitive, but making it easy for people to unsubscribe is actually a win-win. Not only is it legally required (thanks to CAN-SPAM laws), but it helps keep your list clean by removing those who aren’t interested. A clutter-free list is a more effective one, and having clear unsubscribe options can build trust with your subscribers.
How Often to Clean Your Email List
Now that you know the steps to clean your email list, you may be wondering: how often should I do this?
The answer depends on how large your list is and how often you send emails. However, here are some general guidelines:
- For Small to Medium Lists: Clean your list every 3-6 months. This gives you time to identify inactive subscribers, hard bounces, and any other issues that may arise.
- For Large Lists: If you’re working with a large email list (over 10,000 subscribers), it’s best to clean it every 1-3 months. With large lists, there’s a greater chance of having invalid email addresses or inactive subscribers, so more frequent cleaning is necessary.
- After a Campaign: If you’ve run a particularly large or complex campaign, clean your list afterward to remove any email addresses that bounced or showed no engagement.
Summing It Up
To wrap it up, regularly cleaning your email list is key to keeping your email marketing efforts on track. By removing inactive subscribers, fixing errors, and staying on top of spam traps, you ensure your emails make it to the inbox—where they belong. Think of list cleaning as a routine habit that keeps your email marketing running smoothly, helping you connect with the right people.
The end result? Better engagement, improved deliverability, and a stronger relationship with your subscribers.
