So you’re bullish on email marketing, but you’re not sure how to manage your list. Don’t stress—you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got everything you need to know about email list management, including how to:
There won’t be much to manage if you can’t build your email list effectively. Make it simple for people to subscribe by creating signup forms you can embed on your website or landing pages. (Pro tip: If you want to make it more enticing to sign up, offer a freebie like a customizable template or generous discount code that’s only available to subscribers.)
To reduce the risk of typos, use an email list management software that lets you integrate real-time email address validation API with your signup forms.
Using email address validation API helps you in two wonderful ways:
It catches false or incorrect entries and prompts subscribers to fix typos. This ensures you’ve got the information you need to nurture subscribers and prevents you from losing out on potential leads.
It eliminates the need for an additional email address verification field, which keeps your signup form short and sweet. (Pro tip: Longer forms get fewer subscribers, so keep ‘em as short as you can while still capturing the crucial information you need to segment and sell effectively.)
Kickstart a strong relationship with new subscribers by sending a short welcome sequence so they can get to know you better and get into the habit of opening and reading your emails. Craft 2 or 3 short, simple introductory emails and set up automation triggers that send them to each new subscriber.
Here’s an example of a standard 3-email welcome sequence:
Email 1: Lead with a warm welcome, then introduce yourself or your business with a brief description of who you serve and what problems you solve — this lets a new subscriber know they’re in the right place. If you promised a freebie in your signup form, be sure to include it. Ideally, Email 1 will be sent as soon as a new subscriber has clicked the verification button in the confirmation email.
Email 2: Share a couple of your “greatest hits” to provide new subscribers with plenty of value right away — these could be how-to videos, in-depth industry reports, or other assets that your audience can’t get enough of. And the more engaging and exciting, the better! Remember, an engaged subscriber is usually a happy subscriber. Email 2 should be sent a day after Email 1.
Email 3: Encourage more interaction by asking each new subscriber to share their story, idea, or perspective on a key topic that’s important to your ideal customers. An easy way to do this: Introduce a fun hashtag or video campaign you’re running on social media and invite them to participate. This is an easy way to create user-generated content (UGC) and get subscribers to connect with you on multiple channels. Email 3 should be sent 24-48 hours after Email 2.
Notice that this welcome sequence isn’t salesy—that’s intentional. You want to offer plenty of value and build trust before you ask for the sale. A little patience at the beginning of your nurture sequences can help you see much more conversion over time, so steer away from anything that feels transactional.
Segmentation is one of the most effective email marketing tactics. Separating your subscribers into specialized distribution lists enables you to personalize your email content and make it highly relevant to each list.
Here’s where it can get a little tricky though: There’s no single way to segment. You can divide subscribers by lead scores, preferences, purchase history, customer journey stage, or more.
Here are a few of the most common ways to segment an email list:
Tiered by qualification criteria like lead scoring
Leads vs. new customers vs. repeat customers
Interest in specific products or services
Sorted by demographic data or customer personas
Once you’ve segmented, you can better customize the content and product or service offerings to appeal to each list. Tailoring the experience to be more specific and relevant will typically help you increase opens, clicks, and conversions.
When you use email marketing software, you’ll have a wealth of data at your fingertips. And if you run A/B tests, you’ll gain even more insight into what sparks action with your subscribers.
Here are some key metrics to look at:
Open rates
Clickthrough rates
Hard and soft bounces
Unsubscribes
Winners or losers of A/B tests
Check your reporting dashboard regularly to review performance and look for insights. Do you consistently see more opens on weekend sends? Adjust your automations to skip weekdays. Do shorter messages get more clicks than longer newsletter-style emails? Avoid verbosity and get right to the point. Are you seeing unsubscribe rates of more than 1%? Adjust your opt-in messaging to set more accurate expectations for what subscribers will receive. And so on…
Be sure to review individual email performance as well as take a macro view to analyze overall performance trends. Depending on your email cadence, you may want to review data weekly or monthly.
An important note: Make sure you have a large enough sample size in any given segment before you start iterating. If you’ve only sent out a handful of emails, you may not have collected enough data yet to make a well-informed decision.
Data hygiene isn’t the sexy part of email marketing, but it’s necessary to maintain strong deliverability and a high sender reputation score. Clean up your list at least a few times a year (or sooner if you see an increase in bounce rates).
Here are some housekeeping tasks you’ll want to tackle:
Merge duplicate email addresses
Correct or remove invalid email addresses
Remove email addresses with soft or hard bounces
Send targeted broadcast emails to re-engage inactive subscribers (remove them if you can’t re-engage them)
Don’t stress out if you come across a lot of invalid email addresses—it’s common for people to switch email addresses when they graduate school or change jobs and then forget to update their opt-ins.
You may be tempted to buy an email list rather than build one—don’t do it. Buying an email list is frowned upon by reputable email service platforms (including SendGrid), rarely generates any ROI, and can get you into legal hot water.
Let’s run through the risks:
Purchased lists don’t perform. When you email a purchased list, most people will ignore your emails or mark them as spam because they don’t “know” you. At best, you don’t see any ROI, and you damage your deliverability and engagement in the process. At worst, your sender reputation score drops, and you’re placed on a deny list, which means inbox service providers stop accepting your emails altogether. Once you have a poor sender reputation score, it can take years to raise it again.
If your sender reputation score drops too low, email service providers will shut down your account and prevent you from using their software. This is because email service providers can also be found liable if they let you engage in activity that may violate data or privacy laws.
Purchased lists aren’t compliant with European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) laws because the people on a purchased list haven’t given you, the purchaser, explicit permission to contact them. Even if you don’t live or work in Europe, you can be found guilty of violating GDPR by emailing people on a purchased list and be subjected to hefty fines.
Trust us: You can be wildly successful at email marketing without purchasing a list, so skip the risks and build your own list instead.
Metrics reporting dashboards that help you analyze, iterate, and ultimately improve performance
Small business-friendly pricing that won’t leave you broke
By the way, SendGrid has all of these features and more. Create a SendGrid account now and try it for free. You’ll be able to start building, segmenting, and optimizing your email lists in minutes.
