Why do you clean up your list?

Some people do so because it can cut down on Overhead costs associated with running an Email Marketing Business.

Most ESPs raise your monthly Cost per Amount of Subscribers on your List.

For instance, Aweber jacks it up to from $20 to $30 per month after 500 Subs. on your List.

So if 200 people on that List are not Opening your emails after a few months why do you want to pay an extra $120 year for dead weight ??



- Robert Andrew

Ah right that is true. Never thought about that.
Thanks

I don't worry too much about open rates. I do worry about clicks, though. My emails usually offer a mix of free and paid resources, and all the links are tracked. If someone goes months without even clicking on the free stuff (some of which is purely entertainment, like a relevant movie clip or meme), then the odds are I didn't connect with that person.

Periodically, I'll send that sub-group a message asking what went south and offering a gift for responding. Those that respond, stay. Those that don't, go.

For me, it has nothing to do with economics. It's more a mental thing. Pruning out the people I didn't connect with helps me concentrate on the ones I did connect with instead of obsessing over why people dropped out.

John put his finger on it... it certainly would be foolish to delete subscribers based on open rate, which as Lucien correctly pointed out, isn't very accurate.

But tracking actual clicks on the links is VERY accurate. And if someone never clicks on links, then they are simply dead weight.

I do clean up only to remove duplicates and non-deliverables.

The best way to clean up is simply ask people to unsubscribe if they're not interesting in your content anymore. Tell them it won't hurt your feelings. That's the best way to clean the list. You want your list to be active and craving your next email.

With those using emails that have set up for a freely then forget about using it, I would delete after 6 months

You clean to cut cost. If your autoresponder charges 20 for 1 to 1000 and 40 for 1000+ to 2000 and you have 1000 active subscriber and just one unsubscribe in, you will be charge the 40 because
You didnt clean out that one unsubscribe.

Another reason is to increase your deliverability, because Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc tracks your open rate. The lower your open rate, the more chance is that your email will end in spam folder.

Do test your self. Open test email addresses in Gmail, Yahoo, Outloook and AOL and try to send email that will land in inbox in all 4 providers. It almost never happens.

There is whole science behind sending emails, making sure that subject lines are not spammy, that your email domain is not blacklisted.

Here is the link for testing subject lines, FREE Email Subject Line Tester

Here is the link for testing whether your email domain is blacklisted, MultiRBL.valli.org - Blacklist, Whitelist and FCrDNS check tool

The problem with asking your list to unsubscribe is that message will be seen only by people who open your email, and you want to get rid of those who don't open it

Tracking who clicked on a link in your email is also html based. Not to mention there are browser add-ons that will let you preview link without actually opening it.

So I am afraid there is no definite answer. Is there a chance that someone who hasn't opened your email in last 12 months will buy something from you? Yes, but very minimal.

I personally clean up my email list from people who hasn't opened my email in last 90 days.

1) To pay less to your email service.

2) Since they're not interested in your information, why keep them in the first place?

3) Ask them if they're following you 3 times, per 2 days. If they open the email ask them what you can do to be better and the reason they're not interested.

4) Be better. Improve.

Start from scratch.

Do not be afraid to delete your subscribers if they're not interested.
Don't take it personally, it's just how things are, just improve and keep building a quality list with quality emails too.

removing emails who just have not opened is not main thing... Main is some emails gets offline and emails start bouncing so you need to remove those emails.. so to keep email list clean people use to cleanup their list regularly to get good sender reputation...

You could also use companies like:
ImpressionWise
EHygenics
Sift Logic
Bridge Marketing

All these companies can clean up your email marketing lists.

I think cleaning your list is not a bad idea after all. There are folks who don't even remember that they signed up. Additionally, e-mail addresses may change or get deleted. These issues may cause more unsubscribes or bounces. You may also end up getting spam complaints from a stale list. So, cleaning your list once in a while is not bad thing at all.

The most important reason to clean email list is as @alanborcic said deliverability reason....
Nost of our subscribers use Google, Yahoo, MSN..accounts
They tracks open rate. If your open rate is low the more chance is that your email will end in spam folder.

I personally delete unopens....

is there any software to clean up your list?

I think it's better than service when it comes to a very big data.