Email List Cleaning - Get A Better & More Accurate Email List
Tags: tutorial, startup, markdown
Published: 2021-12-30 16:20:46

Email marketing is an important part of any business' digital strategy. You need a reliable way to keep in touch with customers and prospects so they know about new products or services as soon as they're released. That's why we want to share this blog post with you!

This blog post will teach you what email list cleaning is, the benefits of email list cleaning, and the tools you can use to do email list cleansing. It will also provide a step by step guide on how to clean up your email lists.

So, let's get started.

## What is Email List Cleaning, and How does it help Increase ROI?
The email list is the backbone of any email marketing campaign. Whether its a grown business, SMBs, or a [simple blog](https://eyankimedia.com/how-to-start-a-successful-blog/), emails are being used as a primary source to nurture leads. 

Therefore, it's important to keep your email list as up-to-date as possible with current email addresses and remove those that are no longer valid or haven't been used in a long time. 

Email list cleaning helps you do this by sorting through your email list, checking for invalid emails, and updating them with new ones.

By email list cleaning, you'll be able to increase your email deliverability rate and make sure that the emails sent are getting through. 

It's important to monitor this because if any of your email addresses bounce back or aren't delivered successfully, it could damage your sender score, which will impact where your email lands in someone's inbox.

So, by cleaning your email list, you will get

- Higher Open Rates
- Higher Click-through rates
- Higher Conversion
Which ultimately increases the ROI (return on investment) of your business.

## Why Should I Clean My Email List?
Your email list is the foundation of your email marketing strategy, so when it comes to email list cleaning

1. You'll need an accurate email database to measure campaign performance.
2. Updating your email addresses regularly ensures that you're reaching current subscribers and not wasting resources sending emails to people who are no longer interested or have moved on.
3. It makes emailing easier and more efficient.

By cleaning your email list, you'll be able to 

- identify inactive subscribers, 
- better target prospects with personalized campaigns, 
- deliver the best open rates possible, 
- increase the number of clicks on links in emails sent by up to 40%, and 
- improve conversion rates for email marketing efforts by as much as 20%.
 
This is insane. 

## How to Get Rid of Obsolete Emails in Your List
There are many email list cleaning services available to help you update your email lists. Some email marketing tools offer it as an in-built feature, but others require a third-party service or software to do the job for them.

A free tool like VoilaNorbert analyzes email lists and checks for the most common types of email list errors.

You can do this type of email cleaning manually, but it will take a lot more time than using an automated service or software because you'll have to sort through your entire email database by hand. You'll want to review each email address individually in order.

1. To remove email addresses that are not valid.
2. To find email addresses that have been inactive for a certain time or haven't opened any emails in your email list.
3. And to replace the invalid email with active ones.

When looking at what software to use, consider factors like cost, usability, and how many subscribers it can handle.

Many marketers rely on email list cleaning services or software in the email marketing space because it's faster and more efficient than doing this by hand.

However, if you're looking to do email list cleansing as a one-off project before launching an email campaign, then going through your email database manually might be worth considering. This is also a great way to familiarize yourself with email list cleaning and the email addresses in your email database.

It is recommended that you clean email lists at least once per year, but if you're sending out emails regularly, then it's best practice to do this more often than that. This is because you want to maintain an accurate email list to email your subscribers and contact the people interested in doing business with you.

By email list cleaning, the email deliverability rate will increase, and email marketing efforts' ROI will also grow. So make sure that you maintain a 100% accurate email database by regularly cleaning it from obsolete emails. This is how all of this works.

## 5 Simple Steps to Cleanse Your Email List
Clean email lists are good for email deliverability, ROI, and email marketing success. Here is how to cleanse your email list and get rid of obsolete emails:
**Step #01:** Use a free tool like VoilaNorbert that analyzes email lists and checks for the most common types of email errors.
**Step #02:** Remove email addresses that are not valid;
**Step #03:** Find email addresses that have been inactive for a certain period or haven't opened any emails in your email list
**Step #04:** Replace the invalid email with active ones by following these steps:

- Review each email address individually, and remove those which you think they're no longer work
- Remove email addresses that are not valid
- Find email addresses that have been inactive for a certain period or haven't opened any emails in your email list, and replace the invalid email with active ones.
**Step #05:** Cleanse email lists at least once per year, but if you're sending out emails regularly, then it's best practice to make email list cleansing more often than that. You want to maintain an accurate email list so email deliverability, ROI, and email marketing efforts will grow as well.

## 12 Tips for Cleaning Your Outdated Email List: A Step-by-Step Guide
Email list cleaning is the process of updating your email list, eliminating outdated addresses, and replacing them with new ones that work. Here are 12 tips for cleaning up your email lists:

### 1. Use an Updated Email Service Provider
Make sure you have a current email service provider (ESP) contract. If not, get one! You don't want to incur any emailing charges for email addresses that are out of service. 

There are multiple top notch email service providers to name a few, [Builderall and GetResponse](https://softechmag.com/builderall-vs-getresponse), Activecampaign and AWeber. You can use any of them, or if you are already using a landing page tool like [leadpages or its alternatives](https://affiliatetour.com/reviews/leadpages-vs-unbounce/), you can integrate it with the email service tool. 

### 2. Send a Test Email
Check your email list to see if all the email addresses are active by sending a test email to yourself or an assistant with instructions to reply once you've received it. If no one replies, this is not an active email address and can be removed from your mailing list.

### 3. Ask Them What They Want
It's a good idea to email your list and ask them if they'd like to continue receiving emails from you. If no one answers, then this is an obvious inactive email address that you can remove from your mailing list as well.

### 4. Eliminate Duplicate Emails
You'll also want to make sure there aren't any duplicate email addresses on the list because it will not only confuse, but email addresses that are duplicated will be flagged as spam by email services.

### 5. Send Emails to Whole List
Make sure you're sending email to your entire list and not just a fraction of it because this can also lead to being marked as spam. If you notice a lot of "undeliverable" emails, then the email service provider may flag your email address as spam, and you'll find yourself in email jail!

### 6. Avoid Auto Email Addition
Avoid using email software that automatically adds people to a list without their input (also known as "list washing"). This is how people end up with duplicate email addresses on the same list, which can cause problems.

### 7. Refrain From List Purchasing
Never use purchased lists - there's no way of ensuring that email addresses on a purchased list are still valid, and you run the risk of being flagged as spam.

### 8. Say 'No' to List Exchange
It's also never ok to rent or exchange email lists with another email marketer because this is against CAN-SPAM laws, too! Additionally, you can lose your email service provider contract for doing so, which could lead to even more email issues.

### 9. Keep Current & Updated Email Addresses
Ensure your email list is current and accurate. It has every email address you have collected in the last 12 to 18 months. So it doesn't miss anyone who stopped receiving email from you due to an outdated mailing list or old email address not being updated. 

You can also send a "Did You Know" message each month to remind email subscribers about updating their email addresses.

### 10. Remove Inactive Emails
Avoid sending emails to people who haven't opened your emails in the last six months - instead, send them an email asking if they want to continue receiving emails from you. If no one answers, this is another inactive email that can be removed from your mailing list along with any other bounced addresses.

### 11. Let them Decide...
You can also email your list to ask if they want their email address added to bulk mail lists. If no one says "yes," then it's another inactive email that should be removed from your mailing list and replaced with an active email address.

### 12. Limit the Unknown Recipients
Finally, don't include more than 20% of people on a distribution by using blind or unknown recipients' email addresses.Keep your email list clean and up to date! It will help ensure that email recipients continue receiving emails from you in the future!

If you need help, contact a reputable email service provider who can do all of this for you so that no one misses out on email communication from you - especially if it's important company news or special email-only offers!

Email list cleaning helps businesses update their email list, eliminate outdated addresses, and replace them with new ones that work. Additionally, it helps ensure email recipients continue getting an email from you in the future by keeping a clean, active mailing list. 

Hence, no one misses out on important company news or special email-only offers.

## Tips for Keeping Your Email List Relevant and Engaging
Here are some tips to keep an email list relevant to your business.

- Check email lists frequently
- Don't sell the same thing to old and new contacts. Send relevant offers and information.
- Get rid of inactive email addresses in your email list: cancel subscriptions, ask people to rejoin if they stop receiving emails from you for a while, etc.
- You can use "soft" email addresses to track the success of email campaigns. These email addresses receive an email, but their owner won't see it. Use soft email addresses to know how many people opened and clicked your emails, etc.
- You can use a tool like unroll.me: this website gets rid of all the email subscriptions you don't read anymore from your inbox in one click!

## SIX Best Email List Cleaning Services
As email marketing continues to grow as a powerful channel for marketers, so does the email list. Unfortunately, the email lists get messy over time, with outdated email addresses and new subscribers signing up every day. Email list cleaning is essential to keep your email open rates high and deliverability at their peak performance level.

Here are the best tools that you can use for effective email list cleaning:

### 1. Bounce Exchange - Email List Cleaning Software
This tool gives you important insight into your email data by providing bounce rate analysis and other metrics such as spam complaints, hard bounces, unsubscribes, etc., on cleanse and prospecting campaigns. However, this service comes with a $75 per campaign, which starts from a 500 subscriber base only; so, if you are emailing under 500 subscribers, this tool is not advisable.

### 2. MailChimp
This is one of the best tools available on the market for performing email list cleaning at an affordable rate. This email list cleaning service is available for free until your email list reaches 2000 subscribers, which comes with all basic email list management features like split testing and subscriber segments etc.
 
However, this tool does not provide any data on bounce rates or spam complaints, so you might need to use other tools along with MailChimp for effective email marketing.

### 3. GetResponse - Email Verification and List Cleaning Tool
GetResponse, an email list management tool, offers all the email marketing features you need for $15 per month. Additionally, this email list cleaning service also provides data on spam complaints, hard bounces, and email open rates for cleanse and prospecting campaigns, making it an affordable option to perform your email list cleaning effectively without any hassle.

So, go ahead with these tools to make sure your email lists are free from outdated emails, or if they have, then replace them with new ones immediately! This will keep your email delivery performance high and give you peace of mind since there is no chance left for delivering bounce messages back to the sender's end.

### 4. MailGet List Cleaning
MailGet email list management tool is the best email list cleaning software that you can use for performing cleanse and prospecting campaigns with a high deliverability rate. 

This email list cleaning service comes for $20 per month, which might be a little expensive but considering all email marketing features like email open rates, spam complaints, unsubscribe reports, etc., it's worth every penny spent on this email list cleaning software.

### 5. Email Marker - Free Email List Cleaning
Email Marker is an email list management tool that comes with all email marketing features like email open rates, spam complaints, unsubscribe reports, etc., along with email list cleaning services. 

However, the only downside of this email list cleaning service is it does not provide any data on bounce rate but considers other features. You can use Email Marker for effective email campaign performance for $20 per month, including dedicated technical support and 100 free templates to choose from. 

You can try out its 30 days trial version before buying this tool, so you don't have to pay anything unless satisfied by using it without spending money first.

### 6. Email List Verify
Email List Verify is another email management tool that provides email open rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribe reports along with email list cleaning services. This email marketing software comes for $29 per month, including 500 free emails every day, so you don't need to pay anything for your first 500 subscribers. 

However, after reaching this limit, you'll have to pay for additional subscribers as well as other features like dedicated technical support, etc.. 

Still, considering all these amazing email marketing tools, it's worth spending money on Email List Verify since there are not many effective email clean-up tools available in the market that provide data on bounce rate rather than only providing the number or percentage of bounced emails.

## Over to You...
Email Lists is a goldmine for businesses that want to grow. Thus, keeping it free from energy-draining addresses is very important. Email list cleaning services effectively keep email lists up-to-date and remove the email addresses that bounce back or complain about spam.
Now it's your turn to increase the ROI of your business with tools and tips shared in this post.
Don't forget to let me know what worked for you.