The importance of a properly maintained email database
Successful delivery of an email to a specific customer is just as important as the message that is sent. Content of an email is king, but unless this email reaches its required destination, this creativity and planning is wasted.
Unfortunately, deliverability rates for campaigns are often considered less important than the content itself. Data from Experian CheetahMail shows that in February 2012 alone, 2.66% of emails sent failed to reach its target destination. While this might seem like a small amount, marketers send millions of emails a month, which equates to a significant amount of undelivered mail – and in turn a great deal of lost revenue. To address this issue, marketers need to take steps to improve deliverability rates, which will in turn increase overall conversion rates.
This all starts with improving the quality of your email database and there are simple steps that can be taken to cleanse your data and ensure that your email addresses are as relevant and updated as possible.
Remove bounced emails – Obviously, it doesn’t make sense to send an email to the same inaccurate address over and over again. Removing known invalid emails from your list will not only reduce bounce rates, but it will also have an impact on your company’s reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Each sending IP, and in some cases the sending domain, earns a reputation with the major ISPs, such as Gmail™ Yahoo and Hotmail. Emails sent from that IP/domain receive placement in a customer’s inbox based on the positive or negative nature of the sender’s reputation. If too many emails bounce, then an ISP may consider the sender a spammer and place emails in the junk filter, or even prevent delivery altogether. Keeping the bounce rate low can improve or maintain a sender’s reputation.
A leading financial information company saw a huge increase in engagement rates following a database cleansing exercise. During the first month of implementation, the company saw an increase of over 160% in open rates and over 140% increase in click-through rates. These high engagement rates have been sustained and click rates continue to increase each month since the database cleansing took place.
Cleanse email addresses – Most bounced emails are the result of syntax errors, like misspellings or typographical errors. Software tools can identify and correct invalid characters and change incorrectly typed domain names. This cleansing can be done on a weekly or monthly basis, depending on email volume.
Educate staff – It is important to train members of staff on the importance of an accurate email address. If your staff understands where information is used, and how inaccurate data affects the organisation as a whole, they may be more careful when collecting data in the future and reduce the number of careless errors made during data entry.
By removing inaccurate information, cleansing existing addresses and training staff, marketers can increase the number of usable email addresses in their existing database. Ultimately, more delivered emails means more opens and clicks, and of course, ultimately more profit for your business.