By Bree Greenawalt, breeg@lessitermedia.com
Sr. Manager Data & Ad Services, Lessiter Media
Quick question — what's more important, your audience or the content of your message?
The answer is your audience! Without the right list, the best marketing and content in the world will fall on deaf ears. Back in November, Patrick Sharpe shared a Marketing Minute on this very topic.
So you have the right list, now what do you do? The same thing everyone does this time of year....Spring Cleaning. Cleaning up your email list isn't rocket science, but it needs to be done correctly and timely.
The thought of deliberately reducing your list universe for the greater good of your marketing efforts may make you squirm a little, but consider this — what good is a rolodex of 1,000 sales prospects if only 10 of them ever answer your phone call or are even at the company still? Cut them loose and zero-in your efforts on the most engaged.
We began our spring cleaning early by simply removing the people that weren't opening our emails, and over the past 9 months have seen our average open rates go from 17% to 27% — well above the average for marketing emails — and the number of unique opens has remained steady. A few of our e-newsletters now have open rates of over 43%, all thanks to a simple list cleanse process.
Have you done any list cleaning efforts? We'd love to hear what your results were. And if you need any help, check out our spring cleaning checklist below.
