Keeping clean contact lists

Improve your email's deliverability and open rates, and reduce spam reports by cleaning your contact list regularly

Over time, as with many things, your contact list can become a bit messy and in need of some attention. Your contacts can change email addresses, get bored of your content, or they may not have a need for what your organization provides anymore. Practicing good list hygiene helps you to get the right content in front of the right contacts, at the right time.

• Benefits of a clean contact list
• Tips for re-engaging your least engaged contacts
• Tips for removing unwanted email addresses from your contact list

Be a better marketer: Need more convincing? Check out How to A Clean Your Email List (and Why You Need Regular Scrubbing).

Benefits of a clean contact list

Cleaning up your contact list takes some time, but it not only helps you to avoid getting flagged for a list review, it also:

• Improves deliverability - Sending emails through Constant Contact lets you share our great sending reputation, but if you're frequently sending to lots of bad email addresses, it can start to affect your your email's deliverability. Cleaning your list ensures you are only sending to contacts that want to hear from you and helps keep your emails out of the spam folder.
• Reduces spam complaints - The days of sending the same email to everyone on your contact list are over! When your emails are unwanted, there's a higher chance of getting spam complaints. Cleaning your list and sending more targeted emails reduces the chance that you're sending to contacts that will mark them as spam.
• Improves open rates - The average open rate is found by dividing all emails sent by the number of opens. When you constantly send to contacts with no intention of opening your emails, your open rate goes down. Engaging your contacts with more personalized content ensures that they stay interested, and cleaning the bad email addresses off your list prevents you from sending your content to ​people who clearly aren't interested in opening your emails.

Did you know? Once your contact list is clean, we've got the segmentation tools to help break your list down so that you can send targeted content to specific groups of contacts.

Tips for re-engaging your least engaged contacts

Keeping your audience engaged takes less effort that finding new contacts to grow your list with, and even contacts that start out with full engagement may lose interest over time if you don't nurture your connection:

• Segment your list - Breaking your contacts into small groups based on things like shared interests or location, helps you to better define the audience you're marketing to. The better you know your audience, the easier it is to craft engaging content for them.
• Create custom content for each audience segment - When you create shorter emails that are targeted for each unique segment, and personalized for each contact, your contacts will find more value in them and are more likely to open them.
• Periodically check for your least engaged contacts - Make it a habit to check for disengaged contacts before they become a lost cause. Once you find them, send them an email they can't ignore with an eye-catching subject line and content with special value. Your offer doesn't have to be monetary! It can be exclusive information, early access, or even free swag too.

Did you know? Checking your engagement reporting to see your overall opens, clicks, and unsubscribes can help you see the bigger picture of how your audience is responding to your emails. Learn more.

Tips for removing unwanted email addresses from your contact list

If you've had the same contacts on your list for awhile, there are things you can do to clean it up and keep it clean:

• Rescue or remove contacts who can't get your emails - Manage your bounces (abandoned, invalid, or unreachable email addresses)to improve your email open and deliverability rates.
• Age your list by sign-up dates - If some of your contacts joined your list long ago, consider aging your list to find your oldest contacts that have become disengaged.
• Create a "did not open" list - Use our segmentation tools to pinpoint which contacts no longer open your emails, then try to reengage them with targeted content, or remove them from your list.
• Remove role addresses - Get rid of role and group addresses. Constant Contact won't send to most role addresses, as they are typically directed to multiple users who may not have all given permission for you to email them.
• Keep your 'Update Profile' form up-to-date - Your email's footer includes an Update Profile link by default so that your contacts can easily give you their current personal information and mailing list preferences. Make sure the list options you're showing are relevant so that your contacts can tell you if their preferences changed when they click the link.

Did you know? Periodically checking for contacts that aren't currently on any list prevents you from ignoring contacts that may actually want to hear from you!

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