What's the point of it? A bad sender reputation might be a direct result of having a bad email list. Every email marketer should realize that reputation reigns supreme in the world of email marketing. Deliverability is directly proportional to an email's reputation, which can be protected through email hygiene. However, even if one email address is worth £84.50 (about $100.32 USD), the value of an email campaign can only be realized if your consumers actually receive the emails you send. If your reputation is tarnished, people will stop engaging with and buying from you since your emails will be sent to spam. Additionally, removing inactive or outdated email addresses from your email lists lowers your administrative costs while increasing the effectiveness of emails you DO send. Remove incorrect or outdated email addresses from your marketing lists to save money on your email service provider's marketing fees, which rise as the size of your email list increases. What's the point of spending money on delivering messages to those who can't read them? What Does It Mean To Have A "Clean" Email List?". This is an email list that has had at least one interaction with your emails in the previous six months and is thus considered 'clean.' What? My Reputation Can Be Hurt By Being Listed On A "Dirty" List? Yes. Because of spam traps and the users you are trying to reach, this is the case. Let's take a closer look at these two threats. Negative Reputation from Spam Traps Using'spam traps,' ISPs strive to thwart email senders who are trying to contact their consumers. ISPs and blacklist providers use spam trap email addresses to verify that email senders are adhering to standard practices before adding them to their lists. Many kinds of spam traps exist, but we'll concentrate on three today: Pristine Never-opted-in email addresses If an email sender specifically targets these users, it's a sign that their email list was gained via dubious means, such as buying it from a third party. Traps for inadvertently typing the wrong address Email addresses that are almost identical to those associated with standard domains, with the exception of a single character. Think of sites like gNail.com, hotNail.com, and hotALE.com, among others. These "something isn't right" domains may seem amusing on the surface, but a tiny number of them may really damage your email reputation. Recycled Formerly-used email addresses that are no longer in use and which ISPs have repurposed for other purposes. Have you ever questioned why you haven't been able to get into your email account for the last ten years? The most likely outcome is that it has turned into a repurposed spam trap. If you're going for disengaged customers, you're going to receive spam. An email sender's right to be in the inbox of their subscribers is under regular review by ISPs. If you're sending emails to an unresponsive list, your ISP may interpret this as a hint that people don't want to receive them and begin forwarding them to the spam folder instead. What's the Best Way to Maintain a Clean Email List? Verify Email Addresses During Sign Up. If you want to keep your email list clean, start from the source. Check for apparent mistakes, such as putting gnail.com instead of gmail.com in your sign-up forms by using email validation. Implement A Two-Factor Authentication System. Harry's conforms to Spam Regulation best practices by asking their customers whether they want to receive commercial emails in addition to pointing out evident errors in their sign-up form. After signing up, you'll get a confirmation email asking you to click a link in it to verify your email address. Users who haven't interacted with the sunset Those who haven't opened your email in the previous six months should be deleted from your mailing list. Sunsetting is the term for this procedure, and although it's difficult to say goodbye, it's essential to a successful email strategy. Re-engagement campaigns may still be used to target these people, but you should be aware that doing so may signal to ISPs that your emails don't deserve to be in recipients' inboxes. Don't waste your last-chance email unless you have a convincing argument to support sending it. Stay away from fraudulence. If you're just starting started or want to expand your email marketing reach, it's easy to fall into the trap of buying an email list. Additionally, buying email lists is one of the quickest ways to get a subpar email list, which will lead to lower deliverability. This is both costly and risky.