According to ‘Direct Marketing News’, 30% of records in an email database list become inactive or change email address every year. This is often referred to as ‘list churn’. This can reduce email deliverability, click through rates, open rates and email campaign performance, resulting in decreased overall revenue.
List churn means that you often have to spend money on customer acquisition email campaigns because with a 30% decrease in your email lists, it is necessary to find new consumers elsewhere.
Reasons for list churn include people who move home, move jobs – therefore making their work email address inactive, or they might switch email provider.
There is a need to strike the right balance with your email campaigns: if you send too frequently, you might annoy subscribers. Send them too infrequently and consumers could forget when or why they subscribed.
The easiest ways to prevent list churn is to check your email list registrations – all records should be opt-in data only and all third parties should be checked thoroughly.
All unsubscribers must be blocked from your email lists straight away – better to do this than to be marked as spam which can have a negative effect on your credibility. You should also test all messages before sending email campaigns to ensure links and the overall creative sends properly through the email provider.
In order to prevent list churn, it is possible to use something called ECOA (E-mail Change of Address), which updates the records in your email database that are no longer active or that bounce. To engage inactive consumers, you could develop a re-engagement campaign with welcome back offers or incentives to encourage them to start opening emails again.
A list of active consumers is necessary for a healthy email database and is possible simply by keeping consumers happy and interested in the campaigns offered.
