The email software you use must be able to clean the email list automatically and in real time. The problems that appear all the time when sending bulk email messages are: bouncebacks, duplicates, unsubscribers.
What are bouncebacks
Bounce email addresses are the ones that are unable to deliver your email to subscriber. The problem may be:
- temporary (the server is down; the email box is full; the receiver set an autoresponse function while s/he is out of office)
- permanent (the recipient closed the email address because of spam and forgot to let you know; the receiver was deleted by the supplier; the server does not exist).
But most commonly, bounces classify into hard and soft. A hard bounce is when the domain or recipient's name is unknown. The problem may be temporary if the server is down. A soft bounce means that the message passes the server but returns from the subscriber. Either there's an automatic response function activated, or the mailbox is full.
How to manage bouncebacks
It is probably impossible to eliminate bouncebacks completely, as problems often appear at the receiver. But it is important to reduce the number of bouncebacks, because they can alter your campaign statistics. Also, a big rate of undelivered emails can look to your ISP server like you're spamming and he may close you down.
What you can do
- Use a “Thank You” message for new subscribers to identify bouncing addresses.
- Use a filter to identify people that give wrong data in the subscription form. E.g., an address that says office@domain.c
- Ask the subscriber what the problem is. Make sure you own alternative contact information, like postal address or telephone number.
- Make it easy for the subscriber to modify the data in the personal profile. If your database is web based, the updates are automatically processed and the beauty of it is you don't have to move a finger.
- Use an email software that can identify the cause of the bounceback. That way you'll know who to remove and who to contact for further information.
- Use a bulk email server that tries to deliver the bouncing messages more than once.
- Remove the addresses that repeatedly prove bad.
Duplicates
Duplicates are more entries of the same email address in the database. This is a big problem, because if you don't detect the duplicates in time, you run the risk of losing those contacts. Nobody likes to be flooded with emails that say the same thing.
What you can do
Sort your database. If there are no additional problems (e.g. the same email address appears for different names), remove duplicates automatically using your email software functions.
How to manage unsubscribers
Largely debated subject, since spammers thought it would be more interesting to use the unsubscribing function in order to validate the email address. Few people can say they haven't had this problem yet.
Still, for your subscribers, you need to make it easy to unsubscribe. They subscribed themselves to your email list, they should be able to walk out without big efforts on their side or yours. The simplest method is to use a email software that, when receiving an unsubscribing option, operates it automatically. The best way to send confirmation is via email. You can include there a short inquery form about the reasons of the unsubscription, but in the end, you cannot make it a condition for unsubscribing. S/he should not have to: redirect her/his request to another address, visit your web site, complete forms, send unsubscription request more than once etc.
It is most important to have unsubscribing requests honoured before you send out your next newsletter.