Fixing a Stagnant Email Database

𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝘂𝗱𝘆: 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗘𝗺𝗮𝗶𝗹 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 $𝟰𝟵𝗞 𝘁𝗼 $𝟯𝟬𝟬𝗞 𝗶𝗻 𝟵𝟬 𝗗𝗮𝘆𝘀 Initial Situation and Challenges: The client was struggling with a stagnant email marketing performance: Open Rates: 7% Click Rates: Less than 0.2% Inbox Placement: Around 60% across major ISPs Spam Rates: Above 0.4% at Gmail, and 0.1% - 0.5% at other ISPs These figures highlighted significant deliverability issues, with a considerable portion of emails not reaching the inbox, affecting engagement and revenue. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟭: 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘇𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝗲𝗴𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝗣𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲. 𝗧𝗼 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝘁 𝗰𝗮𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀, 𝘄𝗲: 1. Studied Unsubscribes and Soft Bounces: Determined that certain segments and content types had higher unsubscribes and soft bounces. 2. Content Performance Review: Found that concise content (no more than 2 scrolls) with a CTA within the first scroll had higher engagement rates. Actionable Insights: Shorter emails with prominent early CTAs drove better conversions. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟮: 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 We executed multiple tests to refine content: 1. Layout and Image Alterations: Changed email layouts and image-to-text ratios to see their impact on deliverability. 2. Footer Disclaimers and Content Changes: Tweaked footer disclaimers which led to better inbox placement, especially in Gmail. Results: Improved Gmail inboxing rates and engagement. However, these changes did not significantly impact Yahoo and Hotmail. 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝟯: 𝗜𝗦𝗣-𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 1. Revenue and Click Analysis by ISP: Discovered Yahoo and Hotmail had better conversion rates than Gmail, indicating higher engagement from these ISPs. 2. Hotmail Focus: Despite low inboxing (45%), Hotmail drove more revenue than Yahoo. We liaised with Microsoft for three weeks to resolve IP blocking issues, doubling the volume sent to Hotmail. 3. Yahoo Adjustments: Improved inboxing to 80% by targeting users who had engaged (opened emails at least 10 times and clicked once) in the last 60 days. 4. Gmail Strategy: Implemented content changes and special segmentation strategies, boosting inboxing to 70% and reducing spam rates below 0.2%. Outcome: ISP-specific strategies led to improved inbox placement and engagement across the board. Step 4: Results and Impact Inboxing Improvements: Gmail: Increased to 70% Yahoo: Improved to 80% Hotmail: Resolved IP issues and doubled volume. Open Rates: Grew to an average of 15% in 90 days Revenue: Increased from $49K to $300K per month within 90 days. Continued in the comment section... #email #emailmarketing

A bloated email list is sabotaging your bottom line. Email providers see unengaged subscribers, put you into spam… …and suddenly, your emails stop reaching inboxes. Even worse, you're paying for contacts who'll never buy from you. Here’s how to turn that around ↓ 1. Segment ruthlessly In 2024, personalized segmentation is an absolute necessity. Break your list into targeted groups: → Active subscribers (clicked in the last 90 days) → Casual browsers (opened but didn’t click) → Lapsed customers (no purchase in 6 months) → Ghost subscribers (no engagement in 180 days) 2. Create engagement ladders Don't blast everyone with the same content. The goal is to move people up the ladder, not off the list. Build paths that nurture relationships: → Welcome series: 3-4 emails over a quick 4-6 day period for new subscribers → Win-back campaign: 3-part series for lapsed customers → VIP track: Early access and exclusives for top spenders 3. Prune dead weight Set clear rules to maintain list hygiene: → No clicks in 180 days? Send a re-engagement campaign → Still no response? Remove them after 2 attempts → Implement soft bounce exclusions to reduce delivery issues A smaller, engaged list beats a massive, unresponsive one every time. 4. Focus on clicks, not opens iOS updates made open rates unreliable. Clicks tell the real story. To boost them… → Put key info and CTAs above the fold → Use action-oriented language (e.g. “shop now”) → A/B test email layouts and content hierarchy 5. Personalize thoughtfully Use the data you have wisely and present… → Product recommendations based on browse behavior → Dynamic content tailored to purchase history → Location-based offers (for omnichannel brands) Show you understand your customers without overdoing it. Because your email list isn't just a database — it's a community of real people who've invited you into their inbox. Treat it with care, and it'll become your most valuable marketing asset.

The Silent Killer of Email Deliverability is... Bad Data! 🚫 After spending over 15 years in email deliverability, I've seen countless companies invest heavily in sophisticated email marketing infrastructures, perfect their HTML templates, and meticulously follow every technical best practice. Yet many still struggle with poor inbox placement and sender reputation. The culprit? 🤔 Almost invariably, it's bad data. I remember working with a major retailer who couldn't understand why their deliverability rates were plummeting despite having a dedicated team of email marketers and a flawless technical setup. 📉 When we dug deeper, we discovered they were sitting on a mountain of stale email addresses collected from point-of-sale systems over the past decade. Many customers had simply provided any email address just to complete their purchase, leading to high bounce rates and spam complaints that poisoned their entire email program. Another memorable case involved a B2B software company that had purchased email lists from a third-party vendor and blended it in with their "opt-in" list. Despite their compelling content and perfect sending infrastructure, their emails were consistently landing in spam folders. It took months of list cleanup, removing unengaged subscribers, and rebuilding their database with properly consented contacts before they saw improvement. The hard truth is that there's no magical technical fix for poor data quality. You can't technology your way out of a fundamentally flawed foundation. It's like trying to build a skyscraper on quicksand – no matter how perfect your architecture and materials are, the building will sink. Success in email deliverability requires a commitment to data quality from day one: proper consent collection, regular engagement monitoring, and consistent database maintenance. ✅ Only then can you focus on optimizing your actual email content and campaigns. 📈 With email performance, the old programming adage holds particularly true: Garbage in, garbage out!

Your marketing database is sick. Not sick like rad. Sick like ill. And it's the root cause of (almost) every. single. problem. At Air Traffic Control — Grow Pipeline With Existing Content, when folks connect their marketing systems like #HubSpot, ATC runs a host of analytics (and every day thereafter). That has to happen for us to enable 1:1 content #personalization. But a byproduct is that we're deeply assessing contact database health. No matter a company's maturity, tools, team, or revenue, we see the following ALL the time: - No names - No organizations for contacts - No email for contacts - Zero historical engagement Forget really deep enrichment. We're talking absolute basics. Here's what we recommend every single time: 1) run the entire DB through an email verification tool. They are so, so inexpensive. NeverBounce by ZoomInfo, BounceBan, ZeroBounce are all great, but there are lots. And you can do it just as a one time thing so you aren't talking about needing to make a long-term commitment. 2) For the dead emails for contacts who have engaged with you in the past, this is a goldmine of pipeline. ATC has a solution in-product to figure out where folks have gone, but lots of tools can help you out here. 3) For dead emails for contacts with zero engagement (or engagement at least 2 years old or older) JUST DELETE THEM. Seriously. Let 'em go. 4) For contacts with no email address, if you don't have them in a prospecting motion, either delete them or enrich them with Apollo.io, Clay, or whatever enrichment tool you love. We use both of those tools in combo and it's a match made in heaven for us. 5) Build an interest graph around those people -> company news, LinkedIn profile data, and, of course, engagement data with your website, emails, etc. This is what we do at ATC, automatically, but if all you have is an email address, we're kinda stuck in the sludge. I've always asked my teams to "get small to get big." I'd rather know 10K people REALLY well than wrestle with 100K contacts in my DB. It isn't to say you can't build an audience of 100K raving fans who you know well. But if you're trying to do that when 90K of them are unengaged with missing basic info, you're going to kill the quality of your engagement with the 10K folks you've built a connection to.