"Dog Whisperer" Cesar Millan had a problem. With an abysmal delivery rate of 81.29 percent, his email campaigns weren't getting through to many of the people who wanted them. "The company was constantly getting complaints from its subscribers," explains a mobileStorm case study. "Consumers claimed they hadn't received Cesar Millan's once-monthly newsletter or that they only received it sporadically."
Analysis by mobileStorm revealed the likely cause:
- When subscribers signed up, their addresses were not verified.
- The list—which dated back to 2005—contained inactive and invalid addresses, making it especially vulnerable to spam traps.
To clean up the list, mobileStorm used tactics like these:
- Identifying subscribers who had never opened or clicked on an email message
- Removing obviously non-engaged subscribers
- Sending the rest a message asking them to confirm their subscription, and letting them know their address would be removed if they didn't respond by a certain date
Finally, the case study reports, "confirmed users were added back in along with known good addresses. Suspect addresses, opt-outs, and non-respondents were removed."
After the company cleaned the list, the delivery rate shot up to 99.7 percent. 'Nuff said.
The Po!nt: Time for some fall raking. To help ensure your holiday emails get the most response, clear your lists of "fallen" addresses. A timely clean-up could pay off.
Source: mobileStorm. Read the full case study here.
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by Oliver Feakins
