List churn is not an uncommon phenomenon; people change personal addresses, leave their former work addresses, or enter misspelled addresses when opting in. And that can be a problem if you don't clean your lists on a regular basis.

"Did you know an email list with a large quantity of invalid email addresses can delay your email campaign delivery for hours?" asks Marla Chupack at Mass Transmit. But that's only the beginning; it can get even worse. Sending to a high percentage of bad addresses "can result in your message ending up in a spam or junk folder, or prevent your email from reaching valid subscribers on your list," she notes.

To avoid deliverability disaster, conduct regular list maintenance, making sure you remove:

• Email addresses that bounce. Even a single hard bounce can indicate you have an invalid or nonexistent address.
• Malformed email addresses. Typos might abound; look for addresses with misspelled top-level domains and missing @ symbols. You might also discover URLs masquerading as email addresses.
• Fake email addresses. People and spam bots enter fake addresses for a variety of reasons. "These usually look abnormal or impersonal as they include lots of random letters/numbers," says Chupack.
• Inactive email addresses. Messages sent to these addresses don't bounce, but neither are they opened. Attempt re-engagement, but if you still don't get a response, remove them from your list.

The Po!nt: Things change. Even a scrupulous opt-in campaign will experience list churn. To protect your reputation, periodically weed out problem addresses from your list.

Source: Mass Transmit.

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