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Tag: email lists

  • Email Isn’t Dead — But Your Strategy Might Be. Here’s How to Revive It | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Let’s address the elephant in the inbox.

    Email marketing isn’t dead. It’s not outdated. It hasn’t been replaced by TikTok, Threads or an army of AI bots. In fact, email is still one of the most reliable, highest-ROI marketing channels in your arsenal — if you actually use it right.

    But here’s the inconvenient truth: most businesses don’t. They treat email like a leftover tactic from 2009, not the strategic revenue engine it can be. So when their campaigns fail, the blame is often directed at the platform, the audience, the open rates — everything except the real culprit: a broken system.

    I’ve had enough client calls that start the same way to spot the pattern. “We’ve been sending emails for years,” they say. “Newsletters, sales promos, special offers. But it’s just not working anymore.”

    Spoiler: The problem isn’t email. It’s execution. Let’s break it down.

    Stop sending and hoping

    Before you send another message, ask yourself one question: What is the actual goal of this email? If your answer is “generate leads,” great. That’s a start. But leads don’t materialize just because you hit send. Email isn’t magic. It’s a relationship channel.

    You need a strategy. Are you building relevance? Segmenting based on interest? Optimizing timing? Tracking behavior across your site and CRM? If not, you’re not doing email marketing. You’re just sending digital flyers and hoping someone notices.

    Related: 12 Reasons Why Your Emails Aren’t Driving Business

    Your list isn’t a strategy

    Here’s the harsh reality: most email lists are digital junk drawers. Bloated, unsegmented and outdated.

    One client had 25,000 contacts in a single list labeled “Newsletter.” No segmentation. No tagging. Just one-size-fits-all messaging to cold leads, VIP clients and long-lost contacts alike. Their click-through rate? Less than 1%.

    Would you hand the same sales pitch to a returning customer, a cold prospect and a lapsed buyer? Then why are you emailing them like they’re all the same person?

    Your email platform has segmentation tools for a reason. Use them. Tag based on behavior, purchase history, content engagement and lifecycle stage. And if your list is outdated? Run a re-engagement campaign. Let people self-select. And yes — let them unsubscribe. Because a clean, active list will always outperform a bloated one.

    Your platform might be failing you

    If you’re still using the free version of Mailchimp from 2017, expecting results is like entering a Formula 1 race on a tricycle.

    Email platforms have evolved. If yours doesn’t offer automation, A/B testing, tagging, CRM integration or real-time analytics, it’s holding you back. For ecommerce, I recommend Klaviyo. It connects directly to Shopify, lets you recover abandoned carts, trigger smart automations and — this is key — track actual sales tied to email behavior.

    And yes, you’ll need to invest in a platform that can handle more than “send newsletter.” If you’re serious about revenue, stop being cheap about the tool that drives it.

    Stop worshiping the open rate

    Everyone obsesses over open rates like they’re gospel. But here’s the truth: a high open rate doesn’t mean anything if no one clicks, converts or remembers you. Don’t just design pretty emails. Design strategic ones.

    Ask better questions. What KPIs actually map to your business goals? For ecommerce, it might be revenue per email, cart recovery rate or product clicks. For B2B, it may be meetings booked or resources downloaded.

    Start there. Reverse-engineer your content. Then test relentlessly. Subject lines. Send times. CTA placement. Message framing. Real marketers test. Lazy marketers send and pray.

    Visibility, credibility, engagement — then sales

    Email doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It’s part of a journey. You don’t go from “nice to meet you” to “here’s our invoice” overnight. So layer your content.

    Visibility gets you seen.
    Credibility makes you trusted.
    Engagement builds the bridge.
    Sales walk across it.

    If every email is just a promotion, you’re not building a bridge — you’re shouting into the void. Offer value. Share insight. Deliver relevance. And when it’s time to sell, you won’t have to beg for attention. You’ll already have it.

    Related: 6 Reasons Your Marketing Emails Aren’t Converting — and How to Fix Them All

    Campaigns don’t build revenue — systems do

    Most marketers jump straight to tactics — “Let’s send something Tuesday at 10 a.m.” — with no infrastructure underneath.

    But if your email doesn’t plug into a system, it’s a short-term stunt, not a long-term strategy.

    Here’s what a real email system looks like:

    • Set up automated workflows for key stages like onboarding, re-engagement and post-purchase to nurture your audience over time.
    • Build segmented customer journeys that align with specific buyer behaviors so your emails are always relevant and timely.
    • Integrate your email platform with your CRM and ecommerce systems to enable real-time targeting based on user actions.
    • Define clear KPIs that are directly tied to business outcomes before you create or send any campaigns.

    This is the work most marketers skip. And it’s why their email marketing never scales. Strategy always beats volume.

    Want to win Q4? Fix this in Q3

    Here’s your reality check: once fall hits, you’re out of time. Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Holiday chaos. End-of-year goals. Your calendar will be execution-heavy and strategy-starved.

    So fix it now.

    Audit your platform. Clean your list. Segment your contacts. Define your goals. Connect your data. Build the machine. Because when email works, it doesn’t just deliver opens. It delivers ROI. Recurring revenue. Customer loyalty. And a real reason to celebrate when the quarter ends.

    Let’s address the elephant in the inbox.

    Email marketing isn’t dead. It’s not outdated. It hasn’t been replaced by TikTok, Threads or an army of AI bots. In fact, email is still one of the most reliable, highest-ROI marketing channels in your arsenal — if you actually use it right.

    But here’s the inconvenient truth: most businesses don’t. They treat email like a leftover tactic from 2009, not the strategic revenue engine it can be. So when their campaigns fail, the blame is often directed at the platform, the audience, the open rates — everything except the real culprit: a broken system.

    The rest of this article is locked.

    Join Entrepreneur+ today for access.

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    Christopher Tompkins

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  • Google Is About to Delete Inactive Accounts. Here’s How to Avoid A Massive Gmail Bounce Rate. | Entrepreneur

    Google Is About to Delete Inactive Accounts. Here’s How to Avoid A Massive Gmail Bounce Rate. | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    “If a Google Account has not been used or signed into for at least two years, we may delete the account and its contents,” Google announced in a blog post, and that time is coming soon. In December, the tech giant will begin removing inactive accounts along with their content across Google Workspace, which includes Gmail. The policy applies only to personal Google accounts — but for businesses like yours, that may result in a spike in bounces.

    Why Google will start purging abandoned accounts

    Google’s decision to weed out inactive accounts is another step the company is taking to prevent security threats like spam, phishing and account hijacking.

    “If an account hasn’t been used for an extended period of time, it is more likely to be compromised,” Google’s VP of Product Management Ruth Kricheli explains. Abandoned accounts have weaknesses bad actors could exploit. Old passwords and a lack of two-factor authentication make them vulnerable and “a vector for unwanted or even malicious content, like spam,” adds Kricheli.

    How to prepare and avoid a massive Gmail bounce rate

    For businesses like yours that use email to connect with customers and prospects, Google’s move is a high bounce rate alert. With Gmail being the largest email provider in the world, your email list likely contains many personal Gmail accounts, especially if your business caters to consumers.

    Email providers consider a bounce rate under 2% acceptable. But once you’ve crossed that threshold, your emails can start landing in the spam folder. Bounces tarnish your sender reputation, which is a 0 to 100 score Internet service providers (ISPs) use to determine whether you’re a legitimate sender or a spammer. The closer to 100 your score is, the more ISPs trust you as a sender – and deliver your messages to the inbox. Lower scores mean your emails could be spam.

    So, how can you prepare beforehand and avoid emailing addresses that may bounce? Being proactive is much easier than fixing the damage.

    Related: 5 Simple Tweaks for Better Email Deliverability

    Remove inactive subscribers

    Many businesses hold on to subscribers longer than they should. Having a sizable email list can give you a wider reach. However, in email marketing, engagement trumps such vanity metrics. Also, if someone hasn’t opened your emails in more than six months, what are the chances they’ll ever start engaging again?

    So, segment unengaged subscribers and try to win them back with an enticing offer. Make sure you put it right in the subject line and preview text so they can’t miss it. Then, remove non-openers and keep only prospects who click. Before Google starts deleting them, it’s best to prune these accounts yourself to avoid any bounces.

    Validate your entire email list

    Observing how your inactive subscribers react to a targeted campaign gives you useful audience insights. But inactive subscribers aren’t the only risky types of contacts you could have on your list. Abuse emails, for instance, belong to individuals who tend to report many emails as spam. To avoid potential spam complaints, some email marketers prefer to weed them out using an email verifier.

    There’s also the issue of temporary email addresses, which many people use to avoid giving out their real address. Temporary emails self-destruct and cause your emails to bounce, so deleting them from your database is good prevention.

    On average, almost a quarter of your database goes bad yearly, according to ZeroBounce’s Email List Decay Report. The upcoming Gmail purge will only add to this natural data decay, so validate your list again to ensure it’s safe to use.

    How Google will delete inactive accounts

    While Google’s policy took effect in May 2023, it won’t affect inactive Gmail users until December. The tech company will delete abandoned accounts in several phases, starting with those people created and never used again. Could you have any such email addresses in your database? Check your email marketing reports. If any subscribers signed up for your emails but never opened your messages, remove them immediately.

    Related: How to give your email marketing a boost ahead of the holidays

    Abandoned accounts are hurting your email marketing

    As a business owner trying to reach your customers’ inboxes, you must always be aware of your sender reputation. Bounces and spam complaints affect it dramatically, but so does poor engagement.

    When people don’t react to the emails you send, ISPs interpret that as an indication that your content isn’t helpful. As a result, your emails are more likely to go to the junk folder. That’s why email marketing best practices involve regularly pruning unresponsive subscribers. Their mere presence on your email list hurts your email deliverability. And when they’ll start bouncing, the damage will be even more severe.

    So, reevaluate the health of your email list so that your newsletters and campaigns can make it to the inbox. The Gmail purge is the best reason to look into the quality of your contacts today.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • How to Grow an Email List You Can Monetize | Entrepreneur

    How to Grow an Email List You Can Monetize | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    So, you want to make money with your email list. Who could blame you? Email marketing is hard work, but it also yields results. At its most productive, email has an ROI of $45 to the dollar, which makes it one of the top marketing channels out there.

    But monetizing your email list takes time, so if you’re not there yet, it doesn’t mean that your email marketing isn’t working. You may just need to get a bit more creative and test some new tactics.

    Here are a few ideas you can implement easily, with results guaranteed.

    Focus on the health of your email list instead of its size

    The more subscribers I have, the more sales I’ll make, right? Many business owners think this way and, to an extent, it’s true. A larger audience allows for higher conversion rates, but this principle is null if your audience isn’t genuine.

    On average, 23% of an email list churns annually. While you’re making efforts to gain new subscribers, your existing contacts are degrading. Data decay is natural, but that doesn’t mean you can’t counteract it. Once a quarter, run your list through an email checker to ensure you’re weeding out obsolete addresses. Also, to avoid poor-quality and invalid sign-ups, consider checking all your contacts before adding them to your list. You can do that by using a real-time email verifier and avoid bounces.

    Bounces taint your sender reputation and bring down your email deliverability. So, if you want to monetize your email list, make it a rule to check its validity periodically and remove bounces and subpar data. That allows you to get your emails into the inbox and form a real connection with your audience.

    Related: Almost 25% of Your Email List Has Gone Bad in the Past Year. Here’s How to Fix It.

    Help your content stand out in the inbox

    Your prospects and customers are probably getting more emails than they can read. What will make them click and open yours?

    To answer this question, look in your own inbox and ask yourself what stands out — and why. Chances are the emails that get your attention are tailored specifically to you. Your favorite grocery store may be sharing its weekly deals, featuring the products you purchase most often. Or perhaps you’ve just subscribed to Entrepreneur and you got an email highlighting content you care about.

    Segmenting your email list and personalizing every message should be a priority when trying to engage and monetize your audience. To better understand what your subscribers want from you, consider gathering more data via your sign-up forms. An astounding 77% of consumers are willing to share personal information with brands so they can get a personalized experience.

    Build familiarity so you can stay top of mind

    Launching an email marketing program is exciting. You have a million ideas and can’t wait to see them come to life. But for many business owners, this initial enthusiasm starts to dwindle if results don’t happen immediately.

    However, email marketing takes time and consistency to work. You must send emails regularly and nurture your subscribers with helpful content before you can expect anything in return. With every email you send, your brand awareness increases, so even if you don’t make a sale, you’re warming up your prospects.

    Sending emails on a schedule also supports your ability to reach the inbox. Your consistency tells inbox providers that you have a legitimate business, so your emails are more likely to stay out of the spam folder.

    Consider partnerships and cross-promotions

    It’s a tactic many companies employ to expose their brands to new audiences and increase subscriptions. Initiating partnerships with other businesses doesn’t have to involve much effort. Start by making a list of companies in your industry that could promote your products, and vice versa.

    For instance, as a software provider, my company, ZeroBounce, partners with more than 15 other businesses with inspiring results. These collaborations can take many forms: blog articles, newsletters, webinars and social media cross-promos. Such win-win projects have allowed both us and our partners to boost visibility and email sign-ups.

    Don’t wait — send a few emails today to at least five companies you could partner with. Outline the benefits and emphasize what you’re willing to offer. My own experience has taught me this is one of the most impactful tactics you can use to boost your exposure.

    Related: How to build your email list the right way

    Bonus tips to boost engagement

    To build an email list you can monetize, you must work on boosting engagement first. Here are a few simple ways to entice more people to interact with your emails:

    • Avoid sending out an email if you’re not confident in the quality of your content. People tend to engage with your emails more if they know that every time they click to open, they get something worthwhile.
    • Include your audience in the topics you write about. Be curious, ask questions and spark conversations. Not only do replies help your email deliverability, but you’re also building stronger relationships with your subscribers.
    • Keep a natural balance between educational and self-promotional content. Every email can’t be a sales pitch. The core of your content should strive to inform, educate and entertain.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • 5 Simple Tweaks for Better Email Deliverability | Entrepreneur

    5 Simple Tweaks for Better Email Deliverability | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    More than 4.6 billion people will be using email by 2025. For businesses like yours, email remains a critical communication channel. Not only is it most reliable for transactional messages, but it also allows you to boost revenue through newsletters and marketing campaigns.

    So many pieces make up the puzzle of effective email marketing. Compelling copy and beautiful design help you stand out. But first, you have to make sure your emails are going to the inbox. Email deliverability isn’t guaranteed — your campaigns can easily go to spam.

    Related: 8 Simple Email Marketing Tips to Improve Your Open and Click-Through Rates

    To boost email deliverability, improve your sender reputation

    So, why do certain emails land in the inbox while others go to spam? It boils down to your sender reputation, a score that allows Internet service providers (ISPs) to determine whether you’re a legitimate sender. From the types of emails you send to the engagement they get, your entire behavior as a sender influences your score.

    Here are five simple tweaks to consider for your email marketing strategy to give your score — and inbox reach — a quick boost.

    1. Prune your email database

    Outdated and unengaged contacts hurt your email deliverability. When you email fake or non-existent addresses, you’re very much acting like a spammer, so don’t be surprised if your emails land in spam.

    A good rule of thumb is to pay close attention to your metrics, especially your bounce rate. When more than 2% of your emails bounce back, it’s a sign that your database needs pruning. Another good practice is to run your contacts through an email verifier every quarter. Keep in mind that about 23% of the average email list deteriorates yearly. Email decay is natural, but it isn’t something you can ignore if you want your emails to arrive in the inbox.

    Related: 3 Simple Things You Can Do to Build A Healthy, Thriving Email List

    2. Segment your audience

    As your engagement plays such an important role in your sender score, increasing your metrics is essential to your email deliverability. Email list segmentation will help you do just that, allowing you to target subscribers with campaigns that matter to them.

    Many business owners are intimidated by list segmentation. It entails going through your system and splitting your customers and prospects into specific groups. Using filters such as location, gender, interests or past purchases, segmentation allows you to see where each person is in their buyer’s journey – and send them content that pushes them forward.

    Although email list segmentation can take a lot of work to set up, it pays off. On average, open rates are 14.31% higher for segmented, personalized campaigns. This key metric, along with better click rates, fosters healthy email deliverability.

    3. Ask questions

    Marketers ask questions in their emails because they want to strengthen their relationship with their audience. But asking questions and getting people to reply to your messages also helps your email deliverability. Inbox providers see it as a sign of trust. If someone writes you back, they’re encouraging further communication. Hence, your emails should be in that person’s inbox — and in other inboxes — in the future.

    So, in your next email, how can you spark conversations with your subscribers? The best questions come from genuine curiosity, so think about a topic both you and your audience care about. Ask a question and don’t forget to tell people to hit reply and answer it.

    4. Get on a schedule

    Having a set email-sending schedule is another simple change you can make that has multiple benefits. First, being present in your prospects’ inboxes builds awareness and familiarity for your brand. When they need your product, those prospects will be more likely to buy it from you, simply because they’ve been hearing from you regularly.

    On top of that, sending emails on a schedule helps your reputation. Unlike spammers, who send emails erratically, you have ongoing communication with your audience. While your marketing approach can be surprising in order to stand out, your schedule should be predictable.

    Establishing a sending schedule doesn’t have to entail writing more emails. However, if you send a weekly or monthly newsletter, try to send it on the same day and even at the same time. You’ll be helping both your engagement and email deliverability.

    Related: 4 Ways to Stop Your Emails From Going to Spam

    5. Scan every email for potential spam triggers

    A spammy word in your subject line, too many images and too little text, link shorteners or broken links can result in your email landing in your recipient’s spam folder. So, before you hit send, scan your email to make sure it doesn’t look like spam. Ask your team to take a look, too.

    You can go a step further and test your email deliverability with the help of an inbox tester. Reliable inbox testers pinpoint potential deliverability issues so you can fix them before it’s too late. It takes only minutes to test your email and get access to these insights. Sometimes, a simple tweak will pull your campaign out of spam and ensure it lands in the inbox.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • 5 Things You Can Do Now to Improve Email Marketing | Entrepreneur

    5 Things You Can Do Now to Improve Email Marketing | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Is your email clickthrough rate not what it used to be? The reason could be poor email deliverability.

    The average click rate, across all industries, is 2.62% according to Mailchimp. If your rate is way below this benchmark, it’s worth taking another look at your email marketing strategy.

    While reaching the inbox entails a whole set of best practices, there are a few simple tweaks you can make to avoid the dreaded spam or junk folder.

    What is email deliverability?

    Email deliverability comes down to the number of emails that reach the inbox successfully. As opposed to strict email delivery, the deliverability benchmark doesn’t count the emails that land in spam.

    To connect with their audience and increase revenue, email marketers focus on helping their emails get to the inbox. That’s where they have a chance to connect with customers and prospects — and also boost conversions.

    Let’s examine some of the best practices successful email marketers use to get their emails into the inbox.

    Let go of prospects who never click

    A big email list equals a big ROI, right? This is one of the most common email myths out there, and it’s hurting many companies. Of course, as your list grows, you may see more purchases coming in. However, that’s only true if your database is healthy and engaged.

    Holding on to subscribers who never click on your emails sabotages your email deliverability. The message they send to mailbox providers is that your content is irrelevant, so why should it be in the inbox?

    Every three to six months, reassess your engagement rates and segment dormant subscribers. Next, try to re-engage them with a powerful offer or remove them from your list entirely.

    Related: How to Build Your Email List the Right Way

    Fix your bounce rate

    Bounces are one of the most common reasons that emails get filtered as spam. A high bounce rate makes you look careless, even unlawful and will send you down the spam route in an instant. What’s more, ignoring bounces can cause your email service provider (ESP) to suspend your account. ESPs (like Mailchimp, Constant Contact or AWeber) don’t want a tainted reputation, so these companies will enforce rules against spam-like behavior.

    If more than 2% of your campaigns bounce back, it’s time to re-evaluate your email list. There’s no point in keeping outdated contacts in your systems — delete them and your email deliverability will see a boost. Then, to prevent another increase in bounces, consider cleaning your list regularly.

    Identify other bad data you may be using

    Invalid contacts are the most prevalent types of emails lurking in databases and affecting email deliverability. They’re not the only ones, though.

    In 2022, ZeroBounce identified more than five million disposable email addresses across all the databases it processed. Disposable emails have a high bounce risk; many of them self-destruct within a short time.

    Also, email lists can acquire many role-based email addresses that are also risky to your email deliverability. Role-based contacts, such as contact@companyname.com, belong to a group of people within an organization. Some of these people may mass delete emails and even report them as spam, so it’s not a good idea to keep them in your list. Instead, use an email verifier to detect and remove them (and other undesirable data, too).

    Stick to the content you promised

    When trying to fix email deliverability, you might overlook the importance of content. But the content of your emails plays a dramatic role in your engagement — ensuring its relevancy is key.

    First, scan through the emails you’ve sent in the past three months. Are they what you promised upon signup? Also, are you sending them regularly? It’s best to stick to your niche and to a sending schedule. If that’s not the case now, revise your approach.

    Another thought worth pondering: How can you make your content even more compelling? Consider interviewing experts, infusing your copy with more testimonials, embedding videos and GIFs and even tweaking your design. Engagement and deliverability go hand in hand, so anything that gets people to interact is worth pursuing.

    Related: 3 Tricks For Getting More Email Clicks

    Consider a different email service provider

    What you do as an email sender has the most impact on your email deliverability. However, your ESP shares some of the responsibility, too. Once you decide on an ESP, you’ll be sharing its reputation, so make sure you pick a reputable company.

    Before you sign up for a paid plan, consider taking advantage of a free trial. That way, you see what it’s like to run a campaign on the new platform and whether that makes a difference in your metrics. Also, don’t hesitate to ask your new provider what it does to ensure the highest email deliverability. Lastly, reading a few reviews before you commit can help you make the best decision.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • How to Build Your Email List the Right Way | Entrepreneur

    How to Build Your Email List the Right Way | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Email marketing works. According to Statista, 49% of people say they like to get promotional emails from brands every week. But while checking their inboxes for offers, there’s a chance your customers and prospects won’t find these emails. If your email list is outdated, or if you purchased it, your campaigns may be redirected to the spam section.

    Keeping your database fresh is paramount to your email success. In email marketing, it’s not about how many people you email — it’s about how many you manage to reach.

    How your email list health affects your deliverability

    Emailing invalid, fake and outdated contacts damages your sender reputation. Also known as a “sender score,” this is an indicator internet service providers use to gauge your legitimacy as a sender. The higher your score, the more likely your campaigns and newsletters will go to the inbox.

    That’s why the health of your email list plays such an important role in your email deliverability. Gathering many contacts seems tempting, but what matters more is that those contacts are valid and engaged.

    Related: 5 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Email List

    Build your own email list

    Planning to buy or rent an email list? Think twice. These people have never heard of you, so the most engagement you can get is a bunch of spam complaints. The best-case scenario is that your emails will never get opened, and instead, they’ll get deleted in bulk.

    To prevent wasting your resources, build your own email list. Here are five tips to do it right.

    1. Get permission

    Emailing someone who hasn’t granted permission is another surefire way to sabotage your own deliverability. People who haven’t opted in to receive emails from you are not only unlikely to engage, but they may report you as spam. Get permission before adding someone to your database. Even if it’s a customer, they must express a clear interest in getting marketing emails from you.

    2. Double opt-in should be the standard

    Some companies are still reluctant about using double opt-in. There’s this myth that it slows down your email list growth. In reality, it helps you build a healthier, more active email list. Setting up double opt-in should take minutes in your email marketing platform. It automates sending an email to every new subscriber, asking them to click a confirmation link. This way, you prevent fake signups and ensure you’re emailing only people who are expecting to hear from you.

    3. Check every new email address

    Double opt-in can prevent some fake email signups, but your list can still acquire undesirable contacts. To prevent them from infecting your database, check every new email address yourself. The most prominent email verification platforms allow you to check a few emails for free. It’s a good option if your list is growing slowly. However, at least twice a year, make sure you run your entire list through an email verifier.

    Related: These 3 Strategies Will Grow Your Email List for Free

    4. Use Google’s reCAPTCHA on your sign-up forms

    Any obstacle you can put between your email list and fake sign-ups helps you build a healthier email program. Apart from verifying your database periodically, add another layer of protection against automated bots. A program like Google’s reCAPTCHA uses a variety of algorithms to tell humans and bots apart. While some spammers can bypass even the most advanced anti-spam systems, reCAPTCHA will still help you protect the health of your email list.

    5. Part with dormant subscribers every three months

    If you want to build a vibrant email list, you need people who engage with your emails. Many factors affect your sender reputation, and your overall engagement rate is one of them. Keeping dormant subscribers on your list tells inbox providers that your content isn’t relevant. To avoid the junk folder, remove unengaged contacts every three months. It’s beneficial to your email deliverability. Moreover, you avoid potential bounces as some of those dormant emails may get deactivated.

    Related: How To Start An Email List And Succeed From Day 1

    Bonus tips to grow your email list faster

    Growing your email database isn’t as simple as setting up a couple of sign-up forms on your website. You also have to make sure the emails you gather are real and active. The tactics above are easy to apply, but at times, you may feel that your email list is growing too slowly.

    Here’s how to change that.

    • Add more sign-up forms to your platforms. Have at least two on your website and add one to your blog, as well. Make the process frictionless.
    • Use social media more intentionally. Your social media channels are great for capturing more email addresses. Promote your email list consistently.
    • Include a sign-up link in all of your emails. That way, if one of your emails gets forwarded, the person who receives it has a way to opt in.
    • Encourage word of mouth. Talk to your peers, friends and customers about the great emails you send. Encourage them to not only subscribe but also to share your form with others.

    Finally, and most importantly, send those emails. Be consistent with your schedule so that people come to expect your emails. Whether it’s once a month or three times a week, show up with helpful content. Being present and providing real value to your audience will allow both your subscriptions and engagement to grow.

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    Liviu Tanase

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  • 3 Data Gathering Strategies That Benefit Businesses and Consumers | Entrepreneur

    3 Data Gathering Strategies That Benefit Businesses and Consumers | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Data is powerful. It can generate leads, inform customer interactions and ultimately grow revenue.

    Data is also a force that businesses can use for good (or evil). The poster child of the latter is third-party data, which has given the analytics industry a bit of a bad rap in recent years. As third-party data is being phased out, though, it’s opening the doors for companies to rewrite the script on data through better data-gathering methods.

    Related: 4 Steps to Become a Data-Driven Business

    The benefits of healthy data collection

    Healthy data collection is the process of collecting, organizing and utilizing data in a legal, honest and safe manner. It’s an approach to data that is in everyone’s interest.

    When a business has certain pieces of consumer and customer data, it can personalize experiences. From customized emails to unique sales offers, customers have better overall experiences when the right data flows between them and the brands they patronize.

    Healthy data flow also impacts both ends of the sales funnel by generating a higher number of quality leads from prospective customers. For those close to the point of sale, key pieces of data (such as an email address) can generate fewer abandoned carts. All of this translates to better revenue, which is in the best interest of every company.

    The question is: How can companies tap into this positive, respectful approach to using data as we move toward a third-party-data-less future?

    Here are a few strategies that companies can use to collect both potential and existing customer data in a manner that benefits businesses and consumers alike.

    Related: How Marketers Can Prepare for the Removal of Third-Party Cookies

    1. Use on-site software to capture first-party customer data

    As third-party data becomes irrelevant, it puts a fresh emphasis on first-party data — data consumers offer businesses with their explicit consent. There are multiple ways to collect this data independently, including directly on your website.

    Software solutions can be installed onto a company website, allowing a brand to collect first-party data directly from visitors. This can match anonymous digital identifiers to customer profiles — critically, using data collected with the awareness and acknowledgment of its owner.

    The need for healthy first-party data collection is great, especially in a world that is increasingly skeptical of third-party information. The collection of first-party data enables brands to confidently create personalized browsing, individual product offers and targeted cart abandonment emails.

    2. Surveys are a neat and clean data-gathering strategy

    If a business wants to collect data through its efforts, one of the best ways is through surveys. This is a great way to glean information from online customers as they’re on their way out the door.

    The most obvious way a survey can help with data is by collecting important personal information. By asking a customer for certain preferences and proclivities, you open up the doors for personalized marketing in the future.

    You can also use surveys to gain insights into your customers as a whole. Survey Monkey highlights the importance of closed-ended questions that create clear, quantitative data.

    For instance, consider a scenario where a company asks existing customers how easy it was to navigate its website. It offers specific answers in the form of a five-point scale ranging from “difficult” to “super easy.”

    This provides a growing set of data that comes directly from the customers with their explicit consent. The company can then use it to improve its ecommerce shopping experience, benefiting both the business and consumers in the process.

    This can turn one-time interactions into enduring customer relationships. Even better, both parties are fully on board with the exchange of data taking place.

    Related: 5 Ways to Build Killer Relationships With Customers

    3. Offer giveaways (with reasonable strings attached)

    Another way to proactively collect consumer data, even from those who aren’t your customers yet, is by using giveaways.

    Contests are a great way to encourage engagement and spread brand awareness. They also double as an easy way to get an individual’s data with their blessing.

    Entering something like a product giveaway often comes with certain stipulations. These might include sharing a post, leaving a comment or signing up for an email list. That last option is a great way to begin generating customer data. Once you have a person’s email, you can begin communicating with them and using things like surveys to expand on the data they’ve already given you.

    It’s a good idea to use a double opt-in solution to respect the customer, too. This is also referred to as confirmed opt-in, and it consists of a confirmation email that a person must accept before truly being added to a list.

    Related: The Demise of Third-Party Cookies: Retaining the Sweet Spot

    Campaign Monitor points out that the double opt-in approach has the important benefit of creating higher-quality leads. The additional step of opting into an email list twice indicates that the consumer in question has increased interest in your company to the point that they’re willing to put in the extra effort.

    From double opt-in giveaways and post-point-of-sale surveys to comprehensive solutions like Resolution, there are multiple ways companies can gather data. These are strategies that benefit businesses and consumers alike, allowing both to mutually benefit from a new, third-party-cookie-free future where data will remain as relevant as ever before.

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    Rashan Dixon

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  • 5 Aspects to Consider When Emailing a Marketing List

    5 Aspects to Consider When Emailing a Marketing List

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Professionals have been arguing for decades over the age-old question of how often to email a marketing list. On one side are those who believe contacting readers more than once a month is a no-no. On the other, we have those who think daily emails are best for maximizing profits.

    Who’s right? Let’s find out by looking at several factors.

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    Svetoslav Dimitrov

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