Email Marketing Tactic #5: Contacts

An email marketing campaign is only as good as the list it’s sent to.  Of course Tactic #4 covers getting names responsibly but maintaining contacts must also be actively managed.  After all, just because a person subscribes to the list doesn’t mean they are agreeing to receive it forever.  Maintenance efforts are necessary to ensure your email marketing subscribers continually receive the content they expect.

All email campaigns are a bit different.  Simple email campaigns, like a monthly newsletter, have an easier time of maintaining contacts.  It’s hard to get off track when the content is singular and the frequency is low.

However, as campaigns get more complex, more effort needs to be placed into contact maintenance.  This is typically achieved through list segmentation.  When a campaign begins to have multiple topics or user groups it is imperative that contacts are distributed into appropriate groups.  Furthermore, segmentation can get complex.  A subscriber might fall into multiple segments depending on what they desire or their subscriber profile.

As a rule of thumb contact maintenance through segmentation should be kept to meaningful groups.  Client and prospects (Past purchasers vs. first time purchasers) is a common delimiter.  Segments by topic is another.  As a warning, don’t start segmenting too granularly unless it serves a function.  Unnecessary segmentation only increases send complication and raises the chances for mistakes.

Map out a strategy for contact management that allows for efficiently running the email campaign but breaks subscribers down into meaningful groups that ensures they are receiving the content they desire.