Best Practices for Maintaining your Marketing Lists

Ensuring your lists are well-managed, whether for email or direct mail campaign use, is crucial in optimizing your marketing strategy. Yet, the time-intensive process of both building and maintaining a list makes it a task prone to be neglected. 

It’s hard, we get that but it is an imperative step to take to avoid wasting money and time and help to maximize your potential ROI with your marketing efforts. 

Whether your list is new or years old, adding these management processes into your strategy are key to great mailing lists. 

Make Sure Your Lists Are Clean and Ready!

Assign a List Keeper

Adding the responsibility of your marketing lists to an individual, often referred to as a list keeper, is a pivotal first step. A dedicated list keeper takes responsibility for the accuracy and integrity of the marketing lists. 

Your list keeper should have an understanding of the nuances of your target audience and can customize the marketing lists accordingly. Their responsibility involves regular updates, cleansing, ensuring that information is current and relevant, and monitoring metrics.

This approach will ensure that the campaigns you run against the list are more targeted, and by customizing the message, you will help it resonate with them.

Create a Process

Procedures and policies are so key when it comes to our providing IT services, as they are for your marketing lists. If you don’t already have one, establish a documented process for adding, editing, and removing addresses from your marketing lists. 

Here are a few considerations to remember as you create this documentation:

• Establish clear guidelines for adding, editing, and removing contacts in the mailing list. Specify the format for names, addresses, and other relevant information to ensure consistency. 
• Use address verification tools or services to check for completeness, correctness, and adherence to postal standards. 
• Document all changes made to the mailing list, including additions, edits, and removals. Keep a record of when these changes occurred and who made them. This documentation serves as a valuable reference in case of discrepancies or inquiries.
• Outline the procedures for individuals to opt out of the mailing list. Provide easy-to-follow instructions for unsubscribing or updating preferences. Establish protocols for removing addresses that bounce consistently or are marked as undeliverable.

Most importantly, ensure that your process aligns with data protection regulations, such as the CAN-SPAM Act or GDPR.

• Define the process for obtaining consent before adding addresses to your mailing list. Whether through online forms, opt-in checkboxes, or other means, ensure that individuals explicitly agree to receive communications. 

With clear guidelines, validation procedures, and compliance with regulations, this process becomes the backbone of maintaining your reliable and efficient marketing lists.

Segment Your Lists

Segmenting your lists enables you to acknowledge and address your different marketing segments' unique preferences and needs. When you take the time to send tailored, relevant messages out to your segments, these messages are more likely to:

• Resonate with them
• Increase their engagement 
• Foster a sense of individualized attention 

Organize your list by segment as much as possible--consider segmenting based on factors such as a service interest, service agreement, key buyer personas, life cycle stage, etc.

Use Your Forms

Including opt-in forms on your website is an effective, organic way to collect qualified contacts for your market lists. Your website visitors are perhaps the ideal candidates to add to your marketing lists, as they have likely already responded to one of your calls to action to get there.

Offering freebies, downloads, newsletter sign ups, leaving interest cards at live events, social media ads, and more can help you to direct attention to content on your website to collect credentials from interested prospects.

Tip: A JoomConnect Form can be configured to add or remove contacts from your marketing groups automatically!

What to Do with Neglected, Stale or Purchased List

Good news--a stale list, or one with a lot of inactive, outdated contact information or potential spammy accounts, doesn’t necessarily need to be completely abandoned. You may still be able to remedy the issues with the stale list.

First, you’ll need to vet your contacts. This can be accomplished by using online resources like Google or LinkedIn or even making “cold calls” if necessary. Remove any defunct or disinterested parties, and segment the contacts so you can run a re-introduction campaign!

If your list is still diminished, try enacting more list-building activities to recruit new contacts

Is It Worth It?

Maintaining your marketing lists is a tall task, so, is it worth the time and energy you’ll need to put into it? YES, we’d say it's well worth the effort! Your marketing lists are the cornerstone of a successful marketing strategy. 

Whether you're running email or direct mail campaigns, you should prioritize ensuring your lists remain clean, relevant, and ready for use. Establishing a designated list keeper, implementing a list procedure, and maintaining your list segmentation will help you accomplish this goal.

Check out some of our other blogs for more advice to help you market more effectively—and as always, for more help with your marketing efforts, reach out to us!