We have discussed many times the fact that it is essential to regularly clean your contact lists. The question we are looking at today, therefore, does not focus on the reasons, but rather on the frequency. Because it’s not just about checking your mailing list from time to time when you think about it, but rather regularly according to specific criteria.
Why check your mailing list several times?
It would be wrong to think that once is enough to make your list permanently reliable. Why? Simply because there are always contacts who change information (email, phone number, address, etc.). A list can be perfectly clean today and contain outdated data tomorrow. This is quite normal, and it does not mean that you should analyze your list every day, but rather regularly.
Email List Cleaning: Choosing the Right Frequency
In general, it is recommended to perform a check at least once or twice a year, but for more precision on the question, three major elements should be taken into account:
Sending Frequency
If you send an emailing campaign every 3 months or more, we advise you to check your list before each sending.
If you send an emailing campaign every month or more (every week, two weeks, etc.), we advise you to set a schedule for cleaning rather than doing it with each sending.
Contact Collection Method
The method you use to collect email addresses also strongly influences the cleaning frequency.
If you do not use opt-in or double opt-in, you risk ending up with many unusable addresses.
In addition to these two techniques, it may be wise to perform real-time email verification during collection.
The Type of Mailing List
Are you sending emails in B2B or B2C? Here too, your answer will impact the verification frequency. Indeed, if your sending campaigns target businesses, you will need to clean your lists more often than in the B2C context, as business addresses tend to change more often than personal addresses.
Here are some suggestions as examples:
B2B with simple opt-in
A check every two weeks for weekly or daily campaigns.
A check before each sending for monthly or quarterly campaigns.
B2B with double opt-in
A check per month for weekly or daily campaigns.
A check every two months for monthly campaigns.
A check before each sending for quarterly campaigns.
B2C with simple opt-in
A check per month for weekly or daily campaigns.
A check every two months for monthly campaigns.
A check before each sending for quarterly campaigns.
B2C with double opt-in
A check every two months for weekly or daily campaigns.
A check every three months for monthly campaigns.
A check before each sending for quarterly campaigns.
Know that the size of your mailing list is also a criterion not to be neglected. The larger your list, the more regularly you should check it, as the chances of it containing outdated addresses are higher.
When to Clean Your Mailing List?
After the frequency, comes the timing. For optimal efficiency, it is best to check your list as close as possible before launching the sending. For a more precise idea, count 72 hours maximum before the launch.
For cleaning, it is of course more than recommended using a specialized tool in data verification: Captain Verify. You will thus be able to benefit from healthy, reliable lists, and reap the rewards of the efforts invested in your emailing campaigns.
