Okay, New Year’s Resolutions are a little bit corny, not to mention outdated. And whether you admit it or not, they’ve become more perfunctory than heartfelt. If I dare say that 9 out of every 10 people who make a list of things to change about themselves in the new year probably never even get to start at all, who’d sue me?

The point is, everybody wants to start the year fresh and clean and all that not because we understand the benefits that come with it, but because everybody else is doing it. In sociology, it’s the bandwagon theory. Humans are wired in such as a way that we tend to do things because everyone else is doing it.

But that doesn’t sound wise or smart in business. When it comes to marketing, you act only on things after you have carefully studied every possible angle, every potential, every consequence. Due diligence is a must, not a preference. You never leave something to chance.

There are so many things you can do to welcome the new year, whether it’s something for self-improvement or for your business growth. As far as direct marketing goes, the best way to start is by making sure your email list is as spic-and-span as it can get. Let’s list down the benefits of a fresh and clean email list.

Lower bounce rate

One of the most immediate benefits of email address verification is a lower bounce rate. A bounce rate greater than 3-5% is a sign you need to clean your email list. Uh oh. Chances are, yours is much higher. Trust me, I’ve seen bounce rates that look like field goal percentages by NBA centers. Bounces are often caused by undeliverable email addresses on your list. The culprit? A bad email list.

Related: Slaying Your (Mailer) Daemons and Reducing Email Bounces

Saves money

Any list that has “saves money” in it is worth paying attention to, that’s why I have it at number two. I mean, do you really want to pay to send messages to non-existent email addresses? Who are you fooling? Email list validation has so many advantages that includes reducing your overall marketing costs associated with your email marketing efforts due to bouncing emails. Get your staff more comfortable chairs from the money you saved. They’ll thank you for it.

Related: The Problem with (and Solution to) Database Decay

Accurate campaign stats

Many times, accuracy separates a positive ROI and zero. Obviously, the more accurate your data and numbers are, the better your chances are at being efficient at whatever you’re doing. You can actually do better business decisions by enhanced customer data analysis.

Same is true with your emails. An undeliverable email is never going to open, click, or engage. By keeping these addresses on your email list, your campaign statistics are not an accurate reflection of your email marketing efforts. List cleaning removes addresses that are damaging your sender reputation and skewing your campaign statistics.

If you’re not convinced yet, read this Callbox Client Story Global Media Runs on Accurate Market Data.

More effective targeted marketing

Verifying emails prevents your team from wasting valuable time mailing bad leads. After cleaning an email list, you should segment inactive vs. active emails and target each group with appropriate messaging. When invalid addresses are removed from your email list, you get a better idea of how engaged your subscribers are with specific content.

Increased Conversion Rates

A bad email address can never convert. A clean email list increases conversion rates by removing addresses that will never convert. When your messages are being received by an engaged audience, your conversion rates will increase.

Related: Is Bad Data Hitting You Hard? Here’s How to Roll with the Punches

Increased Email ROI

In addition to saving money, a fresh email list increases your overall email ROI by eliminating the investment in undeliverable emails, reducing bounces, improving your sender reputation, and providing more accurate metrics for decision making.

Maximize revenue opportunities

Undeliverable email addresses damage your sender reputation, causing your messages to be placed in the spam folder rather than the inbox. A clean email list gets better inbox placement, better engagement, and better revenue opportunities through segmentation and targeting.

Protect your sender reputation

One of the main factors of email deliverability is your sender reputation, which is determined by bounces, spam complaints, spam traps, and subscriber level engagement. The higher the engagement rate, the better your delivery rate. Repeatedly sending out invalid email addresses can hurt your company reputation and registered domain.

There you go. Now you know how a clean email list will improve your efficiency as an organization moving forward. Trust me, this is a list worth sticking to, new year or not.

You might also like: Easy Tips in Finding and Removing Duplicate Data Using Excel

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