Back to School Means You Better Do Your (Email List) Homework

Austin Bliss

Is your email list ready to go back to school?

It’s back to school season, which for many types of retailers is a lot like Christmas. If you’re an office supplies company, clothing retailer, or one of the many other retailers who target families, you know what I’m talking about. This is when moms and dads are on websites and in stores, getting their little ones all the stuff they need for school. This is your opportunity to reach those parents with your offers, new products, and updates.

But if your email doesn’t get through the first time, little Jimmy is going back to school wearing the other firm’s shoes, little Janey carrying the other company’s lunchbox, and your goods will stay in your warehouse.

So this is a great opportunity to make sure your email lists are up to date – here’s some homework for you to get done before back to school season is over.

• Check all those names you’ve gathered over the last year – do you have emails for them? If not, look into an appending service that can connect the postal address with an up to date email address.
  
• Track down some of those bouncing emails by using an Email Change of Address service to connect that old, obsolete email with the one the parent is using today (remember that 20-30% of consumers change emails each year).
  
• Make sure you’re not sending to bad email addresses (and running the risk of being marked as spam) by cleaning your list of problematic emails. Email hygiene ensures that your emails get through.
  
• While you’re at it, set up a recurring service to make sure bad emails are automatically removed from your list, which will save you some time next year.

As we tell the kids – do your homework and you’ll grow up to be a big, strong retailer.

(123)