A Direct Marketing Agency - Helping Brands Acquire and Retain Customers

List churn is what happens to your list between campaigns. You may be monitoring the total number of e-mails sent, number of people that open and click, or the unsubscribe rate, but do you know the "health" of your list? And more importantly, how to project where your list will be next year?

If you dig into your e-mail analytics, you can determine the number of new addresses added since the last mailing. You can also calculate the number of new addresses added by taking the number delivered this time plus the number of failed addresses (hard bounces) this time, plus the number of unsubscribed addresses, minus the number delivered last time. Doing this type of calculation over time will show if the number of new addresses gained is more or less than the number of addresses lost.

When we combined our clients' rates together, we found typical losses of 25% to 30% of the e-mail database each year. Most of the losses come from addresses going bad, while a smaller percentage is typically due to user unsubscribes. If you have not been factoring in the lost address rate, you may be in for a surprise. If your goal is to grow your list by 10% next year, you will need to plan on increasing your list size by 40% to accommodate the natural list attrition.

E-mail is a very effective way to reach your audience; however, developing list growth strategies you can put into action will help keep your list healthy so you will achieve your desired performance.