Maybe it’s a bit early for spring house cleaning. But it’s a great time to think about cleaning up your email list – to be sure it’s a lean, mean fighting machine capable of reaching the highest number of potential customers.

It’s a fairly basic process, but executing it properly and keeping up with it can be the little push that gives you the edge over competitors.

Five ways to get more out of your email:

1. Welcome your newcomers. This might be your best chance at getting off on the right foot. This is your opportunity to send a welcome email asking new sign-ups to confirm their email address, make any necessary adjustments to email settings and add you as a safe sender.
2. Create a preference center. Give recipients control in selecting what they want to get from you and how often they want to get it. If you start bombarding new people with everything in your arsenal, you’ll probably drive ‘em straight out of town.
3. Give them an easy way out. No matter what, there will always be folks who decide your email isn’t what they were looking for.  Make it easy for those folks to unsubscribe. Each email you send needs to include straight language and the call to action “Unsubscribe.” It’s best in the footer of the message.
4. Let them out — pronto. When someone unsubscribes, that’s it — take them off your list or face possible legal sanctions.
5. Watch the bouncing … email addresses. Watch those email missives that come bouncing back. There are two types of bounces, each requiring a specific treatment. A hard bounce is someone with an invalid or blocked email address. Drop them from your list. Soft bounces — full mailbox and autoresponder replies — indicate there could be signs of life. But you’ll need to monitor these, because if there’s no change after a while, you’ll probably want to bounce these off your list, too.

Adapted in part from “7 Types of Email Addresses to Delete From Your List NOW!” by Corey Eridon, HubSpot’s Inbound Internet Marketing Blog, 1/16/12.

Tags: cleaning up your email list, get more out of your email, preference center