Everyone wants to know about cleaning out their email lists. It’s like spring-cleaning for internet marketers, and it’s hard to avoid the urge to scratch the itch. Everyone wants to talk about how big their list is and who has the most subscribers, but the reality of the situation is that it isn’t the number that matters. Whether you have 200,000 subscribers or 5,000, you need to make sure that you have quality subscribers who actually want and utilize the emails that you send. Otherwise, you are wasting your time and energy.

Cleaning out email lists has its rewards and disadvantages. You will be able to whittle down the list and make sure that every single address is a quality one that you can benefit from, but you will also lose some subscribers that might be more valuable than you realize. Here are some basic benefits and disadvantages of cleaning up your email lists:

Pros:

• Less to keep track of
• Updated, fresh information
• Actual users kept
• Corrected email addresses
• Eliminates errors
• Helps locate missing data
• Increased profits

Cons:

• Loss of possible subscribers of value
• If you use software, you might lose valuable information if errors occur
• Takes time or money depending on whether you do it or use software or professional services
• Potential annoyance to customers who have to “click here to confirm” information and their involvement in the list
• Might ward people away when you request ‘more information’ or ask for verification

As you can see, having a clean list goes both ways. Ultimately, it is a great way to brush up your business and keep things fresh. However, it might not always be ideal in every situation. Look at your timing, the way that you will clean up the list, and how you want to go about things before you decide what is best for your needs.

With a clean email list, you will only be marketing to people who actually desire your marketing. However, if a genuine customer missed that ever-important email, you might lose them forever because they never heard that they needed to re-confirm their subscription to the list. It really all depends on how you look at it, but having a higher quality list with fewer inconsistencies or wasted addresses is always going to give your email marketing the boost that it needs. In the end, you will have to decide what your business needs.