List Turnover and Deliverability are Related, Stupid: StrongMail’s Lewis

After reading last week’s article on recent survey findings that list turnover is e-mail marketers’ No. 1 challenge and deliverability is No. 3, StrongMail’s vice president of product and market strategy Dave Lewis apparently just about spit out his coffee—or at the very least, raised an eyebrow and thought: “That Magill sure is an idiot.”

Then he fired off an e-mail saying the two are related.

He makes decent points:

“What makes us think that list turnover and deliverability aren’t related?” said Lewis’ e-mail. “As I’ve been saying for some time, good deliverability is all about good marketing. This is a case in point. Here are a few obvious connections between deliverability and list size/turnover where the solution is simply good marketing.

“Data capture. Exercise good controls at the point of data capture so you don’t introduce bad records onto your list and create deliverability challenges for yourself.

“Bounce management. Apply the ‘right’ bounce definitions and list management rules so you don’t inadvertently discard good records while keeping the bad ones that cause delivery problems.

“Relevant messaging. Send messages consistent with consumer behavior and preferences, and you won’t prompt the complaints (or unsubscribes) that degrade both deliverability and list retention.

“Record invalidation. Look beyond invalidation as your final step to deliverability. When records go bad, the end game is not simply about invalidating records from your list. It’s about restoring communication with customers. Look for ways to achieve it through address hygiene, recapture and other strategies that return your records to ‘working asset’ status.”