Episode 99: Best Practice to Law (Scrubbing Your List!)

Summary

Podcast Summary: Episode 99 - Best Practice to Law (Scrubbing Your List!)

Title: The Email Sound Booth with Liz Wilcox
Host: Liz Wilcox
Episode: 99
Release Date: February 20, 2025
Podcast Description: For online businesses that need to remix their email marketing efforts, and finally build an email list that makes them money and feels good to do it.

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Introduction: The Critical Shift in Email Marketing

In Episode 99 of The Email Sound Booth, host Liz Wilcox addresses a pressing issue that has garnered significant attention within her community: the necessity of scrubbing email lists. Moving beyond previous discussions in her Facebook group and live Q&As, Liz emphasizes the urgency and importance of this practice not merely as a recommendation but as a regulatory imperative.

From Best Practice to Legal Requirement

Liz begins by clarifying the evolution of email list maintenance. Formerly considered a "best practice," scrubbing email lists has now transcended into a binding requirement enforced by major email service providers.

"It used to be a best practice, but now it's the law, right? Big giant, I call them Internet gods." [02:00]

She explains that giants like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft are implementing stringent measures to ensure that marketers send emails only to engaged recipients. This shift aims to improve overall email deliverability and reduce server load from inactive accounts.

The Role of Major Email Providers

Liz personifies these major providers as "Internet gods," highlighting their growing influence and authority over email marketing practices. She underscores that these entities are actively targeting and penalizing senders who neglect their email lists.

"The Internet gods don't care about your timeline and your maybes. This is now law, okay?" [01:35]

According to Liz, these providers not only discourage but actively prevent emails from reaching uninterested or inactive users, prioritizing those who interact with their messages. This change benefits consumers by minimizing spam and irrelevant content.

Implications for Email Marketers

For marketers, the consequences of ignoring this shift are severe. Continuing to send emails to non-engaged subscribers risks being flagged as spam or even being entirely blocked by these providers.

"If you continue to do so, we will start to put you in spam. We will start to block you right altogether." [02:45]

Liz emphasizes that this isn't just a minor adjustment but a fundamental change in how email marketing operates. Ignoring the need to scrub lists can lead to significant deliverability issues, severely impacting a business's ability to reach its audience.

Benefits of Scrubbing Your Email List

Scrubbing an email list offers multiple advantages beyond mere compliance. Liz highlights improved metrics and better engagement rates as direct benefits.

"This is going to allow you to see better metrics, right? To see who's actually open your emails." [02:15]

By eliminating inactive subscribers, marketers can gain clearer insights into their audience's behavior, enabling more targeted and effective campaigns. Additionally, a cleaner list can invigorate marketers to continue expanding their subscriber base with genuinely interested individuals.

Action Steps: Scrubbing and Growing Your List

Recognizing the dual necessity of maintaining and expanding an email list, Liz announces her upcoming event:

"On March 11th through the 13th, we've got list building live. I want to help you build your list because I know it is difficult." [00:45]

She encourages listeners to participate in her list-building live sessions to not only scrub their existing lists but also implement strategies to grow their engaged subscriber base. The combination of these efforts ensures sustained email marketing success amidst evolving regulations.

Addressing Common Concerns

Liz acknowledges common apprehensions, such as fears of losing potentially re-engageable subscribers or the struggle of managing a smaller list.

"I feel like a lot of people, oh, I don't want to scrub because my list is already small. Well, guess what? This used to be a best practice. Now it's the law." [03:10]

She reassures her audience that scrubbing is essential regardless of list size and that focusing on growth can mitigate concerns about list reduction.

Conclusion: Embracing the New Norm

Wrapping up the episode, Liz reiterates the importance of adapting to these changes with a positive and proactive mindset. She stresses that embracing both scrubbing and growth is crucial for maintaining a vibrant and profitable email list.

"Say it with love. Hopefully this wasn't too serious, but I just want you to understand that this is real." [04:00]

Liz offers continued support through her Email Marketing Membership and Facebook group, providing a community for marketers to navigate these changes together.

Notable Quotes

• "It used to be a best practice, but now it's the law, right? Big giant, I call them Internet gods." [02:00]
• "The Internet gods don't care about your timeline and your maybes. This is now law, okay?" [01:35]
• "If you continue to do so, we will start to put you in spam. We will start to block you right altogether." [02:45]
• "This is going to allow you to see better metrics, right? To see who's actually open your emails." [02:15]
• "On March 11th through the 13th, we've got list building live. I want to help you build your list because I know it is difficult." [00:45]
• "I feel like a lot of people, oh, I don't want to scrub because my list is already small. Well, guess what? This used to be a best practice. Now it's the law." [03:10]
• "Say it with love. Hopefully this wasn't too serious, but I just want you to understand that this is real." [04:00]

Final Thoughts

Episode 99 serves as a crucial wake-up call for email marketers, emphasizing that the practices surrounding email list management have evolved from recommendations to mandatory requirements. Liz Wilcox effectively communicates the gravity of adhering to these new standards while providing actionable steps and supportive resources to navigate the transition successfully.

For more in-depth discussions and support, Liz invites listeners to join her Email Marketing Membership and participate in the upcoming list-building live sessions.

You are awesome and I'll see you on the next episode, my friend.

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For additional resources and to listen to the full episode, visit The Email Sound Booth Podcast and check the show notes for relevant links.

Transcript

[Liz Wilcox]

Hey, Liz Wilcox here. You're listening to the email sound booth podcast. This is episode 99 and I kind of got my serious tone on and I promise to be quick, but there has been so much discussion over in our email sound booths, Facebook group over in my live Q&As for email marketing membership, and even people asking in the inbox about email scrubbing your list. I did another episode. I'll link in the show notes about scrubbing your list and what I'm doing for 2025. But I just want to make something super clear. A lot of people might be afraid to scrub their email list. Oh, well, you know, maybe this person will come back. Maybe they'll read it another time. I worked so hard to build my email list and you're right, I'm doing, you know, March 11th through the 13th, we've got list building live. I want to help you build your list because I know it is difficult. So stay tuned for that. But what I want you to know about scrubbing your list is it's always been a best practice, right? You know, email marketers like myself, oh, you got to scrub your list. You got to keep it clean for deliverability's sake. You don't want to pay for, for, you know, an email address that isn't opening your emails, right? It used to be a best practice, but now, how can I put this? But now it's the law, right? Big giant, I call them Internet gods. But the big email providers, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, et cetera, et cetera, right? Those entities, those Internet gods are now making it this law, right? They do not want you sending emails to people that are not opening, right? And part of this is they don't want to run servers for emails that are no longer in use. And so they are, I don't know if I want to use the word punish, but they're dinging people that are sending to people that aren't opening. They only want you to send emails to people that are actively engaged, right? And this is a good thing for consumers. This means the people, like, if some spammer keeps emailing me and I'm indicating no interest because I'm not even moving it from junk to the inbox, let alone opening it, the Internet gods are going to pay attention to that and they're going to block the spammer. You are not a spammer. But they are practicing those same things. If you send an email to me over and over and over in hopes that, well, I know Liz used to open them and maybe, you know, maybe she'll open them again. Maybe she has them in a folder and she's going to open them again in 45 days. The Internet gods don't care about your timeline and your maybes. This is now law, okay? They don't want to see emails sent out to people that aren't opening. And so scrubbing your list. And again, I'm going to link to that other episode on what I'm doing in 2025 has become very, very important. So important that if you're watching this on YouTube, you can see my face. I'm not smiling. You can hear that I'm not smiling. You can hear that this is serious. And I'm not doing this to scare you or frighten you. And I definitely don't want it to move you away from email marketing because guess what, social media, they do this all the time, but they never even announce it, right? They're constantly changing the algorithm and you have to constantly chase it back, right? Email is still number one. And this is best. This is going to be the best thing for you because it's going to allow you to see. I just did an episode, episode 97 on metrics. This is going to allow you to see better metrics, right? To see who's actually open your emails. And it's also going to, and I say it with love, light a fire up or up under your booty to keep growing your freaking list, right? I just said I'm doing an entire list building live in March on how to grow your list. I feel like a lot of people, oh, I don't want to scrub because my list is already small. Well, guess what? This used to be a best practice. Now it's the law. And now you better get to growing your email list. You know, we are nothing without the growth of our email list. And especially now that the Internet gods, so to speak, are saying, hey, stop it. Stop sending to people that don't open. If you continue to do so, we will start to put you in spam. We will start to block you right altogether. Which when you're blocked, that means that doesn't mean spam folder, that doesn't mean junk or promotions. That means I'm not even going to see your email, okay? So say it with love. Hopefully this wasn't too serious, but I just want you to understand that this is real. And I'm not just saying this as, oh, put it on your to do list. You know, I'm not just trying to be like a bully or like your mom telling you what to do. Because that's the way I want you to do things. Like this is just the new norm, so to speak. All right. I do care about you so much. I want this so badly for you. Remember, this is okay. It is going. It is now the law. Like, scrub your email list and then focus on growing your email list so it doesn't even matter. Okay? All right. Join Email Marketing Membership. If you need more help with this, you want more in depth conversations about it, happy to chat over in the Facebook group as well. All those links are in the show notes. As always. I'm Liz Wilcox. You are awesome and I'll see you on the next episode, my friend. If I knew how to edit. There we go.