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Maintaining an Established Publication Mailing List

Once a publication has developed and grown to the point of having several hundreds, or thousands of readers, maintenance of the list becomes paramount, as most mailing list maintenance services do charge per subscriber, and "dead", non-responsive e-mail addresses do eventually cost money.

If software is used to maintain a list, it is also imperative to judiciously "clean" and upkeep mailing lists, as results of any tracking of sales will be mitigated by "dead" or non-responsive e-mail addresses.

It does make sense then, to initiate and set-up a routine of "cleaning" or "clearing" of non-responsive and non-deliverable e-mails, as well as any e-mails that "bounce" repeatedly. The best features to look for in any e-mail management service or e-mail management software are those that provide statistics on "bounced" and "non-deliverable" e-mails, as well as possibly the ability to automatically delete those that repeatedly "bounce" or are "non-deliverable".

This type of feature does save much time and money in the long run. The choice of e-mail management service or software, as with everything else, should not be determined solely by cost, as most of the "free" e-mail management and software e-mail management services, do not contain the features that are needed for maximum management. These "free" services usually do charge eventually, as well, once a list has reached a certain size.

If these features of self-deletion are not available, these deletions and cleanings must be done on a schedule by hand. It is appropriate when in doubt about certain e-mails, to send a "click to remain" e-mail to all subscribers, as those that are perhaps not active presently will then "re-affirm" their desire to remain on a list. This does help determine which e-mails are currently extremely active, but it can also cost subscribers, as many that do read and wish to remain will many times simply "not bother" to confirm their wish.

It is best then, to develop a schedule of "cleaning and deletion" in order to best determine actual size of any mailing list and also activity levels. These statistics help immensely in determining the overall efficacy of any e-mail campaign and failure to do this will result in "abstract" results. "Abstract" results, which are difficult to read at best, are actually worse than "no results at all" as "abstract" results will only lead to confusion concerning the effectiveness of campaigns, whereas no results will show without a doubt that a campaign is not effective at all.

It can also be highly advantageous to categorize subscribers and their needs, if a publication seems to be "speaking" to more than one audience. Many publications that endeavor to speak to only one audience, eventually find that the subscribers reflect actually a much larger, more diverse group than what was initially sought. In this case, the publication would benefit from increasing its own diversity and perhaps its "tone" to encompass this subscriber growth of diversity.

In order to categorize effectively, categories can be set-up and subscribers, can be polled. Providing surveys, question forms, or other means of contacting the publisher by the subscribers can be utilized. Subscribers enjoy having input, and the response from queries can be favorable and serve as a great basis for future articles, or even a complete change of direction for the publication. Separate mailings can be used, providing the queries in this manner, or links inside the publication can be used for this purpose. Data amassed then needs to be sorted and analyzed, after which the categories of subscribers can be determined, and the newsletter or e-zine can be either changed or maintained according to the results.

If the categorization reveals an extremely diverse group of subscribers, with many diverse and differing needs, then it can be perhaps wise to diversify the publication into smaller, more targeted publications, which can speak more individualistically to each and every diverse group. This can, however, only be determined by the polling and queries mentioned above, and is, of course, at each publisher's individual discretion. If the polling and queries determines only a slight change in the needs of subscribers or the appearance of subscribers with no actual need or interest in the subject matter then a simple matter of "re-listing" in the directories, perhaps with a change in the description of the publication, or a change in categories, would indeed be beneficial.

The choice of publication creation software also tends to play a large role in the management of mailing lists, as changing themes to correspond to the changing needs of subscribers is much simpler and effective when using quality publication creation software. The ability to easily and quickly "drag-and-drop" articles, templates, and indeed, entire databases within the context of the publication creation software becomes even more important the more the publication subscriber base grows. It also becomes more important when creating and maintaining several simultaneous publications at once.

Using the above suggestions will make maintenance and management of any publication mailing lists much easier and less time-consuming than is generally thought. Although this does need to be done consistently and on a very regular basis, it does not need to be a dreaded chore, and can reap many rewards, most specifically, a happier, more consistent readership, and a happier, more consistent publication.