List Scrubbing 101: For Therapists & Holistic-Minded Entrepreneurs
Let’s be honest: List scrubbing is the most unsexy aspect of email marketing.
However, it’s essential to keep your email list healthy and engaged—and, more importantly, to keep your motivation flowing for writing.
You spend your limited time and energy writing content that resonates with your newsletter subscribers. You research topics and then expertly craft emails that will engage your subscribers and be helpful in their lives. You care about the person at the other end of your email, just as much as if they were sitting across from you in person.
Then you check your open rates. OUCH. They aren’t what you hoped.
You’ve seen your engagement drop, but you know you’re writing engaging content. What gives?
⚡ News Flash ⚡
It’s Not You…It’s Your List Hygiene.
What is list scrubbing?
List scrubbing is a snazzy way of saying "cleaning up your email list." It involves removing subscribers who are not engaging consistently with your content—primarily not opening your emails any longer.
The common definition of a cold subscriber varies from provider to provider, but it is typically a subscriber who has not opened any emails from you for 90 days consecutively.
Why does list scrubbing matter?
For therapists and healers, your email list is often one of your most direct lines to your network or your prospective clients. Whether you're sharing resources, offering workshops, or simply providing updates, you want to ensure that your emails are actually being seen.
List scrubbing has several key benefits:
When your email list is scrubbed and up-to-date, you’ll start to see the benefits almost immediately:
📈 Improve Deliverability: Emails sent to invalid addresses can bounce back, signaling to email providers that your messages might be spam. This can harm your sender reputation and make it harder for your emails to reach subscribers in the future.
💚 Boost Subscriber Engagement: When you remove cold contacts, you're left with subscribers who are more likely to open, read, and engage with your content. You’ll notice higher open and click rates, as your emails are reaching people who are actually interested.
📊 More Valuable Email Analytics: When you know you’re sending emails only to engage subscribers, you’ll be able to more accurately review trends and respond accordingly.
🤑 Saves You Money: Many email marketing platforms charge based on the size of your list. By removing inactive subscribers, you can reduce costs and ensure you're only paying to reach those who are genuinely interested.
💪 Increase Your Motivation To Write: When you know you’re writing only to engaged subscribers, you’ll feel more motivated to show up and send regular newsletters.
What are signs you need a list scrub?
If you haven’t scrubbed your list of cold subscribers and you’re emailing them regularly, it might be time for a good scrub! The recommended frequency is every 6–12 months, or when you start to notice a noticeable dip in your open rates.
High bounce rates, low engagement, or a rise in unsubscribes or spam complaints could all be signs it's time for a good list scrub-a-dub.
“What if I ghosted my list?” 👻
Don’t panic! If you’re busy running your practice and seeing clients, it’s understandable that emailing your list would take a back seat.
It’s never too late to re-engage with your audience. Reengagement strategy varies depending on the state of your email list, your niche, and your business goals. The key is to get back to emailing your list regularly.
That “regular” interval can be weekly, monthly, or seasonally, which, once again, will be informed by your business goals and energetic capacity.
Re-engagement might take some time, but as you start to get back into the swing of things, your efforts will pay off, and you’ll be able to see who on your list is engaged and who might be targeted for a future scrub.
“I worked so hard for those subscribers! Why should I scrub them?”
While it’s hard to see the total number of subscribers go down, you’ll often see an immediate improvement in your stats and more accurate metrics for your list. In the long run, this is better for you than subscribers who just sit on your list.
With fewer subscribers, you may pay less for your email service provider. Reach out to your email service provider to request this, as they don’t do it automatically. (Annoying, I know.)
Still concerned? You can do a re-engagement/win-back email series before you scrub, so you ensure you’re only removing the folks who are truly unengaged.
Feeling Stuck With Email Marketing?
If the idea of writing your list overwhelms you — I got you, boo. ❤️
1:1 Copy Mentoring Sessions are a great opportunity for us to cut through the “shoulds” and identify what email marketing looks like for you, including how to leverage your email list and unique skills to support your business dreams.
Copywriter On-Demand Packages allow you to hand over all aspects of your email marketing, so you can stay connected with your audience without lifting a finger.
