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Best Practices for a Clean and Compliant Email List

1. Keep One Master List Instead of creating multiple email lists, use one main list and organize contacts with tags and segments (e.g., “Newsletter Subscribers” or “Family Law Clients”). This prevents duplicate emails and confusion.

2. Avoid Duplicates Mailchimp automatically prevents duplicate emails in one list. Keeping all contacts in a single list also prevents extra costs and spam complaints from people getting the same email multiple times.

3. Regularly Clean Your List

• Remove inactive contacts (people who haven’t engaged in 6-12 months).
• Run re-engagement campaigns to check if inactive users still want to receive emails.
• Archive or delete bounced and invalid emails.

How to Avoid Email Overload and Duplicates

Having too many lists or duplicate contacts can cause compliance issues and affect email performance. Here’s how to avoid this:

• Check for Duplicates Before Uploading: Remove duplicates and verify email formats.
• Use Tags Instead of Multiple Lists: Organize contacts with labels like “Event Attendee” or “Past Client” instead of separate lists.
• Delete or Suppress Old Contacts: Prevents sending emails to people who no longer engage.

How to Keep Your Email List Engaged

A great email list isn’t just big, it’s active and engaged. Here’s how to keep it that way:

1. Identify Inactive Contacts People who haven’t opened or clicked an email in 6-12 months are likely inactive.

• If you have implied consent, inactivity for 24 months means they should be removed (unless they give express consent).

2. Send Re-Engagement Emails Give inactive subscribers a reason to stay. Example subject line:

“We Miss You! Want to Keep Getting Our Emails?”

Include a clear action: “Click here to stay subscribed.”

3. Archive or Remove Unresponsive Contacts

• Archive: Keeps them in your records but removes them from active emails.
• Delete: Permanently removes them.
• Suppress: Blocks them from being added again.

Tracking Your Email Success

To improve your email strategy, track these key metrics:

• Open Rate: How many people open your emails.
• Click Rate: How many clicks on links.
• Bounce Rate: How many emails didn’t go through.
• Unsubscribe Rate: How many opt out.
• Spam Complaints: Signals if your emails are unwanted.

Use Mailchimp’s segmenting tools to group contacts based on engagement (e.g., “Opened Last 3 Emails” or “Inactive for 12 Months”).

Quarterly Email Maintenance Checklist

Every 3 months, review your email strategy:

• Check Campaign Reports: Look at open rates and click rates.
• Identify Inactive Contacts: Remove or re-engage them.
• Backup Engagement Data: Keep a record for compliance.
• Clean Bounced Emails: Archive invalid emails.
• Update Consent Records: Track new subscribers and opt-outs.

Need help optimizing your email marketing? SMARTLI offers expert guidance and training. Reach out today!

Elevate Your Email Marketing Strategy: Simple, Compliant, and Effective

Email marketing is a powerful tool to connect with your audience, build relationships, and grow your business. But to get the best results, your strategy needs to be both effective and legally compliant with rules like CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation) and PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act). Whether you’re in the legal industry or any other field, these best practices will help you run a clean, compliant, and results-driven email marketing campaign.

Why Email Marketing Works

Email marketing offers key benefits that make it one of the best ways to reach your audience:

• Direct Communication: Emails go straight to inboxes, avoiding social media algorithms.
• High ROI: Email marketing gives some of the highest and cost effective (nina – combined both points here)) returns on investment (ROI) in digital marketing.
• Stronger Relationships: Regular emails help keep your business top of mind. Your messaging remains personalized, building  trust and strengthening client relationships.
• Measurable Results: Tools like Mailchimp let you track open rates, clicks, and conversions.
• Ownership of Your Audience: Unlike social media, you own your email list and control how you reach people.

Following the Rules: CASL & PIPEDA

To avoid fines and ensure trust, your emails must follow Canada’s email marketing laws.

CASL (Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation)

• You need permission (either express or implied) before sending marketing emails.
• Every email must include:
  • Your business name and contact details.
  • An easy unsubscribe option (requests must be processed within 10 days).
  • Proof of consent records (when and how someone signed up).

PIPEDA (Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act)

• Businesses must handle personal information carefully.
• You must:
  • Get clear (informed maybe-nina?) consent before collecting personal data.
  • Keep personal data secure (e.g., encryption, password protection).
  • Allow people to access or update their information.
  • Have a privacy policy explaining how data is used.

Not following these rules can result in fines up to $10 million, so compliance is critical.

Building a CASL-Compliant Signup Form

Your signup form is where compliance starts. Here’s how to do it right:

1. Use a Consent Checkbox Make sure users actively opt-in to receive emails. Example wording:

“Yes, I agree to receive emails with updates, events, and newsletters. I can unsubscribe anytime.”

2. Enable Double Opt-In A double opt-in means users confirm their email after signing up. This helps prevent fake signups and improves list quality.

3. Keep Consent Records Mailchimp automatically logs when, where, and how users signed up, which helps with legal compliance.