Find out how to find the best customers in your list using e-mail vendor MailChimp. Since a majority of your list never opens or clicks your e-mail campaigns, you can reduce costs and abuse reports by segmenting and sending to best customers.

1. Effective E-mail Pruning in
MailChimp

2. Prerequisites
• A MailChimp account (although this
concept can be used with any vendor)
• History of having sent a number of
campaigns to a list

3. Why prune your list?
• Avoid getting “blacklisted” by your e-mail
vendor
• Lower costs, improve ROI
• Better open rates
• Reduce or eliminate bounces and spam
abuse complaints

4. MailChimp’s “member ratings”
• 1 Star- negative rating (unsubscribed and
re-subscribed, or soft bounced)
• 2 Star- no activity, never opened or
clicked, most likely a new member
• 3 Star- limited activity
• 4 Star- a little more activity
• 5 Star- lots of activity

5. The “best customer” segment
• Create a segment of 3-star and above
subscribers
• You’ll be sending to only those that have
opened or clicked before
• Will most likely dramatically reduce list
size
• Send campaigns to this segment for best
results

6. The 2-star subscriber
• Don’t neglect as they may be new to your
list
• Create a new segment of just 2-star
subscribers that have recently been added
to your list
• Send the campaign to them
– You may want to include an exclusive offer &
catchy subject line to encourage opening and
clicking

7. Prune with confidence
• Always backup the list to your computer or
server
• You may opt to remove those with a 2-star
and lower rating who...
– Have been on the list for a significant period of
time (start with a year)
– Haven’t ever opened or clicked

8. A case study
• Online retail client
– List size was cut by 69%, saving client $75 per
month in fees
– Open rate was 2x the industry average
– Click rate was almost 2x the industry
– Bounces are almost non-existent
– No abuse complaints
– Only a handful of unsubscribes

9. About us
Rick Whittington Consulting is a Richmond, Virginia-based
web consulting firm specializing in building effective
websites. We work with companies who need their
website and online marketing to produce results.
How can we help your company achieve its goals?
Web: http://www.rickwhittington.com
E-mail: projects@rickwhittington.com