Why I Purge My Email List & You Should Too: Save Money and Boost Open Rates

Save money, increase open rates, get better engagement.

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Photo by Max Bender on Unsplash

Most creators or brands with newsletters pay for an email service like ConvertKit or MailChimp.

With those services, they are throttling their price based on the number of subscribers.

It’s a great model, their tools help you grow, which in turn help their revenue grow too.

But is it always worth it?

Maybe.

There is a specific balance between email marketing performance and your spending.

I wouldn't say I like math, but let’s do some.

If you have 4,000 subscribers, and 25% of them are opening your emails regularly, that’s a great result.

On average, about 1,000 subscribers are opening your emails, but those 1,000 could change every time based on timing, messaging, etc.

Let’s average up to 2,000 subscribers who are opening your emails.

So, that means 50% of your subscribers are engaged.

So let’s break it down for cost.

If you’re paying for a service like MailChimp, an Essential Plan for under 5,000 subscribers, you will increase your plan from $69 to $100 monthly.

<5,000 Subscribers Cost

$69 / 4000 = $0.01 per subscriber

The actual cost is $0.017 per subscriber — it will matter later.

The minimal cost of MailChimp, with 5,000 subscribers

But only 2,000 are opening your emails on this plan, so $0.02 per subscriber x 2000 = $40.

What if you continue to grow…

If you continue to grow your list and reach the pinnacle of 5,000 subscribers, MailChimp will bump you up to a minimum of $100 per month.

You’ve also improved subject lines during that time and bumped your open rate to 30%!

So, using the same logic, 1,500 subscribers open regularly, but they rotate engaging, so 3,000 subscribers are “active.”

5,000+ Subscribers Cost

$100 / 5000 = $0.02 per subscriber

The minimal cost of MailChimp, with 5,000+ subscribers

HUGE SAVINGS! You are only paying $0.15 less per subscriber with the new plan. But does it pay off?

With the higher plan, you’re paying $31 more per month = $372 annually.

But only 3,000 are opening your emails on this plan, so $0.02 per subscriber x 3000 = $60.

If you look at it, you’re getting less than the lower plan cost in performance with the new plan you upgraded to, yet you’re paying $31 more monthly.

With those subscribers that are opening on your higher plan, you can pay for the lower plan if you start purging your list of negative subscribers.

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Start Saving Your Money & Purge Your Lists

Even with the improved open rate, engaging subscribers must still catch up to the minimum plan.

🤑 Here’s your opportunity to save money!

I manage four different MailChimp brand accounts.

• 20,561 subscribers

• 15,999 subscribers

• 4,101 subscribers

• 3,906 subscribers

Each list is purged regularly — weekly or monthly — to eliminate extra costs.

My Process For Purging My Accounts

When an account is scheduled to be purged, I’ve created pre-determined segments labeled “ARCHIVE” to select the non-engaging subscribers.

💡 Pro Tip: When creating these segments at first, be sure to click open some individual subscribers to check out their activity and any signs of a drop off.

What are some segments to start with?

• I didn’t open any of the last 50 emails

• Engagement rate is rarely (what’s this?)

• Didn’t click any of the last 50 emails

• Join date >6 months ago + no opens

I call these segments negative-subscribers — I get nothing from them and lose money from them.

Those are good starting points to create your segments.

After sorting your audience by segments, you can start archiving them and shedding money, draining negative subscribers from your account.

If using MailChimp, you can “select all” on the segment to archive the subscribers that match your search.

Select all the segments to archive in MailChimp

How often should I purge my account?

This depends on the size of your list and how often you gain new subscribers. My most significant accounts get purged weekly, and my smaller ones every 2–4 weeks.

When you first purge your list, you may lose a lot of subscribers in one shot — don’t be alarmed; this is good. These people are spending your money without giving you any value. You may even drop down a level in your account costs!

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Purging = Improved Open Rates!

I’m not a math fan, but let’s do more to make all this work worth it.

If you reduce your original list from 4,000 to 3,000 subscribers with purging and the initial 1,000 subscribers (on average) are still opening your emails, that equals a 33% open rate!

You just increased your open rate from 25% to 33%!

All by removing negative subscribers who have yet to open your emails anyway!

With that kind of jump in open rates, you can begin selling higher-valued promotional spots in your newsletters.