Let’s say you have been collecting email addresses from web site, through speaking engagements and other marketing efforts for at least six months to one year. The audience might agree to receive further information from you. The email addresses are there as part of the complementary information you requested.

You haven’t taken any action on it, until recently.

You heard that email marketing is going to make your follow-up easy. It can even automate part of the lead nurturing process for you.

Or perhaps, you are sending the inaugural issue your email newsletter very soon. Great.

It is easy to think that because people have granted permission once, you can send them any email anytime.

The fact is, email addresses become stale.

People change email addresses every so often. They also lost interest in something for many reasons. Another thing is that people forget they have opted in after some time.

If you send unscrupulously, the bouncebacks may raise a warning on ISPs. This in turn will get you blocked from future mailings. The “this is spam” button is only one click away too.

The recommended practice is to send an invitation to opt-in again to your list.

The entire process may involve entering user information again, or sending any email to a specialized address to confirm opt-in.

An extended effort includes requesting user feedback through a simple survey. For the latter, you can ask specifically which content the subscribers like most or are expecting.

The drawback is that you are going to lose subscribers. Sometimes as much as 70% or even more. But the result is a much more responsive and clean names for you to start sending mails to. Leaving stale addresses in your list will not only impact your response negatively, but also put your reputation at stake.