It’s a story as old as time. There is no doubt that e-mail is a hugely important play in the digital marketer's gamebook, and so often we’re always looking to make this tactic bigger. But in what context? Is your metric based on subscriber numbers? If so, may I respectfully suggest you take a second look at your plan.

I say this because there is a better way. A more cost-effective approach that offers better stewardship while increasing your ROI. What is that magic bullet you ask? Data management.

The reality is our e-mail subscriber rates are going to go down before they go back up. With the implementation of GDPR and unsubscribe rates are increasing, why not take the front foot and be proactive. Clean up your data, and drive down the cost of your e-mail management costs at the same time. Yes – knocking down the size of your list us daunting but you may be surprised by the results.

Recently a segment I work on was reduced by over 30,000 e-mail subscribers, Yes, you read that right. Over 30,000 donors. However, the income that segment delivered increased by 23%. So, we reduced the cost of contacting donors, we were able to make the communications more donor-centric, we reduced the risk of annoying people who didn’t want to hear from us, and we increased our income. In anyone’s book, that’s a great result.

So take the dive, and clean up your data. Your supporters (and your bosses) will thank you for it!