You’ve got your domain set up. You’ve warmed up your list. Now it’s time to talk strategy and execution. Because if you’re still blasting emails to your entire database every single time you have something to say, you are destroying your domain reputation and your open rates.
Email marketing is no longer a shotgun approach. It requires precision. Today, we’re covering list hygiene, the engaged user strategy, and how to stop people from unsubscribing from everything all at once.
The Danger of the "Blast" Strategy
Sending emails to people who never open them is a massive waste of time and puts your domain at risk. Google and Yahoo are watching. If they see you constantly sending emails to inboxes that ignore you—or worse, to abandoned addresses that have been turned into “spam traps”—they will permanently banish you to the spam folder.
High open rates mean you’re getting into inboxes. Low open rates mean you’re going to spam. We need to get as good at email hygiene as we are at running Facebook ads.
The Engaged User Strategy
We only want to email people who are actively paying attention. We call these “engaged users.” An engaged user is someone who has opened or clicked an email within a specific timeframe.
To do this right, you need to build three Smart Lists in Momentum HQ:
- The 30-Day Engaged List: These are your hottest prospects. They’re actively reading. Use this list for broadcasts, promos, and nurture sequences.
- The 60-Day Engaged List: People who are slipping away but still warm.
- The 90-Day Engaged List: People who need a strong re-engagement campaign to wake them back up.
Building Your 30-Day Smart List
Here is exactly how to build this in Momentum HQ:
- Go to Contacts and click “Add Smart List”.
- Name it “30-Day Active Subscribers”.
- Go to advanced filters and search for “Last Email Opened Date”.
- Set the filter to “is in the last 30 days” and hit apply.
If you want to grow your list and increase your open rates, create a campaign just for this 30-day list. Send them an email three times a week for the next two weeks using the “Give, Give, Give, Ask” ratio.
Stopping the Global Unsubscribe
Right now, if someone clicks the unsubscribe link at the bottom of your email, they are gone forever. They will never receive another marketing email from you. But what if they just didn’t want that specific type of email?
Suppose you have different types of content: “Andy’s Marketing Minute,” “Gun Tips and Training,” and “Product Reviews.” If you hit people with all three every day, they’ll get annoyed and unsubscribe from everything.
Instead, we give them choices. We use tags to segment our audience. If someone is tagged for “Andy’s Marketing Minute,” we put a custom link at the top of those specific emails that says, “If you do not want to receive more emails from Andy’s Marketing Minute, click here.”
When they click it, a trigger removes that specific tag, pulling them out of that Smart List—but keeping them subscribed to your other content. This decreases your total unsubscribes while keeping your open rates high.
He Who is Closer to His Customers Wins
How do you get these tags in the first place? You ask. You can enroll them through a funnel, add tags manually, or use a survey (like the Jedi Form) where their answers automatically trigger specific tags. “Do you own a gun?” “Are you interested in advanced defense?”
The more data points you have, the better you can market specifically to what your customers actually want. Tags are what you need to live by. Every contact should have a series of tags.
Stop blasting. Start segmenting. Your open rates—and your bank account—will thank you.
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