Today’s email database is tomorrow’s trash, with up to 22.5% of it degrading every year. Even if you have a sound strategy that keeps your audience engaged, this is a natural process. Plenty of factors come into play when you experience email atrophy.

This can include contacts moving to different companies, thereby changing their address. However, there is also the possibility that a new email client has entered into the fray. As a result, your audience moves from old email clients such as AOL. Lastly, you could also have unqualified leads. The term speaks for itself, as these are people who either are not interested in your product or just don’t have the money for it.

So as you can see, these are factors any email database will experience and more. So you need to have a strategy in place that helps stimulate your database, helping you maintain most of the audience and adding new people to the mix. But how do you do this? Let’s look at some of your options.

Practice 360 inbound marketing

Your website is one of your most important assets, and inbound marketing can do wonders for the brand. In 2014 alone, marketers cited 45% of their leads as coming from inbound marketing compared to outbound which accounted for 22%. That’s is a considerable amount of leads that can be added to your list. So while email marketing is a very lucrative service, it relies heavily on your other service, including:

SEO – Search engine optimisation or Search Engine Marketing isn’t dead. The tactics have changed, but as long as there is a search engine, your website needs to be optimised for it. This year most marketers are heavily relying on mobile optimisation, as more and more people begin to use their phones to access the World Wide Web in search of information, connecting to their networks and purchasing products.

Social Media – Social networks are were most of your audiences are. So if you’re trying to bring them to you, you should be looking at ways that you can avail yourself to them first. This obviously relies heavily on your content, which we will discuss shortly. However, there are other strategies you will have to implement to ensure that you engage with the audience so that they arrive on your website and subscribe to your email list.

Content Marketing – Whether or not you’re tired of hearing the phrase content is king, it is a fact. It might not be the sole factor contributing to engagement, but it is integral to every other service you provide. It goes beyond just blogging, which means you should start diversifying your content to include new media which allows you to tell a dynamic story your audience wants to listen to over a long period of time. That same story should also be echoed in your emails.

Understand Culture – One discipline most marketers miss out on is understanding the context in which the internet is experienced. This is where most fail to engage their audiences. It’s important for you to look at how those who use networks you’re on experience them. This is highly dependent on cultural, geographical and timely context, among others. Once you understand how people experience the internet according to their environment, you’re more likely to create content that resonates with them.

Build frequency – Marketers who publish up to 11 blogs per month for companies with up to 10 employees, drive much higher traffic than bigger companies that publish less. Most consumers are creatures of habit, therefore they expect the world to behave as they behave. If they regularly see your posts on a Monday in the morning, then you should frequently provide it on a Monday in the morning, because they have come to expect that from you.

Your email list will decay, and there is nothing much you can do to stop it. However, practicing a sound inbound marketing strategy can stimulate more growth, which can help you maintain and increase your email list substantially.