Making sure your emails get to their intended audience could be as simple as asking for a second address. Here's advice from Premiere Global Services.

In a perfect eMarketing world, everyone would have just one email address that they keep forever. But the world's not perfect.

With growing restrictions on personal email communications allowed in the workplace coupled with the fact that individuals are segregating their ever-increasing stream of work and personal emails, more often than not the general "email" population has more than one email address being checked on a regular basis. Let’s not forget, with job lifespan ranging anywhere from 1.5 to three years, that email address you are delivering to today may bounce tomorrow.

When registering new users as well as when updating current users' information, these are ideal times to ask for a secondary email address. Primary and secondary email address collection during the registration process enables you to extend the lifecycle of the customer in the case that the primary email address becomes inactive or invalid. You worked hard for that subscription; just how much is that email address worth to your organization?

Setting your strategy
So how do you leverage a secondary email address? Simple, manage and monitor your soft and hard bounces for your email campaigns. How you address a secondary email address depends on the type of bounce and the threshold for the frequency of bounces that you have established. One strategy is to send a simple message addressed to a users' alternate email address requesting an update of his current information. This can extend the lifestyle of your customer and help continually develop the relationship that you already have established with the recipient.

For new registrants: Incorporate changes to your current registration form that asks for both a primary and secondary email address. Registration best practices include: have the user retype the email address to ensure accuracy; utilize the double opt-in; and make the secondary optional for those who only have one email. Reference appropriate copy that informs the registrants that if their primary email address becomes invalid or undeliverable that you will reach out to them to confirm their email/account preferences to ensure they keep receiving their requested communications.

For existing opted-in members: By setting your strategy for re-contacting and re-confirming emails, you can design your message based on your predetermined bounce and threshold timeline. Monitor your hard bounces and examine those primary email addresses that are non-deliverable. Based on the frequency of your sending pattern, this examination period may be just a few weeks or a couple of months.

A rule of thumb is three hard bounces within 60 days and the email is no longer deliverable. Construct an easily identifiable message that is in line with your current branding standards to ensure recipients easily recognize the familiar messaging they have received in the past. With password protected sites, populating their old/invalid email address within the message will help them easily login and make the corrected changes. Including a "forgot password" link that sends authentication information to the alternate email address is necessary as well. (Of course, the above strategy does not include those subscribers/customers who have chosen to opt-out of future communications from your organization.)

Accurate email address aside, reaching out to your opted-in membership base with a review of its current account subscriptions/email settings will keep your data up-to-date and show a responsibility as a reputable email marketer. These update messages can be included in any or all of your email campaigns as a simple call out to allow users to verify their information.

Final notes
Keep your strategy simple and achievable, set specific timelines and monitor the process along the way to ensure that your email recipients remain engaged and your messages are delivered for each campaign. Make changes as needed. Two is better than one: emails that is. Why risk losing a valuable customer just because her email address changes? Your product or services could soon be forgotten.

Chris Lovejoy is account executive, strategic services, Premiere Global Services, eMarketing Solutions. Read full bio.