Are email list cleaning services useful for improving email deliverability, and how do they work?

Email marketer from Webdew explains that if emails are being sent to many inactive users who do not open or engage with them, ISPs may start to view the sender as a source of unwanted emails. Email List cleaning helps to remove the unwanted emails and therefore helps in maintaining a good sender reputation.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign answers that email list cleaning is important to get rid of old addresses, inactive users and those that could mark emails as spam, which can result in low deliverability and sender reputation.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum user 'EmailPro22' states maintaining consistent list hygiene is essential for sustained deliverability. Regularly cleaning lists to remove bounces and inactive users ensures a higher percentage of emails reach engaged subscribers, improving sender reputation over time.

Email marketer from Litmus shares that cleaning email lists increases ROI by focusing on engaged subscribers, leading to better open rates, click-through rates, and conversions. It ensures that marketing efforts are directed toward those most likely to respond positively.

Email marketer from NeverBounce shares that to clean an email list, you should identify and remove invalid addresses, spam traps, and complainers. This process enhances deliverability and helps avoid penalties from ESPs.

Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailExpert explains that cleaning inactive subscribers is crucial because ISPs use engagement as a key factor in determining deliverability. Removing unengaged users improves the overall sender reputation.

Email marketer from Email Hippo shares that email verification and cleaning can improve deliverability by removing invalid addresses, reducing bounce rates, avoiding spam traps, and protecting sender reputation. This leads to better engagement and ROI.

Email marketer from Hunter.io explains that list cleaning allows for identifying and removing addresses that are invalid, disposable, role-based, or likely to generate spam complaints, thus improving deliverability and sender reputation.

Email marketer from Wordable explains that the core promise of list cleaning services is better email deliverability, reaching more inboxes and less spam folders.

Expert from Email Geeks says list cleaning services are a waste of money. if you’ve mailed the polluted list one time you’ve done the bulk of the work they do.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that if a list got polluted, you need to get rid of all the pollution, not just fish out the giant turds floating in the pond. And if you fish out the giant turds do you still want to drink the punch?

Expert from Email Geeks says Kickbox is the only vendor in the space that’s convinced me they’re not unethical scum. (They’ve not convinced me that they’re actually going to benefit their users in many cases, but they’ll do minimal harm to anyone other than their customer and potential users of the service are usually happy to accept “this might not help a lot, or even at all”).

Expert from Email Geeks explains that that doesn’t mean the data they provide is entirely useless, but using it to remove emails from the list isn’t going to help with underlying issues.

Expert from Word to the Wise states if a list got polluted, you need to get rid of all the pollution, not just fish out the giant turds floating in the pond. If you fish out the giant turds do you still want to drink the punch?

Expert from Email Geeks shares I spent an hour on the phone with Jack before they launched talking about their goals and what they were doing and how they were doing it and their company philosophy. I’ve talked with (and consulted for) a number of other vendors in the space (there was a point they were getting blocked for abusive behavior and wanted help getting unblocked and came to me).

Expert from Email Geeks states list cleaning cannot help with a fundamentally strong list that got polluted.

Expert from Email Geeks states list cleaning cannot help with a fundamentally strong list that got polluted.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that list cleaning services are not going to get a sender out of a hole, though it may hide some of the symptoms for a while.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that the point of list cleansing services is take a list that’s been gathered badly and will cause problems and remove the most obvious signals that you can use to identify those problems. Once it’s done your list is still bad, but you’ve hidden the data that you, or your ESP, might use to diagnose that.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains the point of list cleansing services is to take a list that’s been gathered badly and will cause problems and remove the most obvious signals that you can use to identify those problems. Once it’s done your list is still bad, but you’ve hidden the data that you, or your ESP, might use to diagnose that.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that it is possible to clean a polluted list, but it’s something you do with audit data analysis, statistics, ongoing deliverabilty efforts and a willingness to carve out chunks with a vigorous machete. It’s not something you can do by sending a CSV and three grand in non-sequential bills to a list cleansing vendor.

Expert from Word to the Wise shares that bounces are a signal that your list collection practices are getting inaccurate data. List washing bounces removes the signal. It does not fix the fact that your data is inaccurate.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that many of the providers are abusive in their tactics (buying data from ESPs who have told GDPR they are not data controllers or actual spammers or doing partial SMTP transactions). Some of the providers outright lie.

Expert from Email Geeks says list cleaning is useful if it’s “no legit ESP will mail my lists because they bounce”. But if it’s more like what you’d think of as “will it make my legit, not terrible email programme healthier and more effective?“, probably not.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that I’ve never recommended them to any client and have never needed that information to actually clean up a list.

Documentation from ZeroBounce explains that email verification improves deliverability by removing invalid and risky email addresses, reducing bounce rates, and preventing spam complaints. This helps maintain a positive sender reputation.

Documentation from Kickbox states that the email verification process involves syntax checks, domain validation, mailbox existence verification, and spam trap detection to ensure deliverability and improve sender reputation.

Documentation from Mailchimp recommends using a email list cleaning service to identify and remove invalid, inactive, or high-risk contacts can greatly improve deliverability rates and engagement metrics. This helps reduce bounce rates and spam complaints, leading to a healthier list and better campaign performance.

Documentation from SendGrid explains that list cleaning removes invalid, inactive, or harmful email addresses, reducing bounce rates and spam complaints, which are key factors in maintaining a good sender reputation and improving deliverability.