Does pruning your email lists help with deliverability?
Summary
What email marketers say14Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Sendinblue shares that pruning inactive subscribers enhances engagement rates, which mailbox providers use to assess sender reputation, directly impacting deliverability and inbox placement.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares an unpublished study, revealing the likelihood of re-engaging users decreases significantly beyond 122 days of inactivity. They advise initiating re-engagement efforts between 60-90 days and pruning after 120 days.
Email marketer from Litmus explains that not pruning your list can lead to deliverability issues, including lower inbox placement rates and increased risk of being blacklisted, impacting your ability to reach engaged subscribers.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that removing contacts without positive engagement signals helps deliverability, as mail filters see a larger percentage of users engaging, leading to more positive filtering decisions.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign states that pruning helps focus your efforts on engaged contacts, improving deliverability and return on investment, by not wasting resources on unengaged recipients.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that segmentation based on engagement should align with the purpose of the emails. Prune non-clickers for emails aimed at driving website visits. However, for emails intended to be read, use less aggressive pruning.
Email marketer from Campaign Monitor advocates for pruning unengaged subscribers after a re-engagement campaign, stating that it helps improve deliverability by focusing on recipients who actively want to receive your emails.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce advises that pruning invalid and inactive emails can significantly improve your sending reputation, resulting in better deliverability rates and more efficient email campaigns.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests assuming that actively subscribed users want to receive emails and promptly unsubscribing them if they request it. He also states that removing subscribers who want your email based on perceived lack of engagement is unlikely to impact deliverability.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests that pruning helps improve your sender score, as it shows email providers that you're only sending emails to people who want them, increasing the chances of your emails landing in the inbox.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that list hygiene through pruning reduces bounce rates and spam complaints. Both impact deliverability and helps keep your sender reputation in good standing with ISPs.
Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog shares that pruning your email list by removing inactive subscribers improves your sender reputation, leading to better deliverability rates as ISPs see you're only sending to engaged users.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that maintaining basic list hygiene, including segmenting non-engagers and running win-back/re-engagement campaigns, is important as a list heavy with unengaged subscribers can negatively influence metrics and trigger filters.
Email marketer from HubSpot explains that cleaning your email list reduces the likelihood of sending to spam traps and disengaged users, thus improving deliverability and protecting your sender reputation.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Email Geeks advises against arbitrary cutoff points for list pruning, suggesting using historical recipient behavior data to make informed decisions.
Expert from Email Geeks warns that mail client engagement metrics differ from what senders see and removing subscribers based on opens or clicks can remove active readers who won't harm deliverability.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that while aggressive pruning based solely on opens/clicks can remove engaged subscribers (due to factors like image blocking), maintaining list hygiene by removing invalid addresses and addressing spam complaints is essential for deliverability.
Expert from Email Geeks explains the importance of retiring non-responders to prevent engagement lags, especially at Gmail, using win-back/re-optin campaigns. This is framed as Subscriber Lifecycle Management, a need for marketing mail.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost shares that a key factor in maintaining good deliverability is regular list hygiene, including removing inactive or invalid email addresses to avoid being flagged as a spammer.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools indicates that maintaining a clean email list with engaged users is crucial for ensuring your emails are delivered to Gmail inboxes, avoiding spam filters.
Documentation from Mailchimp explains that regularly cleaning your email list of unengaged subscribers helps maintain a healthy list, improving deliverability by reducing bounce rates and spam complaints.
Documentation from Microsoft explains that sending emails to active and engaged recipients can positively impact your sender reputation with Outlook, leading to improved deliverability and fewer emails being marked as spam.