How can I safely message inactive email addresses without damaging my sender reputation?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit shares a practical strategy. The redditor suggests to begin warming up the inactive emails. Segment them into smaller groups and send them emails with high open rates in your regular campaigns. If a few convert you can target more.
Email marketer from Mailjet explains that a re-engagement campaign is crucial before sending to inactive subscribers. The marketer suggests segmenting inactive users and crafting targeted messaging to entice them to re-engage, offering incentives or highlighting what they've missed.
Email marketer from Sendinblue advises gradually re-engaging inactive contacts by sending targeted re-engagement emails in small batches. Monitor the response rates and adjust the approach based on performance to avoid harming your sender reputation.
Email marketer from Email Geeks adds that 180 days of inactivity in the current year may not indicate traditional disengagement due to the pandemic affecting email access habits.
Email marketer from Warrior Forum recommends using win-back campaigns. Target inactive subscribers with a series of emails designed to incentivize them to re-engage with your brand. If they don't respond after a few attempts, remove them from your list.
Email marketer from Litmus advocates for having a sunset policy. Litmus says a sunset policy defines when and how you'll stop emailing inactive subscribers. They suggest sending a final re-engagement attempt before removing them to maintain list quality and protect deliverability.
Email marketer from HubSpot explains the need to regularly clean your email list, removing inactive or unengaged subscribers, improving deliverability and reducing the risk of being marked as spam.
Email marketer from Neil Patel advises segmenting your email list based on activity. Target inactive users with specific campaigns aimed at re-engagement or removal from the list to protect sender reputation.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that list segmentation is key. Divide inactive subscribers into smaller segments to test different re-engagement strategies, tailoring your approach for better response rates.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid emphasizes obtaining explicit permission and consent. Ensure subscribers have actively opted-in to receive emails from you. Sending to inactive users without recent consent can harm your reputation and lead to deliverability problems.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource advises email marketers segment their email lists based on subscriber activity and actively suppress inactive email addresses from regular campaigns. Inactive addresses may report your email as spam and negatively impact sender reputation.
Expert from Email Geeks shares advice on sending in waves, suggesting adding no more than 10% volume to any given day and sending around the same time as usual campaigns. Matt advises segmenting by inactivity duration (e.g., 181-220 days, 221-250 days, etc.) or alternatively, adding no more than 10% of the active list to the win-back/sunset campaign.
Expert from Word to the Wise, Laura Atkins, explains the importance of having a sunset policy for inactive subscribers. She suggests defining a period of inactivity (e.g., 6-12 months) and sending a final re-engagement campaign before removing them from your list to protect your sender reputation.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that he damaged his company's reputation on two platforms by sending the same message to inactive addresses, even after revalidating them, and it took months to recover.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that a single email send *can* harm sender reputation. Matt suggests a "We miss you" or sunset email campaign and suggests sending to small segments blended in with regular sends, limiting sends to addresses inactive for less than 365 days, and using a sunset drip campaign to win back users before cutting them loose.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from SparkPost explains the importance of list hygiene. Sending to a large number of inactive addresses can lead to deliverability issues. They recommend regularly cleaning your list by removing unengaged subscribers and those who hard bounce or unsubscribe.
Documentation from Microsoft emphasizes the importance of maintaining a good sender reputation. Sending emails to inactive addresses can negatively impact your reputation. Microsoft recommends regularly cleaning your email lists and implementing a confirmed opt-in process.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains to make sure you implement proper email authentication methods such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This will help improve your sender reputation and ensure your emails are delivered to the inbox rather than the spam folder. This will benefit emails to active and inactive emails.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that AWS highlights the importance of handling bounces effectively. Regularly monitor and remove hard bounces from your email list to prevent deliverability issues. Sending to invalid email addresses harms sender reputation. This is important with inactive emails that may no longer exist.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains monitoring your spam rate is critical. Sending to inactive users increases the risk of spam complaints. If spam rates are high, it recommends reducing sending frequency or improving list hygiene.