How do I recover email deliverability after sending to a purchased list?

Summary

Recovering email deliverability after sending to a purchased list requires a comprehensive approach that includes technical adjustments, list hygiene, and a strong focus on permission practices. Experts and marketers overwhelmingly advise abandoning the purchased list and focusing on engaged, permissioned subscribers. Email authentication methods (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are essential, as is monitoring your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score. Cleaning your list by removing unengaged subscribers, invalid addresses, and spam complaints is critical. Gradual IP warm-up, consistent sending schedules, and subscribing to feedback loops will help rebuild your sender reputation. Maintaining a suppression list and emphasizing double opt-in for new subscribers are crucial for preventing future deliverability problems. Finally, avoid purchasing lists in the future and potentially cease relationships with those who continue to do so.

Key findings

  • Abandon Purchased List: Immediately stop using the purchased list and focus on engaged, permissioned subscribers.
  • List Hygiene is Critical: Removing invalid addresses, spam traps, and unengaged users prevents high bounce rates and spam complaints.
  • Reputation Monitoring: Actively monitor sender reputation with tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score to identify issues early.
  • Authentication is Key: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC verifies your identity and prevents spoofing, improving deliverability.
  • Engagement Matters: Sending engaging content to a highly engaged segment boosts your domain reputation.
  • Permission Practices: Focus on building an opt-in list to avoid problems in the first place.

Key considerations

  • Suppression List Strategy: Determine whether to suppress or completely delete the purchased list. Deletion offers greater safety from accidental sending.
  • Long-Term Investment: Rebuilding sender reputation takes time and consistent effort. Be patient and persistent with your efforts.
  • Prevent Future Issues: Avoid purchasing email lists in the future and enforce strict permission practices.
  • Re-engagement campaigns: Consider win-back emails to try and revive unresponsive subscribers.

What email marketers say
11Marketer opinions

Recovering email deliverability after sending to a purchased list requires a multi-faceted approach. Experts and marketers emphasize the importance of cleaning your email list by removing unengaged subscribers, invalid addresses, and spam complaints, and building a comprehensive suppression list. Improving and monitoring your sender reputation, bounce rates, and engagement metrics using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score is vital. Sending engaging content to a smaller, highly engaged segment, maintaining a consistent sending schedule, and subscribing to feedback loops are also key. Moreover, preventing accidental mailings by maintaining suppression lists and implementing proper permission practices are critical.

Key opinions

  • List Hygiene: Removing unengaged subscribers, invalid addresses, and spam traps is essential for improving deliverability.
  • Reputation Monitoring: Actively monitoring sender reputation and bounce rates helps identify and address deliverability issues.
  • Engagement Focus: Sending engaging content to a highly engaged segment improves domain reputation and deliverability.
  • Suppression Lists: Building and maintaining a robust suppression list prevents accidental mailings to unwanted recipients.
  • Consistent Sending: Maintaining a consistent sending schedule and volume establishes a predictable sending pattern with ISPs.
  • Feedback Loops: Subscribing to feedback loops provides reports of spam complaints, allowing for quick issue resolution.

Key considerations

  • Email Verification: Employ an email validation service to verify email addresses to remove invalid or risky recipients from your mailing list.
  • Re-engagement Campaigns: Implement re-engagement campaigns to win back inactive subscribers before removing them from the list.
  • Prevention: Ensuring addresses are removed to prevent accidental mailings by maintaining suppression lists and implementing proper permission practices is critical.
  • Reputation Recovery: It takes time to recover your sending reputation after using purchased lists. Be patient and consistent with your efforts to improve deliverability.
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit shares that you need to focus on improving your domain reputation by sending engaging content to a smaller, highly engaged segment of your list. This helps demonstrate to ISPs that your emails are wanted.

April 2023 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum says to keep an eye on your bounce rates and take steps to reduce them. High bounce rates can negatively impact your sender reputation and deliverability.

February 2022 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Email marketer from Gmass tells to maintain a consistent sending schedule and volume to establish a predictable sending pattern with ISPs. Sudden spikes in volume can trigger spam filters.

January 2024 - Gmass
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailjet recommends removing unengaged subscribers and those who have marked your emails as spam. Regularly cleaning your list helps improve your sender reputation and deliverability.

September 2021 - Mailjet
Marketer view

Email marketer from EmailGeeks Forum shares that if available to you, subscribing to feedback loops (FBLs) with major ISPs allows you to receive reports of spam complaints from your subscribers, which helps you identify and address issues that are causing people to mark your emails as spam.

November 2024 - EmailGeeks Forum
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests keeping problematic addresses on the platform in a state that prevents accidental mailing, to avoid mistakes like an "intern" uploading the wrong list.

May 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from EmailToolTester suggests building and maintaining a robust suppression list that includes unsubscribes, hard bounces, and spam complaints. This prevents you from accidentally emailing people who don't want to receive your messages.

March 2023 - EmailToolTester
Marketer view

Email marketer from GlockApps states to use an email list validation service to identify and remove invalid, inactive, or spam trap email addresses from your list. This helps reduce bounce rates and improve your sending reputation.

February 2022 - GlockApps
Marketer view

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor recommends implementing re-engagement campaigns to try to win back inactive subscribers. This can help you identify and remove unengaged subscribers from your list, improving deliverability.

April 2024 - Campaign Monitor
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus says to actively monitor your sender reputation using tools like Sender Score or Google Postmaster Tools. Address any issues that are negatively impacting your reputation, such as spam complaints or blacklistings.

March 2022 - Litmus
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Geeks shares it’s not only not right, it’s a net loss, hindering the ability to reach people who want to hear from you, interfering with relationships with customers and real prospects.

December 2023 - Email Geeks

What the experts say
7Expert opinions

Recovering email deliverability after using a purchased list involves several critical steps. Experts recommend abandoning the purchased list entirely, focusing instead on engaged and permissioned subscribers. Suppressing or deleting the list prevents further damage from spam traps and accidental sends. Monitoring sender reputation using tools like Return Path's Sender Score and Microsoft's SNDS is vital. Prioritizing permission practices, particularly double opt-in, helps ensure recipients genuinely want your emails and avoids future deliverability issues. Furthermore, continuing to purchase lists after being advised against it signals a lack of commitment to ethical emailing practices and may warrant ending the relationship.

Key opinions

  • Abandon Purchased List: The purchased list should be abandoned completely, prioritizing engaged and permissioned subscribers.
  • Spam Trap Suppression: Suppressing addresses that triggered spam traps is crucial to avoid further damage to sender reputation.
  • Sender Reputation Monitoring: Actively monitor sender reputation with tools like Return Path's Sender Score and Microsoft's SNDS.
  • Permission Practices: Focus on permission practices, especially double opt-in, to ensure recipients genuinely want emails.

Key considerations

  • List Removal Strategy: Determine whether to suppress or completely delete the purchased list. Deletion reduces risk of accidental sends.
  • Ethical Emailing: Refrain from purchasing further email lists after initial issues, and consider terminating relationships with those who continue this practice.
  • Reputation Repair: Repair of sender reputation may be long. Focus on building legitimate, high-quality mailing lists for improved future deliverability.
  • Long-Term Deliverability: Implement double opt-in from the start as the most secure way to ensure you only send email to users who actively want to receive it and help avoid deliverability problems associated with purchased lists.
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource warns that using purchased lists is almost always a bad idea because the recipients did not explicitly request to receive emails from you. This can lead to low engagement, high bounce rates, and spam complaints, all of which negatively impact your deliverability.

May 2021 - Spam Resource
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks recommends burning the entire purchased list and focusing on recently engaged and properly permissioned email addresses to help the domain reputation rebound.

March 2025 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks suggests deleting the purchased list entirely rather than just suppressing it, to avoid accidental sends to the suppression list.

September 2022 - Email Geeks
Expert view

Expert from Spam Resource explains that hitting spam traps is a significant issue after using a purchased list. They recommend immediately suppressing the addresses that triggered the traps from all future mailings to avoid further damaging your sender reputation.

November 2022 - Spam Resource
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that it's important to actively monitor your sender reputation using tools like Return Path's Sender Score or Microsoft's SNDS. These tools provide insights into how mailbox providers view your sending practices and can help you identify and address any issues that are impacting your deliverability.

February 2023 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that focusing on permission practices is crucial, and using double opt-in is the most secure way to ensure you only send email to users who actively want to receive it. Using double opt-in from the start helps avoid deliverability problems associated with purchased lists.

September 2023 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks advises to end relationship with people who purchase more lists after being told not to.

June 2023 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says
6Technical articles

Recovering email deliverability after sending to a purchased list requires a focus on technical best practices. Key actions include monitoring your sending reputation with Google Postmaster Tools, warming up your IP address gradually with engaged subscribers, and implementing email authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Close monitoring of engagement metrics, such as open and click-through rates, is essential for detecting deliverability issues. Furthermore, implementing SPF records in your DNS settings and adopting a DMARC policy will significantly protect your domain from unauthorized use and improve deliverability to major email providers.

Key findings

  • Reputation Monitoring: Use Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your sending reputation and address issues affecting deliverability.
  • IP Warm-up: Gradually warm up your IP address by sending small volumes of emails to engaged subscribers.
  • Email Authentication: Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify your identity and improve deliverability.
  • Engagement Metrics: Monitor engagement metrics like open and click-through rates to identify and resolve deliverability issues.
  • SPF Records: Implement SPF records in your DNS settings to prevent email spoofing and improve deliverability.
  • DMARC Policy: Adopt a DMARC policy to protect your domain from unauthorized use and enhance email security.

Key considerations

  • Implementation Complexity: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC requires technical expertise and careful configuration.
  • Monitoring Frequency: Regularly monitor your sending reputation and engagement metrics to promptly address any deliverability issues.
  • Patience: Recovering from the negative impact of purchased lists on deliverability can take time and consistent effort.
  • Long-term strategy: Treat this as an opportunity to implement email infrastructure best practices.
Technical article

Documentation from Google explains to use Google Postmaster Tools to monitor your sending reputation and identify issues affecting deliverability, such as spam complaints or authentication failures. They suggest fixing these issues based on the feedback from the tools.

November 2024 - Google
Technical article

Documentation from SparkPost advises to monitor your engagement metrics (open rates, click-through rates, etc.) closely. Low engagement can indicate deliverability issues, so it's important to identify and address any problems.

February 2022 - SparkPost
Technical article

Documentation from Microsoft emphasizes that senders can make sure that they are adhering to best practices for sending email. Implement authentication methods such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify your identity and improve deliverability to Outlook.com users.

January 2022 - Microsoft
Technical article

Documentation from RFC shares that implementing SPF (Sender Policy Framework) records in your DNS settings helps prevent email spoofing and improves deliverability by verifying that the emails are being sent from authorized servers.

July 2021 - RFC
Technical article

Documentation from Sendgrid emphasizes the importance of warming up your IP address gradually. This involves starting with small volumes of emails to your most engaged subscribers and gradually increasing the volume over time to build a positive sending reputation.

August 2023 - Sendgrid
Technical article

Documentation from dmarc.org advises using DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) policy to protect your domain from unauthorized use, commonly known as email spoofing. It's built on top of SPF and DKIM to add an extra layer of authentication and reporting.

October 2024 - dmarc.org