How long should I exclude unengaged email subscribers to improve deliverability?

Summary

To enhance email deliverability, a consensus among marketers, experts, and email platform documentation points towards the critical importance of managing and removing unengaged subscribers. A common timeframe suggested for excluding unengaged subscribers ranges from 3 to 12 months, with 6 months often cited as a beneficial period. A key recommendation is to implement a re-engagement campaign prior to permanent removal, offering incentives for subscribers to opt back in. The experts also emphasize the need for prompt handling of bounced emails, and following RFC standards for opt-out mechanisms.

Key findings

  • Exclusion Timeframe: Excluding unengaged subscribers for 3-12 months, with a focus on 6 months, can significantly improve deliverability.
  • Re-engagement Campaigns: Implementing re-engagement campaigns before permanent removal is a recommended practice.
  • Importance of List Hygiene: Maintaining good list hygiene, including removing unengaged users and handling bounces, is essential for sender reputation.
  • Opt-Out Mechanisms: Providing easy unsubscribe links as per RFC standards helps prevent spam complaints.

Key considerations

  • Define Engagement: Clearly define what constitutes 'unengaged' based on your audience and sending frequency (e.g., no opens or clicks).
  • Handle Bounces Immediately: Implement a process for promptly removing bounced email addresses from your list.
  • Re-engagement Incentives: Offer compelling incentives in your re-engagement campaigns to encourage subscribers to opt back in.
  • Sunset Policy Implementation: Implement a sunset policy to automate the removal of unengaged subscribers after a defined period.

What email marketers say
11Marketer opinions

To improve email deliverability, various email marketers recommend excluding unengaged subscribers from your mailing list. The recommended exclusion periods range from 3 to 12 months, with many suggesting 6 months as a sweet spot. Several sources emphasize the importance of attempting a re-engagement campaign before permanently removing subscribers. Regular list cleaning, segmentation, and implementing a sunset policy are also highlighted as best practices.

Key opinions

  • Exclusion Period: A majority of marketers suggest excluding unengaged subscribers for a period of 3 to 12 months to improve deliverability, with 6 months being a common recommendation.
  • Re-engagement: It's essential to attempt re-engagement campaigns before permanently removing subscribers from the list. Incentivize them with special offers to encourage them to resubscribe.
  • Sunset Policies: Implementing a sunset policy that automatically removes unengaged subscribers after a defined period helps maintain list hygiene and improves sender reputation.
  • List Size Reduction: Excluding subscribers will decrease your list size, resulting in better deliverability and higher engagement from those who remain.

Key considerations

  • Engagement Definition: Define what 'unengaged' means for your specific audience. This could be based on opens, clicks, or a combination of factors. Adjust the timeframe based on sending frequency.
  • Re-engagement Strategy: Develop a compelling re-engagement strategy that offers value and encourages subscribers to take action. Avoid simply re-adding them to regular newsletters.
  • Segmentation: Consider segmenting your list based on engagement levels to target different groups with tailored messaging. Active users should have a different experience from those who are at risk of becoming unengaged.
  • Email Frequency: Adjust the exclusion time depending on how often you send emails, it might also affect how quickly people are unengaged.
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus Blog explains before excluding unengaged subscribers, implement a re-engagement campaign. Send targeted emails with special offers or incentives to encourage them to re-subscribe. If they don't respond after a few attempts, remove them from your active list.

June 2023 - Litmus Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum answers that they typically suppress non-responders after 4-6 months of inactivity. They then try a win-back campaign and if still no response after 1 month, they are removed.

October 2021 - Email Marketing Forum
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that excluding unengaged users is critical for good deliverability, and the user may have to sunset a good portion of them after getting deliverability squared away and implementing a re-engagement campaign. Depending on email frequency, excluding them for shorter than a year might be considered.

April 2022 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog answers that regularly cleaning your email list by removing unengaged subscribers (those who haven't opened or clicked in 6-12 months) is crucial for maintaining a healthy sender reputation. They suggest implementing a sunset policy to automatically remove these contacts.

July 2022 - HubSpot Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor answers that creating a 'sunset policy' is key and helps automatically remove unengaged subscribers. They suggest defining 'unengaged' based on your audience (e.g., no opens in 6-12 months) and setting up a process to automatically remove them.

August 2021 - Campaign Monitor Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares that it's important to first try to re-engage inactive subscribers using targeted campaigns. If they remain unengaged after several attempts over a period of 30-60 days, they should be suppressed to protect sender reputation.

March 2021 - Sendinblue Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit shares that they exclude unengaged subscribers (no opens in 6 months) for at least one quarter (3 months) to see significant improvements in deliverability. They also advise segmenting and targeting based on engagement levels.

August 2023 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid Blog shares that cleaning your email list regularly is essential for maintaining a good sender reputation. They suggest removing subscribers who haven't opened or clicked an email in the last 9-12 months.

November 2024 - Email on Acid Blog
Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks shares it took them about 100 days to go from bad to consistently good reputation on lists of 100-300K by removing all the non-engagers, resulting in a smaller list, better deliverability, and higher engagement.

January 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view

Email marketer from SuperOffice answers that regularly cleaning and segmenting your email list helps reduce spam complaints and improve deliverability. They recommend removing unengaged subscribers who haven't interacted with your emails in the last 6-12 months.

July 2023 - SuperOffice Blog
Marketer view

Email marketer from MailerLite Blog explains that a good practice is to suppress unengaged subscribers for at least 3-6 months. This allows the sender reputation to recover and improve deliverability. They suggest implementing a re-engagement campaign before permanently removing subscribers.

November 2023 - MailerLite Blog

What the experts say
2Expert opinions

Experts emphasize the importance of maintaining good email list hygiene for deliverability. One expert recommends removing unengaged subscribers, generally those inactive for 6-12 months. Another expert highlights the critical need to immediately handle bounced emails by removing or suppressing the addresses. Failure to do so signals poor list hygiene to ISPs and negatively impacts sender reputation and deliverability.

Key opinions

  • List Hygiene Essential: Maintaining a clean email list is critical for good email deliverability.
  • Unengaged Removal (6-12 Months): Subscribers who haven't engaged in 6-12 months should generally be removed to improve deliverability.
  • Bounced Email Handling: Hard bounced emails should be removed or suppressed immediately to avoid damaging your sending reputation.

Key considerations

  • Define 'Engagement': Clearly define what constitutes 'engagement' for your subscribers (opens, clicks, conversions).
  • Prompt Bounce Processing: Implement a system to automatically handle bounced emails in real-time.
  • Varied Timeframe: The optimal timeframe for removing unengaged subscribers can vary, so testing and monitoring results is key.
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise answers that maintaining good list hygiene by regularly removing unengaged subscribers is essential for deliverability. While the exact timeframe varies, removing subscribers who haven't engaged in 6-12 months is generally recommended.

November 2021 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Spamresource details the importance of handling bounced emails immediately and removing the address. They note if you do not remove or suppress hard bounces right away, ISPs will assume you don't care about list hygiene and begin reducing your sending reputation, hurting deliverability.

January 2024 - Spamresource

What the documentation says
3Technical articles

Email deliverability is highly dependent on maintaining an up-to-date email list and actively managing inactive users. Google recommends reducing sending frequency or unsubscribing users who aren't engaging, while Microsoft emphasizes the importance of removing unengaged subscribers for increased deliverability. Providing an easily accessible unsubscribe link is crucial for users to opt-out directly, as detailed in RFC standards, preventing spam reports and improving sender reputation.

Key findings

  • Up-to-Date Lists: Keeping email lists current is crucial for high deliverability.
  • Inactive User Management: Managing unengaged subscribers is important for sending reputation.
  • Easy Unsubscribe Mechanism: Providing a straightforward unsubscribe link is essential to avoid spam complaints.

Key considerations

  • Engagement Metrics: Define specific metrics to identify inactive users (e.g., no opens or clicks).
  • Unsubscribe Process: Ensure the unsubscribe process is simple and efficient for users.
  • Frequency Reduction: Consider reducing sending frequency to unengaged users before completely unsubscribing them.
Technical article

Documentation from RFC-Editor details standards and best practices for email headers. Include an email unsubscribe link so that unengaged users can easily remove themselves without being forced to send your mail straight to the spam folder.

October 2022 - RFC-Editor
Technical article

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that keeping your email list up-to-date and removing inactive users is crucial for maintain high deliverability. If users aren't engaging with your emails, Google recommends reducing the sending frequency or unsubscribing them completely.

December 2023 - Google Postmaster Tools
Technical article

Documentation from Microsoft Docs answers that regularly removing unengaged subscribers can increase deliverability. Microsoft states that mail that is consistently sent to people who don't want it is wasteful and can impact the sending reputation.

January 2022 - Microsoft Docs