What are best practices for managing bounced, unsubscribed, and spam-complaint users in email marketing?

Email marketer from Sinch Email (formerly Email on Acid) shares that using double opt-in can reduce bounce rates and spam complaints, as it ensures that subscribers genuinely want to receive your emails.

Email marketer from Litmus responds that implementing a sunset policy to stop emailing inactive subscribers after a certain period can improve engagement metrics and overall deliverability.

Email Marketer from Email Geeks supports keeping bounced/spam reported/unsubscribed users to prevent re-subscription issues when switching platforms if source data isn't updated.

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that maintaining a suppression list of unsubscribed users and those who have marked emails as spam is critical to avoid sending unwanted emails and potential legal issues.

Marketer from Email Geeks shares to suppress users who bounced or complained about spam, and if they re-subscribe via double opt-in, honor it. Maintaining a record is a good practice and may be legally required, so consulting a legal team is advised.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that using segmentation to send targeted and relevant emails to specific groups of subscribers can reduce unsubscribes and spam complaints by improving engagement.

Email marketer from Sendinblue shares that unsubscribed users should be automatically suppressed from future mailings to comply with regulations and maintain a good sender reputation.

Email marketer from HubSpot responds that spam complaints should be immediately removed from your mailing list to avoid damaging your sender reputation and potential blacklisting.

Marketer from Email Geeks explains that deleting records is generally a bad practice, as archiving is easy and inexpensive, and deleting can allow bad data back in.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that regular list cleaning, including removing bounced addresses and unsubscribed users, is essential for maintaining a healthy sender reputation and improving email deliverability.

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor responds that offering a preference center allows subscribers to manage the types of emails they receive, reducing the likelihood of unsubscribes and spam complaints.

Email marketer from Mailchimp explains that hard bounces should be immediately removed from your list as they indicate an invalid email address, while soft bounces can be retried a few times before removal.

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that when processing bounces, make sure you’re handling both hard bounces and soft bounces appropriately. Hard bounces should be immediately removed from the list while soft bounces may warrant a retry or two before permanent removal.

Expert from Email Geeks suggests using a data format for suppression lists that prevents sending emails based on the data and doesn't contain PII, such as hashes, instead of subscriber list-like formats.

Expert from Email Geeks shares a counter argument that Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is like toxic waste, being risky and expensive to protect, thus minimizing the amount needed is prudent, while considering operational and legal needs.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that a few unsubscribe -> resubscribe instances through DOI are unlikely to be noticed by Gmail unless it's a significant number or they start complaining.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that you need to keep unsubscribe data forever and be careful not to email them again. They share about a case where a company that accidentally emailed unsubscribed users had to pay a fine of $7,000,000.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that email providers like Yahoogle cannot tell if a user resubscribed and primarily focus on user happiness. Sending emails without consent after an unsubscribe can lead to spam reports.

Documentation from RFC 5321 explains that SMTP servers should provide accurate bounce messages (Delivery Status Notifications) to inform senders of delivery failures, allowing for automated bounce processing.

Documentation from IETF RFC 8058 responds that implementing List-Unsubscribe headers (both mailto: and HTTP) is a best practice to allow recipients to easily unsubscribe from mailing lists, improving user experience and sender reputation.

Documentation from Validity (formerly Return Path) explains the importance of using feedback loops to automatically receive spam complaints from mailbox providers, allowing for immediate removal of complainers from your list.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools shares that monitoring spam rates in Postmaster Tools is crucial to identify and address issues leading to spam complaints. High spam rates can negatively impact deliverability to Gmail users.