What are the best practices for sunsetting inactive email subscribers to improve deliverability?

Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares that a best practice is to define what 'inactive' means for your business (e.g., no opens in 6 months) and then implement a re-engagement campaign before fully removing subscribers. This gives them a chance to opt-in again, preserving valuable leads while cleaning your list.

Email marketer from Reddit user u/EmailExpert explains that sunsetting inactives is crucial, especially if you're noticing deliverability issues. They recommend segmenting your list and sending a final re-engagement campaign with a clear opt-out option. Those who don't respond should be removed to protect your sender reputation.

Email marketer from Email Geeks advises to take a step back and ask if sunsetting is addressing the real issue of why people aren’t engaging. Suggests evaluating content relevance, deliverability, and audience needs before cutting inactive emails, as some "silent readers" might still value the information.

Email marketer from Email on Acid Blog shares that segmenting your list by engagement level allows you to tailor your messaging and send re-engagement campaigns to those who are fading away. Those who don't respond to the re-engagement campaign should be suppressed, as they're likely hurting your deliverability.

Email marketer from Email Geeks advises segmenting inactive subscribers to assess their value, considering their low engagement rates and the potential negative impact on sender reputation. He suggests excluding inactives, drawing the line based on cost-benefit analysis, e.g., subscribers who haven't opened the last 100 emails are probably not worth keeping.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign Blog shares that list hygiene, including sunsetting inactive subscribers, is crucial for maintaining a healthy email program. Set up automation to segment and identify inactives, implement win-back campaigns, and automatically remove contacts who don't engage.

Email marketer from GMass Blog explains that regularly purging unengaged subscribers will reduce bounce rates, spam complaints, and unsubscribes, ultimately improving your sender reputation. They suggest implementing a sunset policy that automatically removes inactive contacts after a certain period of time.

Email marketer from Vertical Response Blog stresses that inactive subscribers can negatively impact your email marketing metrics and deliverability. Recommends sending a win-back campaign before removing them from your list, offering incentives or special offers to encourage re-engagement.

Email marketer from Email Geeks agrees that mailing inactives can negatively impact engagement but the argument with retail marketers often is on the cost of retention versus acquiring a new customer. Advises that a more practical approach is to perform a list cleanse before diving deep into mailing your inactive files and strategically limit your sends. For example, segment seasonal shoppers and perennial inactives, targeting each group separately.

Email marketer from HubSpot Blog suggests implementing a sunset policy that automatically unsubscribes contacts who haven't engaged within a specific timeframe. This practice not only improves deliverability but also helps you stay compliant with data privacy regulations like GDPR.

Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog states that regularly cleaning your email list and sunsetting inactive subscribers is essential for maintaining high engagement rates. He suggests sending targeted re-engagement emails with incentives to encourage subscribers to re-opt-in before removing them.

Email marketer from MailerLite Blog explains that sunsetting inactive subscribers involves identifying and removing subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails for a certain period. This helps improve deliverability by reducing bounce rates and spam complaints, signaling to ISPs that you're sending to an engaged audience.

Marketer from Email Geeks suggests segmenting active and inactive subscribers to highlight the ineffectiveness of mailing to both. He emphasizes that recovering from a bad reputation is significantly harder than maintaining a good one proactively.

Email marketer from Litmus Blog emphasizes that a proactive approach to list hygiene, including sunsetting inactive subscribers, is crucial for maintaining a healthy email program. They recommend implementing a clear sunset policy and communicating it to subscribers, so they understand why they're being removed if they don't engage.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that sunsetting inactive subscribers boosts engagement, which in turn boosts inbox delivery chances, especially at Gmail. He says focusing on cost savings over deliverability and list health is misguided.

Expert from Wordtothewise.com, Laura Atkins, explains that engagement (opens and clicks) is a key factor in determining deliverability. Low engagement, particularly from a large segment of your list, signals to mailbox providers that your emails are not wanted. Sunset inactive subscribers to improve this signal.

Expert from Wordtothewise.com shares that many email programs fail due to poor list management. This includes failing to remove inactive subscribers. Regular list cleaning and sunsetting policies are essential for maintaining a healthy and successful email program.

Expert from Spamresource.com explains that good list hygiene, including removing unengaged subscribers, directly impacts deliverability. Sending to a list full of old, unengaged addresses will hurt your sending reputation and increase the likelihood of being blocked or sent to the spam folder.

Expert from Email Geeks notes that non-engaged subscribers can negatively impact the deliverability of engaged subscribers, potentially leading to financial consequences.

Expert from Email Geeks strongly supports sunsetting and suppressing inactive subscribers after a short win-back series for deliverability, cost savings, and future revenue protection.

Documentation from SparkPost Documentation highlights the importance of maintaining a clean email list for optimal deliverability. They advise regularly identifying and removing inactive subscribers to avoid being penalized by ISPs and improve your sender reputation.

Documentation from Validity Knowledge Base advises to monitor engagement metrics closely and set up automated processes to suppress or remove inactive subscribers. This helps maintain a healthy sender score and ensures that your emails are reaching the intended recipients.

Documentation from Microsoft Docs emphasizes the importance of list hygiene for maintaining a good sender reputation. They advise regularly removing invalid or inactive email addresses to avoid being flagged as a spammer, which can severely impact deliverability across all email platforms.

Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that maintaining a clean email list by removing inactive users significantly improves your sender reputation. Google recommends regularly pruning your list to only include engaged users, leading to better inbox placement and deliverability rates.