What are the issues with sending email updates to very old email lists?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that old lists likely contain inactive or uninterested subscribers. Sending to these lists can negatively impact engagement metrics, affecting future deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum notes that many email addresses on old lists are likely to be honeypots, designed to catch spammers. Sending to these can lead to immediate blacklisting.
Email marketer from Sendinblue responds that engaging with an outdated list can lead to being blocked by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) due to recipients reporting your emails as spam. They advise cleaning the list before using it.
Marketer from Email Geeks gets similar emails long after forgetting about the product or assuming the company failed. Blames "Lean Startup" methodology for irritating pivots and lack of customer attention.
Email marketer from HubSpot responds that sending to outdated lists can harm your sender score, which is a measure of your reputation with ISPs. A lower sender score makes it more likely your emails will be filtered to spam.
Email marketer from Reddit explains that sending to an old list can cause you to be flagged as a spammer by ESPs. They recommend warming up the list slowly if you decide to email it.
Marketer from Email Geeks notes that update emails often fail to explain what the company does, and there is no link back to the main site.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that sending to an old list negatively impacts email engagement metrics. Low open rates and click-through rates signal to ISPs that your emails are not valuable.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that emailing old lists can hurt your sender reputation, leading to lower deliverability rates. He advises cleaning the list first.
Email marketer from Mailchimp responds that sending to old lists increases bounce rates and spam complaints. They strongly recommend regular list cleaning and reconfirmation of subscribers.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spamresource explains that sending to very old lists invites spam complaints. People forget they signed up, or their preferences change. High complaint rates lead to deliverability problems.
Expert from Word to the Wise responds that sending email to an old list is a tricky situation. If you haven't mailed them in a long time, you should verify the addresses.
Expert from Email Geeks shares experience of receiving a product update email six years after creating an account and suggests the company might want to review their email policy. Mentions that deliverability-adjacent company is in the email space and Laura knows a founder and at least one of senior management.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools explains that high spam rates from old lists can damage your domain reputation, leading to emails being filtered to spam folders for all recipients. Google recommends monitoring spam rates and removing unresponsive subscribers.
Documentation from Spamhaus shares that sending to old email lists can result in being added to their blocklists, which prevents your emails from reaching a large portion of recipients. Maintaining list hygiene is crucial.
Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that sending to old lists violates their acceptable use policy. It can lead to suspension of your sending privileges due to high bounce and complaint rates.
Documentation from Microsoft responds that sending to old lists can trigger spam filters due to outdated information and high complaint rates. They advise implementing a double opt-in process and regularly cleaning your subscriber list.
Documentation from RFC Editor describes technical issues: sending emails to old addresses result in high bounce rates. A high number of bounces will cause delays due to other mail servers throttling email speeds from that source as the server marks the IP address as potentially sending spam.