Will suppression lists prevent transactional emails from being delivered?

Summary

The overwhelming consensus from experts, marketers, and email service provider documentation is that suppression lists prevent transactional emails from being delivered. These lists, which contain addresses that have unsubscribed, hard bounced, or marked emails as spam, are designed to protect sender reputation and ensure compliance. Sending any type of email, including transactional messages, to addresses on a suppression list is detrimental to deliverability and can lead to penalties, including blacklisting. Maintaining proper list hygiene and honoring suppression lists are crucial for successful email marketing.

Key findings

  • Universal Suppression: Suppression lists generally apply to all types of email, including transactional messages.
  • Reputation Damage: Sending emails to addresses on suppression lists harms sender reputation and deliverability.
  • Compliance Requirement: Honoring unsubscribe requests and suppression lists is essential for compliance and ethical email marketing.
  • Automated Blocking: Many ESPs automatically add bounced or unsubscribed addresses to suppression lists and block future sends.

Key considerations

  • List Management: Implement rigorous list management practices to maintain a clean and up-to-date suppression list.
  • Transactional Policy: Ensure transactional email systems are configured to respect suppression lists.
  • ESP Configuration: Understand how your ESP handles suppression and verify that it's properly configured.
  • Reactivation Process: Establish a clear process for reactivating addresses that have been suppressed when appropriate.
  • Regular Checks: Periodically review suppression lists to ensure accuracy and effectiveness.

What email marketers say
9Marketer opinions

The consensus among email marketers is that suppression lists prevent transactional emails from being delivered. These lists contain contacts who have unsubscribed, hard bounced, or marked emails as spam. Sending any email, including transactional ones, to these addresses can harm sender reputation, lead to deliverability issues, and potentially result in blacklisting. Maintaining good list hygiene and respecting suppression lists are crucial for email marketing success.

Key opinions

  • Suppression Impact: Suppression lists block transactional emails to maintain compliance and protect sender reputation.
  • Reputation Risk: Sending transactional emails to suppressed addresses damages sender reputation and increases the risk of being marked as spam.
  • Compliance: Honoring suppression lists ensures compliance with opt-out requests and improves overall deliverability.
  • List Hygiene: Maintaining a clean email list by promptly adding unsubscribes, bounces, and spam complaints to suppression lists is essential.

Key considerations

  • Programmatic Checks: Implement programmatic checks to ensure no emails are sent to addresses on the suppression list.
  • ESP Verification: Verify that your ESP automatically handles suppression and suppresses transactional emails appropriately.
  • Sender Reputation: Prioritize sender reputation by regularly cleaning and maintaining your email list to avoid deliverability problems.
  • Transactional Email Handling: Ensure all unsubscribe requests are honoured, and not sending further transactional emails to these contacts.
Marketer view

Email marketer from HubSpot responds that suppression lists are critical for maintaining email marketing health. If an email address is on the suppression list (due to unsubscribe, bounce, or spam complaint), all emails, including transactional ones, should be suppressed. This helps maintain a positive sender reputation.

October 2021 - HubSpot
Marketer view

Email marketer from Litmus responds that a good email list hygiene involves respecting unsubscribes and suppression lists. Continuing to send transactional emails to suppressed addresses can damage your reputation and get you blocklisted. Always check your suppression list before sending any email.

March 2022 - Litmus
Marketer view

Email marketer from Reddit explains that suppression lists absolutely affect transactional emails. If someone unsubscribes or hard bounces, they shouldn't receive any email, even order confirmations. Ignoring suppression lists leads to deliverability problems and potential blacklisting.

October 2024 - Reddit
Marketer view

Email marketer from Mailjet shares that a suppression list contains contacts who should not receive emails. This includes transactional emails. Mailjet emphasizes the importance of respecting these preferences to maintain a good sender reputation and avoid being marked as spam.

October 2023 - Mailjet
Marketer view

Email marketer from StackOverflow shares that you must respect the suppression list for all email types, including transactional ones. Programmatically, check the list before sending any email. Some ESPs automatically handle this, but it's essential to verify.

February 2022 - StackOverflow
Marketer view

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign shares that suppression lists ensure deliverability by preventing emails to recipients who have opted out or experienced issues. Transactional emails are also included in this suppression to comply with opt-out requests and improve sender reputation.

June 2024 - ActiveCampaign
Marketer view

Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that suppression lists prevent sending emails to contacts who have unsubscribed, marked emails as spam, or hard bounced. Transactional emails will also be blocked if the recipient is on the suppression list, ensuring compliance and protecting sender reputation.

August 2023 - Sendinblue
Marketer view

Email marketer from Campaign Monitor shares that cleaning your email list is essential for maintaining deliverability. Any email address that has hard bounced, unsubscribed, or marked your message as spam should be immediately added to your suppression list. Failing to do so and continuing to send transactional emails may lead to deliverability issues.

August 2022 - Campaign Monitor
Marketer view

Email marketer from Email on Acid responds that poor list hygiene, including ignoring suppression lists, negatively impacts deliverability. If you're sending transactional emails to suppressed addresses, you are hurting your sender reputation, which affects all your email sends.

June 2021 - Email on Acid

What the experts say
3Expert opinions

Experts agree that suppression lists generally affect all email communications, including transactional emails. Sending transactional emails to addresses on the suppression list is detrimental to sender reputation and can lead to deliverability issues. Respecting unsubscribe requests and maintaining a clean list are crucial for optimal sending and deliverability.

Key opinions

  • Global Suppression: Suppression lists typically affect all email types, including transactional messages.
  • Reputation Harm: Sending transactional emails to suppressed addresses harms sender reputation and deliverability.
  • Importance of Respect: Honoring unsubscribe requests and suppression lists is critical for good email practices.

Key considerations

  • Clean List Maintenance: Maintain a clean email list by promptly removing unsubscribed recipients.
  • Transactional Email Handling: Ensure transactional emails also adhere to suppression lists to avoid deliverability issues.
  • ESP Behavior: Understand how your ESP handles suppression and its impact on all email types.
Expert view

Expert from Spamresource.com explains that suppression lists should apply to all types of emails, including transactional ones. Sending transactional emails to addresses on the suppression list can harm your sender reputation and lead to deliverability issues. They emphasize that respecting suppression lists is crucial for maintaining good email practices.

April 2024 - Spamresource.com
Expert view

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that it is critical to ensure your transactional emails also honor the unsubscribe requests in your suppression lists. They recommend maintaining a clean list for optimal sending and deliverability, which includes suppressing all emails when a recipient has unsubscribed.

December 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks explains that a suppression list generally affects ALL email to a recipient coming out through that ESP, regardless of the content of the message. Particularly if it’s a user unknown bounce, there’s no reason to think it’s going to deliver just because it’s a transactional message.

December 2024 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says
5Technical articles

Email service providers like AWS, Twilio SendGrid, Mailchimp, Postmark, and Google Workspace employ suppression lists to prevent sending emails, including transactional ones, to addresses that have bounced or unsubscribed. This automated process safeguards sender reputation and prevents emails from being marked as spam. Manual intervention is often required to remove addresses from these lists if future communication is desired.

Key findings

  • Automated Suppression: ESPs automatically add bounced or unsubscribed addresses to suppression lists.
  • Transactional Blocking: Suppression lists prevent the sending of all email types, including transactional emails.
  • Reputation Protection: Suppression protects sender reputation and prevents emails from being marked as spam.
  • Manual Removal: Addresses must be manually removed from suppression lists if future communication is desired.

Key considerations

  • Bounce Handling: Understand how the ESP handles bounces and adds addresses to the suppression list.
  • List Cleaning: Regularly clean email lists to remove invalid and inactive addresses.
  • Unsubscribe Management: Immediately honor unsubscribe requests and add addresses to the suppression list.
  • Reactivation Process: Understand the process for reactivating addresses that have been suppressed.
Technical article

Documentation from Google Workspace explains that sending to unsubscribed users can result in your email being marked as spam. They recommend immediately removing unsubscribed recipients from your mailing list and honouring all unsubscribe requests. Continuing to send to these recipients, including transactional emails, will damage your sender reputation and may result in your emails being sent to spam.

June 2022 - Google Workspace
Technical article

Documentation from Twilio SendGrid shares that Global Suppressions prevent you from sending email to addresses that have previously bounced or unsubscribed from your mail. This suppression affects all email types, including transactional, to protect your sender reputation. To send to these addresses again, they must be manually removed from the suppression list.

October 2021 - Twilio SendGrid
Technical article

Documentation from Mailchimp explains that cleaning email lists involves removing invalid, unsubscribed, or inactive addresses. Mailchimp automatically adds bounced or unsubscribed addresses to a suppression list, which prevents any further emails, including transactional ones, from being sent. This helps maintain a healthy sender reputation.

December 2023 - Mailchimp
Technical article

Documentation from Postmark shares that Postmark automatically suppresses hard bounces to protect sender reputation. Once an email address hard bounces, all further attempts to send to that address, including transactional emails, will be blocked. The address needs to be manually reactivated if valid.

June 2023 - Postmark
Technical article

Documentation from Amazon Web Services explains that when an email bounces (especially a hard bounce), the address is automatically added to a suppression list. AWS will block all future emails, including transactional ones, to that address to protect sender reputation. Users must manually remove addresses from the suppression list if they wish to send emails to them again.

December 2021 - Amazon Web Services