Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / How Email List Pruning Boosts Deliverability
Transcript
- Lucas: So Luna, let's talk about something email marketers love to ignore. I'm talking about the email list itself. Not adding to it, but subtracting from it. Luna: You mean deleting subscribers? That feels counterintuitive. Lucas: It does, but the data is pretty compelling. I was looking at a mid-sized e-commerce brand, about 80,000 subscribers, and they did a serious prune. Cut out about 18 percent of their list that hadn't engaged in over a year. The result: open rates went up 16 percent and spam complaints dropped by 9 percent, almost immediately. Luna: So by making the list smaller, they made it better. That's like the classic quality over quantity lesson, but applied to email. Lucas: Exactly. And it's not just about open rates. It's about deliverability. Internet service providers, like Gmail and Outlook, they look at your sender reputation. If you're constantly sending to people who don't open, your emails start going to spam for everyone, even your most engaged fans. Luna: Right, because the algorithm thinks, why are you emailing people who don't care? That must mean your content is bad. Lucas: That's the logic. So the question becomes, how do you actually decide who to prune? The obvious answer is last open date, but that's too blunt. I think the smarter approach is building an engagement score. Luna: How does that work in practice? Lucas: You assign points for different actions. A click might be worth two points, a purchase five, an open just one. Then you track that over a rolling 90-day window. Anyone below a certain threshold, say ten points, gets flagged as a risk. Luna: That makes sense. Because someone might open every email but never click. That's still a signal of interest, right? Lucas: Exactly. And someone who buys once but never opens again might be a different kind of problem. So you can't just rely on one metric. The brand I mentioned actually used a three-tier system. They had active, dormant, and unengaged segments. Luna: What happened to the dormant ones? Did they just get the axe? Lucas: No, they got a second chance. Before pruning, they sent a re-engagement campaign. A simple email like, 'Still want to hear from us? Click here to stay.' Anyone who didn't click got removed. That's the classic sunset policy, and it's way more defensible than just deleting people outright. Luna: And that protects you from the accusation of being too aggressive. You gave them a chance. Lucas: Exactly. And it also helps with deliverability because you're actively showing the ISP that you're sending to people who want your email. Plus, it can actually save you money if you're paying per subscriber on your email platform. Luna: I hadn't thought about the cost angle. Some platforms charge per contact, so trimming a few thousand inactive addresses could be a meaningful line item. Lucas: Right. For a smaller business, that could be hundreds of dollars a month. But the bigger risk is the reputational one. If your spam complaints go above a certain threshold, you could get blacklisted, and that's a nightmare to recover from. Luna: So what's the actual threshold? Is there a number to watch? Lucas: A common benchmark is keeping spam complaints under 0.1 percent of emails sent. Above 0.5 percent, you're in dangerous territory. But that's a lagging indicator. The better leading indicator is engagement. If your open rates are trending down, that's the warning sign. Luna: And running a prune every quarter is probably the right cadence. Maybe not more often, because you want to give people time to re-engage. Lucas: I'd say quarterly is good for most businesses. Some bigger brands do it monthly, but they have the volume and the automation to handle it. For a typical small business, quarterly is a solid rhythm. Luna: Let's talk about the fear that pruning kills revenue. I've heard that argument before. Lucas: It's a real fear, but the data doesn't support it. The brand I mentioned saw no dip in revenue after the prune. In fact, because their emails were landing in the inbox more reliably, their overall campaign revenue went up about 7 percent over the next quarter. Luna: So by losing 18 percent of the list, they made more money. That's the counterintuitive part. Lucas: Exactly. It's because those inactive subscribers weren't buying anyway. They were just dragging down your deliverability and skewing your metrics. You were probably making decisions based on data that was polluted by people who were never going to engage. Luna: That's a great point. If you're measuring open rates and clicks, a huge chunk of your list is just dead weight, making your numbers look worse than they actually are. Lucas: And after a prune, your metrics become more meaningful. A 25 percent open rate on a healthy list is way better than a 20 percent open rate on a bloated one. You're getting more actual opens per person, which means your content is resonating. Luna: Plus, you can be more honest with yourself about what's working and what's not. Lucas: Right. And there's another benefit people don't think about. When you prune, you often spark a re-engagement wave. Some of those dormant subscribers, when they see the 'still there?' email, they come back. It's a reminder that you exist, and sometimes that's all it takes. Luna: It's like a wake-up call for your list. 'Hey, we're still here, and we're caring about you enough to ask if you want to stay.' That can actually build loyalty. Lucas: And that's a great segue. Because this is the kind of thing that, when we talk about it on this show, we're really just trying to help you run your business better. And if these conversations have sparked something you've actually used in your own work, that's what keeps us going. Luna: Yeah, listener support is what keeps this podcast ad-free and independent. If you've gotten value from what we do, and you want to say thanks, you can buy us a coffee. Lucas: It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. No pressure, but if you're in a position to support, it genuinely helps us keep doing this. Luna: And now back to the strategy. So we've covered the what and the why of pruning. Let's talk about the how in a bit more detail. What's the actual process for scoring your list? Lucas: Most email service providers have built-in tools for this. You can create a segment based on engagement over the last 90 days. But if you want to get more sophisticated, you can use a custom scoring model. Some platforms let you assign points for specific actions. Luna: Like how you described earlier. A purchase is worth more than a click, and a click is worth more than an open. Lucas: Exactly. And you can also factor in negative signals, like emails that bounce or complaints. That gives you a fuller picture. One thing to be careful about, though, is the data you have on your subscribers. If you don't track clicks for every campaign, you might be working with incomplete information. Luna: So you need to make sure your tracking is consistent across all sends. Lucas: Right. And one more tip. Don't just look at engagement over the last 90 days. Look at the trajectory. If someone was super engaged six months ago but has tapered off, that's different from someone who's never opened an email. Luna: So a person who used to buy every month but hasn't in six months might be worth a different kind of re-engagement effort than a subscriber who signed up for a freebie and never opened anything. Lucas: Exactly. The former might just need a reminder of why they loved you. The latter might be a lead magnet junkie who never had real intent. You can tailor your messaging accordingly. Luna: And maybe have a different threshold for pruning them. Like, a former loyal customer gets 12 months of inactivity before you cut them, but a new subscriber who never opens gets 90 days. Lucas: That's a smart approach. It's not a one-size-fits-all rule. The idea is to be thoughtful about it, not just set a blanket 'delete anyone inactive for 6 months' policy. Luna: And what about the technical side? Are there any pitfalls when you're actually removing people from your list? Lucas: One big one is accidentally deleting people who are active. Always double-check your segment criteria before you hit delete. Also, make sure you're not removing people who've just joined recently but haven't had a chance to engage yet. Luna: Good point. A brand-new subscriber might not have opened their first email yet, and you don't want to cut them out before they've had a chance. Lucas: Exactly. So you might want to exclude anyone who's been on the list for less than 90 days. And also, keep a backup of the removed contacts, just in case. Maybe you'll want to re-import them with a new campaign later, or at least have the data for reference. Luna: And what about the deliverability side again? Does pruning alone fix a bad sender reputation? Lucas: It helps, but it's not a silver bullet. You also need to be consistent with your sending frequency, keep your content relevant, and make sure you're not sending to spam traps. But pruning is definitely a major part of the solution. Luna: So it's like a hygiene routine. You brush your teeth and floss, but you also need regular check-ups. Lucas: Exactly. And when you think about it, the concept applies beyond just email. It's about focusing on quality over quantity, whether it's your subscribers, your content, or your marketing channels. Sometimes the best growth strategy is subtraction. Luna: That's a nice way to end. So if you've been avoiding the delete button, maybe it's time to reconsider. Lucas: Yeah, give your list a little tough love. Your open rates, your deliverability, and your bottom line will thank you.