Latest / The Email Marketing Podcast with Fexingo: Newsletters, Open Rates, and Subscriber Growth / How Email List Cleanup Boosts Deliverability
Transcript
- Lucas: There's a moment every email marketer hits about six months in. You look at your list, and you know — you just know — that half these people haven't opened an email in four months. But you keep sending to them anyway, because it feels like throwing away subscribers is throwing away money. Luna: And we've all been there. That number — total subscribers — it's an ego metric. It's hard to let go. Lucas: Exactly. But here's the thing — keeping those dead addresses on your list isn't just neutral. It's actively hurting you. Every send to an unengaged subscriber signals to Gmail and Outlook that your content isn't wanted. Over time, your deliverability tanks — even for the people who do want to hear from you. Luna: So you're saying list hygiene isn't just a nice to have cleanup chore. It's a strategic lever. Lucas: It is. And I want to walk through a specific case. There's a mid-size DTC brand I've been following — they sell premium kitchen tools, about 80,000 subscribers. Their open rate had drifted down to 18 percent. They were sending weekly, and engagement was just flatlining. Luna: Eighteen percent — that's rough. Industry average for e-commerce is usually around 20 to 25, right? Lucas: Yeah, and 18 is definitely below that. So what they did was run a three-step re-engagement campaign. Week one — a simple 'are you still there?' email with a strong subject line. Week two — a small incentive, 10 percent off. Week three — a final notice saying we're going to remove you unless you click. Luna: And how many re-engaged? Lucas: About 8 percent of the people who got those emails clicked. So they ended up removing 35 percent of their list — nearly 28,000 addresses. Their list went from 80,000 to 52,000. Luna: That takes guts. I imagine the CEO was nervous. Lucas: I'm sure they were. But here's the result — within four weeks, their open rate jumped from 18 percent to 32 percent. Click-through rate nearly doubled. And here's the kicker — their overall revenue from email actually went up, because they were now sending only to people who actually buy. Luna: So smaller list, but more revenue. That's the argument we always make, but it's nice to have real numbers. Lucas: Right. And the deliverability improvement is the hidden win. Internet service providers track engagement signals. If a high percentage of your sends result in 'not opened' or 'deleted without reading', your domain gets flagged. Sending to a clean list means your reputation improves, and your future campaigns land in the primary inbox, not promotions or spam. Luna: Let's talk about the mechanics. How often should someone do a list cleanup? Quarterly? Yearly? Lucas: I'd say at least every six months, but it depends on your send frequency. For weekly senders, I'd look at anyone who hasn't opened in 90 days. For daily senders, maybe 60 days. The key is to set a clear threshold and stick to it. Luna: And what about soft bounces versus hard bounces? Should you remove those immediately? Lucas: Hard bounces — invalid addresses — remove them immediately. No question. Soft bounces, like a full inbox or a temporary server issue, you can give it a few days and retry. But if an address soft bounces three times in a row, remove it. Luna: One thing I'm curious about — do you see any downside to removing subscribers who haven't opened in a long time? Could some of them come back later? Lucas: It's possible, but unlikely. Research from Mailchimp and others shows that if someone hasn't opened in six months, the probability they'll ever open again is under 2 percent. So you're not losing much. And if they want back in, they can always resubscribe. Luna: That's a good point. Make it easy for them to come back, but don't hold onto them as dead weight. Lucas: Exactly. And honestly, if these conversations have given you something you've actually used in your own marketing, that's the kind of thing that keeps us going. If today was worth a coffee to you, there's a link — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Luna: Yeah, listener support means we can keep this ad-free and focused on the practical stuff. No pressure, but it does make a difference. Lucas: Alright, back to list hygiene. Another tactic I want to mention is the sunset policy. This is a proactive approach where you automatically remove subscribers after a set period of inactivity — say six months — without sending a re-engagement series every time. Luna: So it's like an auto-cleanup rule. That makes sense for bigger lists where manual review is impractical. Lucas: Exactly. And most email service providers, like Klaviyo or Mailchimp, have built-in automation for this. You set the conditions — 'if subscriber has not opened in 180 days, then tag as inactive and suppress.' You can even create a separate suppression list so you don't accidentally send to them again. Luna: What about spam complaints? Does list hygiene help there too? Lucas: Absolutely. Spam complaints are often from people who forgot they subscribed or never really wanted the emails. If you regularly remove unengaged subscribers, you reduce the chance that someone will hit 'spam' instead of 'unsubscribe'. And that keeps your complaint rate below the critical threshold — usually 0.1 percent. Luna: So you're protecting your sender score on multiple fronts. Engagement, complaints, bounces — all of it. Lucas: Right. And I think the biggest mindset shift is this: your email list is not a museum. It's a garden. You have to prune it regularly for the healthy plants to thrive. Luna: That's a nice metaphor. I'm going to steal that. Lucas: Go ahead. So to sum up — run a re-engagement campaign every six months, remove non-responders, set up sunset rules, and track your deliverability metrics. Your open rates, click rates, and revenue will thank you. Luna: And your sender reputation too. Lucas, thanks for breaking this down. I know it's a topic a lot of marketers avoid, but it's so worth facing. Lucas: Happy to. And if you've got a list-cleaning story or a question, email us at the show. We might cover it in a future episode.