Keeping an e-mail list healthy: bounces, contacts who never open and a last-chance campaign

E-mail·· 6 views· 2 min read

The short answer: a healthy list has no addresses that bounce and no people who stopped opening long ago. Both drag delivery down for everyone on the list. Clean it regularly, and before removing inactive contacts, give them one last chance.

Three kinds of contact that spoil a list

Contact Why it hurts What to do
Address that no longer exists Sending again and again to mailboxes that do not exist signals a badly kept list. Remove it straight away. See the 550 error.
Contact who never opens or clicks E-mail services notice that nobody cares about your messages. Reconfirmation campaign, then remove.
Address with a typo It never arrives, or reaches someone else. Fix it if you know the right one; otherwise remove it.

One last campaign before removing

1 Make a group of inactive contacts: people who neither opened nor clicked in recent campaigns, from the report.
2 Send them a short, honest campaign: «Do you still want to hear from us?», with a button to stay.
3 Those who click stay and go back to the normal group.
4 Those who do not answer leave. Do not send them campaigns again.
Removing contacts feels painful, but a smaller, active list delivers better than a big sleepy one. And since you pay per e-mail sent, it is cheaper too.
Be careful with old lists. Addresses abandoned long ago can be recycled as spam traps, and hitting one is worse than an address that does not exist. If you are already on a blacklist, see how to check and get off it.

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SEE ALSO

Bringing an existing e-mail list into your contacts: what to import and what to leave out

When a recipient marks your campaign as spam: why it weighs so much and how to avoid it

Reading an e-mail campaign report: sent, opens, clicks, top links and unsubscribes

Bounce message 550: user unknown, relay denied and rejected, what each one means

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