How do I set up automated list management techniques in SFMC to keep deliverability high?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 17 Jul 2025
Updated 15 Aug 2025
6 min read
Maintaining high email deliverability in Salesforce Marketing Cloud (SFMC) is crucial for any successful email marketing program. It is not just about sending emails, but ensuring they consistently reach the inbox, not the spam folder. A key component of this success lies in effective list management.
Manual list cleaning can be time-consuming and prone to errors, especially with large subscriber bases. This is where automated list management techniques in SFMC become invaluable. By automating processes, we can proactively manage subscriber engagement, handle bounces, and ensure our lists remain healthy, directly impacting our sender reputation.
I will guide you through setting up these automations to streamline your deliverability efforts and maintain a strong sending reputation within SFMC.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud's automatic handling
Salesforce Marketing Cloud offers built-in mechanisms to handle certain aspects of list hygiene automatically. Understanding these default behaviors is the first step in complementing them with our own custom automations.
When an email results in a spam complaint or an unsubscribe, SFMC immediately moves that subscriber to a Held status. This automatic suppression is vital for protecting your sender reputation and preventing further undesirable interactions. It means you can no longer send emails to these addresses.
Bounce management in SFMC also has automated components. Hard bounces from trusted domains are immediately marked as Held after the first occurrence. For soft bounces or hard bounces from non-trusted domains, SFMC employs a three-bounce rule, where the subscriber is moved to Held status after three consecutive bounces within a 15-day period. This process helps filter out invalid addresses over time.
Understanding SFMC's automatic bounce handling
Salesforce Marketing Cloud automates the management of hard bounces, soft bounces, and spam complaints to protect your sender reputation. Addresses are moved to a 'Held' status to prevent further sending once certain bounce thresholds are met. You can learn more about how Salesforce Marketing Cloud manages deliverability. Understanding these automatic processes is fundamental to implementing effective additional list management strategies.
Proactive list hygiene using SFMC automations
Beyond SFMC’s default bounce handling, proactively managing subscriber engagement is critical. We need to identify and isolate subscribers who are no longer interacting with our emails before they negatively impact our sender reputation. This often involves creating custom automations.
A common strategy is to identify unengaged subscribers based on criteria like no opens or clicks within a specific timeframe (e.g., 3, 6, or 12 months). Salesforce Marketing Cloud allows us to achieve this using SQL queries within Automation Studio. These queries can segment your main data extension (DE) into an inactive or unengaged data extension. This is a critical step for maintaining a healthy email list.
Once identified, you can then automate the process of moving these inactive subscribers into a dedicated suppression data extension. This suppression DE should then be applied to all your email sends in SFMC, ensuring that mailings are not sent to these unengaged contacts. This approach is fundamental to pruning your email lists for better deliverability.
SQL query for identifying inactive subscribersSQL
SELECT
s.EmailAddress
FROM
_Subscribers s
LEFT JOIN
_Open o ON s.SubscriberKey = o.SubscriberKey AND o.EventDate > DATEADD(month, -6, GETDATE())
LEFT JOIN
_Click c ON s.SubscriberKey = c.SubscriberKey AND c.EventDate > DATEADD(month, -6, GETDATE())
WHERE
o.SubscriberKey IS NULL AND c.SubscriberKey IS NULL
AND s.EmailAddress IS NOT NULL;
This query identifies subscribers who have not opened or clicked an email in the last six months. You would then use an Automation Studio activity to run this query and update your suppression DE on a regular schedule. The frequency of this automation will depend on your sending volume and list size, but monthly or quarterly is a good starting point.
Automating engagement and re-engagement
Beyond simply removing inactive subscribers, automating audience segmentation and re-engagement flows can significantly boost your deliverability. By sending relevant content to engaged segments, you improve open and click rates, signaling positive engagement to mailbox providers. This targeted approach helps avoid hitting spam traps or being flagged by ISPs.
For subscribers showing early signs of disengagement (e.g., no opens in 90 days), set up automated re-engagement journeys. These journeys can try to rekindle interest with special offers or preference updates. If, after a defined series of re-engagement emails, they still do not respond, automate their removal to a suppression list. This systematic approach aligns with email list management best practices.
SFMC’s Journey Builder is ideal for these complex, automated paths. You can define entry criteria, decision splits based on engagement, and exit criteria to ensure subscribers are moved through the lifecycle appropriately. This minimizes sending to uninterested parties, thus improving your overall sender reputation and reducing the likelihood of landing on a blacklist (or blocklist).
It is worth noting that re-engaging inactive subscribers requires careful planning to avoid negatively impacting deliverability. Start with a smaller segment and closely monitor engagement before scaling. For those who remain unengaged after a dedicated re-engagement effort, it is often best to sunset them from your active lists.
Monitoring and continuous improvement
Even with robust automations in place, continuous monitoring and adjustment are essential. Email deliverability is not a set-it-and-forget-it task. Regularly review your email metrics, including open rates, click-through rates, bounce rates, and spam complaint rates within SFMC and any postmaster tools you use.
Reactive approach
Waiting for deliverability issues to arise before taking action.
Effort: More difficult and time-consuming recovery process once reputation is damaged.
Proactive approach
Implementing automations to maintain list health before problems occur.
Impact: Consistent inbox placement, improved sender reputation, higher ROI from email campaigns.
Effort: Initial setup time, but significant long-term savings in troubleshooting and reputation repair.
The data from these reports should inform adjustments to your automation rules. For example, if you see a rising trend in spam complaints, you might need to re-evaluate your segmentation strategy or the content of your emails. Similarly, a high hard bounce rate indicates issues with your list acquisition methods, requiring stricter validation processes. Employing an email blocklist checker or blocklist monitoring service can also provide early warnings.
By continuously monitoring, adjusting, and refining your automated list management techniques, you ensure your email program remains healthy and your messages consistently reach their intended recipients.
General best practices for high deliverability
Key best practices for SFMC list management
Consent-based acquisition: Only send to subscribers who have explicitly opted in or have a clear existing relationship, such as a recent purchase. Never buy email lists.
Regular engagement tracking: Define what 'unengaged' means for your business (e.g., no opens/clicks in 3, 6, or 12 months) and automate removal from active sending lists.
Suppression data extensions: Use Automation Studio and SQL queries to populate and apply suppression data extensions for inactive users, bounces, and complaints.
Re-engagement journeys: Implement automated journeys for mildly disengaged subscribers. If re-engagement fails, move them to a hard suppression list.
Preference centers: Provide clear options for subscribers to manage their preferences and unsubscribe easily, reducing spam complaints.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Actively use SFMC's built-in bounce and complaint handling features, they are designed to protect your sender reputation.
Segment your audience based on engagement levels and tailor content, this can significantly improve inbox placement.
Regularly review your email sending frequency, sending too often can lead to increased unsubscribes and complaints.
Common pitfalls
Ignoring inactive subscribers can lead to lower open rates and higher spam complaints, signaling poor engagement to ISPs.
Sending to purchased lists will almost certainly result in high bounce rates and immediate blacklisting.
Not regularly updating suppression lists means you might be sending to invalid or unengaged addresses.
Expert tips
Consider a phased re-engagement strategy, sending to smaller, more engaged segments first, then gradually expanding.
Utilize SQL queries and Automation Studio for custom engagement segmentation, it provides greater control.
Monitor Salesforce Marketing Cloud's
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says: You should create an automation to move unengaged subscribers to a suppression data extension that you can apply against any send.
2021-03-19 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says: Never buy lists, and only email people who have specifically opted in or previously purchased from you.
2021-03-18 - Email Geeks
Wrapping up
Automating list management in Salesforce Marketing Cloud is not just a convenience, it is a fundamental aspect of maintaining high email deliverability and protecting your sender reputation. By leveraging SFMC's built-in capabilities and creating custom automations for engagement-based segmentation and suppression, you can ensure your email list remains clean, engaged, and effective.
Remember, deliverability is an ongoing effort that requires continuous monitoring and adaptation. By diligently implementing these automated techniques, you will significantly improve your inbox placement rates and maximize the return on your email marketing investments in SFMC.
