Summary
Identifying high-risk email addresses for deletion from your ESP involves a multi-faceted approach to maintain a healthy sender reputation and improve deliverability. Strategies include removing hard bounces immediately, managing inactive subscribers through engagement metrics and segmentation, and utilizing email list validation services to detect invalid or risky addresses. Avoiding spam traps is crucial, and techniques like double opt-in and consistent list cleaning help in this regard. Tools like AWS features, bounce codes, and suppression lists are valuable. Re-engagement campaigns are recommended before permanent deletion, and when reactivating segments, a gradual approach is advised. Underlying business goals and risk tolerance should guide decision-making, considering potential spam complaints and the history of data acquisition.
Key findings
- Hard Bounces: Hard bounces should be immediately removed to maintain sender reputation.
- Inactive Subscribers: Identify and segment inactive subscribers based on engagement metrics.
- Email List Validation: Email list validation services are valuable for detecting invalid or risky addresses.
- Spam Traps: Avoiding spam traps is crucial to prevent sender reputation damage.
- Business Goals: Underlying business goals should guide the data cleanup strategy.
Key considerations
- Re-Engagement: Run re-engagement campaigns before deleting inactive subscribers.
- Gradual Reactivation: If reactivating segments, use a gradual approach and monitor results.
- Risk Assessment: Assess your business's risk tolerance and the potential for spam complaints.
- Data Acquisition: Consider the history and health of your data acquisition processes.
- List hygiene: Maintain list hygiene by using a variety of methods including removing unengaged subscribers and cleaning invalid emails.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
Identifying high-risk email addresses for deletion from your ESP involves several key strategies. These include removing inactive subscribers based on engagement metrics like opens and clicks, addressing bounced emails and spam complaints, and utilizing email list cleaning services to identify invalid or risky addresses. Segmentation based on engagement levels helps target inactive users. Utilizing suppression lists prevents emailing unsubscribed or problematic addresses. Implementing double opt-in ensures list quality by verifying subscribers. Before deleting inactive users, consider re-engagement campaigns to win them back, and a gradual approach is recommended when reactivating segments.
Key opinions
- Inactive Subscribers: Identify and remove subscribers who haven't engaged with your emails (opens, clicks) in a defined period.
- Bounce Rates: Monitor and remove email addresses with high bounce rates, as they negatively impact sender reputation.
- Spam Complaints: Immediately remove email addresses that have marked your emails as spam.
- List Cleaning Services: Utilize email list cleaning services to identify invalid, disposable, and spam trap email addresses.
- Suppression Lists: Maintain suppression lists of unsubscribed, bounced, and spam-complaint addresses to avoid re-mailing them.
- Segmentation: Segment your email list based on engagement levels to isolate and manage inactive subscribers.
- Double Opt-in: Implement double opt-in to ensure only valid and engaged subscribers are added to your list from the start.
Key considerations
- Re-Engagement Campaigns: Before deleting inactive subscribers, consider running re-engagement campaigns to try and win them back.
- Gradual Reactivation: When reactivating segments after verification, proceed gradually to monitor results and adjust strategy.
- Data points: Outside of email check other data points and customer lifecycle against length of inactivity
Marketer view
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign states before removing inactive subscribers, create a re-engagement campaign to try and win them back. This gives them a chance to re-subscribe or engage with your content. If they don't respond, you can safely remove them.
15 Jun 2023 - ActiveCampaign
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit suggests using an email list cleaning service to identify invalid email addresses. These services use various techniques to detect invalid, disposable, and spam trap emails. They can save you time and improve your email deliverability.
30 May 2025 - Reddit
What the experts say
4 expert opinions
Identifying high-risk email addresses for deletion involves a strategic approach focused on business goals, data integrity, and potential risks. Hard bounces (invalid addresses) should be removed immediately. Maintaining list hygiene using a variety of methods including removing unengaged subscribers. It's crucial to understand the underlying reasons for data cleanup, such as improving deliverability or mitigating spam complaints. A tailored re-engagement campaign should be executed, particularly when dealing with older addresses, taking into account business risk tolerance and the history of data acquisition. Segmentation by inactivity duration, followed by validation, helps in informed decision-making. The potential for spam reports from older, unengaged addresses should be considered, as simply removing undeliverable addresses won't prevent this.
Key opinions
- Hard Bounces: Immediately remove hard bounces (invalid or non-existent email addresses) to maintain a good sender reputation.
- List Hygiene: Maintain list hygiene. That can be achieved by using a variety of methods, including removing unengaged subscribers and cleaning invalid emails.
- Address Risk: Older, unengaged addresses pose a risk of spam complaints, which can harm your sender reputation.
- Validation: Segment addresses by inactivity duration and use validation services to inform deletion decisions.
Key considerations
- Business Goals: Determine the underlying business goal of the data cleanup campaign (e.g., improving deliverability, identifying potential customers).
- Data Acquisition: Consider the history and health of your data acquisition process when deciding how to handle older addresses.
- Spam Reports: Be aware that removing undeliverable addresses doesn't prevent potential spam reports from unengaged recipients.
- Re-engagement: Tailor a re-engagement campaign for older addresses before deleting them, and track delivery and engagement stats.
- Risk tolerance: Assess business tolerance for risk.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise says to maintain list hygiene. That can be achieved by using a variety of methods, including removing unengaged subscribers and cleaning invalid emails.
5 Aug 2021 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that hard bounces, caused by invalid or non-existent email addresses, should be immediately removed from your email list to maintain a good sender reputation.
20 Feb 2023 - Spam Resource
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Identifying high-risk email addresses involves several key practices, primarily focusing on email list validation and bounce management. Email list validation is crucial for maintaining a healthy sender reputation by identifying and removing invalid addresses before sending, which reduces bounce rates and improves engagement. Using bounce codes, such as hard and soft bounces, helps pinpoint invalid email addresses for removal. Avoiding spam traps, which are email addresses used by blacklisting services to catch spammers, is essential, as hitting them can severely damage your sender reputation. Regularly cleaning your list and using double opt-in can help avoid spam traps. AWS offers features like bounce handling and complaint feedback loops to help identify and remove problematic addresses. Maintaining a bounce rate under 5% is a best practice, and any email addresses causing bounces should be promptly removed.
Key findings
- Email List Validation: Email list validation is critical for a healthy sender reputation by removing invalid addresses.
- Bounce Codes: Use bounce codes (hard and soft) to identify invalid email addresses.
- Spam Traps: Avoid spam traps to prevent severe damage to your sender reputation.
- AWS Features: AWS provides bounce handling and complaint feedback loops to identify and remove problematic addresses.
- Bounce Rate Threshold: Keep your bounce rate under 5% and remove bouncing addresses.
Key considerations
- Email Verification Service: Consider using an email verification service to detect invalid, inactive, and risky addresses.
- Regular Cleaning: Regularly clean your email list to avoid spam traps and maintain a healthy sender reputation.
- Double Opt-in: Implement double opt-in to ensure only valid addresses are added to your list.
Technical article
Documentation from Google answers explains to keep your bounce rate under 5% and that email addresses that cause bounces should be removed in your email list
23 Jan 2022 - Google
Technical article
Documentation from SendGrid explains that email list validation is crucial for maintaining a healthy sender reputation. It identifies and removes invalid email addresses before you send, reducing bounce rates and improving engagement. They advise using an email verification service to detect invalid, inactive, and risky email addresses.
28 Aug 2023 - SendGrid
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