What are the best practices for sunsetting inactive email subscribers according to ISPs and GDPR?

Sunsetting inactive email subscribers is a widely recommended best practice for enhancing email deliverability, sender reputation, and compliance with regulations like GDPR and CAN-SPAM. ISPs like Google, Apple, and Yahoo advocate managing subscriber lists by removing unengaged users, monitoring bounces, and honoring unsubscribe requests. This practice improves deliverability metrics by reducing spam complaints and bounce rates. Experts and marketers emphasize the importance of defining 'inactive' based on engagement metrics (opens, clicks, purchases), establishing a sunsetting policy, and adhering to GDPR's data retention requirements. Gaining explicit permission to continue contacting subscribers is also a crucial aspect of regulatory compliance, offering a transparent approach aligned with individual rights.

Sunsetting inactive email subscribers is a best practice for improving email deliverability and maintaining a healthy sender reputation. ISPs like Google, Apple, and Yahoo recommend managing subscriber lists by removing unengaged users. GDPR requires a defined data retention period, making it legitimate to use engagement metrics like opens and clicks to determine when to stop emailing subscribers. Sunsetting improves deliverability by reducing spam complaints and bounce rates. It involves creating a sunsetting policy to identify inactive subscribers based on engagement metrics and removing them from the active list.

Experts recommend sunsetting inactive subscribers to protect sender reputation and comply with privacy regulations like GDPR. Yahoo advises monitoring inactive recipients, along with hard and soft bounces, to prevent harm to delivery metrics. Sunsetting improves privacy by removing unnecessary data and potentially deleting it. Determining the inactivity period is critical, considering sending frequency and subscriber behavior, with metrics like opens, clicks, and purchases defining 'inactive.' Finally, gaining explicit permission to continue contacting subscribers ensures compliance with regulations like CAN-SPAM and GDPR.

ISPs like Google, Yahoo, and Apple recommend managing subscriber lists by removing inactive and disengaged users to maintain a healthy email list and sender reputation. Google suggests confirming subscriptions and unsubscribing non-openers, while Yahoo advises monitoring inactives and bounces. Apple encourages suppressing inactives, removing bounces, and honoring unsubscribes. GDPR.EU emphasizes data minimization, stating organizations should only keep data as long as necessary, aligning with the right to erasure.