What defines an inactive email user?

Inactive users are subscribers who have not engaged with your emails (e.g., opened or clicked) for a significant period. This period can vary, but generally ranges from 6 to 12 months, depending on your sending frequency and industry norms. They are still on your list, but their lack of interaction signals disinterest.

What are the main risks of sending emails to inactive users?

The primary risks include damaging your sender reputation, increasing your chances of hitting spam traps, incurring higher hard bounce rates, and wasting marketing budget on unengaged contacts. These factors can collectively lead to your emails being directed to spam folders or being blocked entirely.

How do spam traps specifically impact email deliverability?

Spam traps are email addresses used by ISPs and anti-spam organizations to catch spammers. Sending to them, especially recycled spam traps (former active addresses), immediately flags you as a risky sender, severely damaging your reputation and increasing the likelihood of your domain or IP being added to a blacklist .

What should I do with inactive users on my email list?

You should regularly clean your email list by identifying and removing inactive subscribers. Before removal, consider running a targeted re-engagement campaign to try and reactivate them. If they still don't engage, it's best to remove them to maintain list quality and protect your sender reputation.

Does removing inactive users improve email deliverability?

Yes, by focusing your sends on engaged subscribers, you signal positive behavior to ISPs, which improves your sender reputation. A good reputation leads to higher inbox placement rates, better campaign performance, and a more efficient use of your email marketing resources.

What is the risk of sending email to inactive users? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

It can be tempting to maximize your email reach by sending messages to every address on your list, including those that haven't engaged in a while. After all, the more emails you send, the more potential opens and clicks you might get, right? Unfortunately, when it comes to inactive users, this logic is fundamentally flawed and can lead to significant problems for your email program.

Sending emails to addresses that belong to inactive users carries a surprisingly high level of risk. This practice can severely impact your sender reputation, leading to lower inbox placement rates, increased spam complaints, and even blocklisting. Understanding these dangers is crucial for maintaining a healthy email program and ensuring your messages reach their intended recipients.

Why sending to inactive users harms your sender reputation

One of the most immediate and damaging consequences of emailing inactive users is the negative effect on your sender reputation. Mailbox providers like Google and Yahoo closely monitor how recipients interact with your emails. When you send to unengaged addresses, you're likely to see low open rates, low click-through rates, and potentially higher unsubscribe or spam complaint rates.

These low engagement metrics signal to mailbox providers that your emails are not valuable or wanted. Over time, this negative feedback loop can severely degrade your sender reputation. As a result, even your emails to active and engaged subscribers may start landing in the spam folder, or even be blocked entirely, significantly hindering your overall email deliverability.

A damaged sender reputation is not easily fixed. It takes time and consistent positive sending behavior to rebuild trust with mailbox providers. The risk isn't just about a single email campaign; it's about the long-term health and effectiveness of your entire email marketing program.

Spam traps and hard bounces: hidden dangers

Perhaps the most insidious risk of emailing inactive users is the potential to encounter spam traps. These are email addresses specifically set up by internet service providers (ISPs) and anti-spam organizations to identify spammers. There are different types, but recycled spam traps are particularly relevant here. These were once legitimate email addresses that have become inactive and were later converted into spam traps.

Sending to an email address that has become a spam trap is a strong indicator of poor list management practices to ISPs. Even a single hit can severely damage your sender reputation, leading to immediate blocklisting (or blacklisting). Once your domain or IP is on a blocklist, your emails may be entirely rejected by many mailbox providers, making it nearly impossible to reach your audience.

Another major issue is hard bounces. Mailbox providers, including Gmail, regularly retire or delete inactive accounts. When you send to these non-existent addresses, the email immediately hard bounces. A high volume of hard bounces tells ISPs that your list is outdated and poorly maintained, which again, negatively impacts your sender reputation and can lead to blocking.

Inactivity period	Primary risk	Impact on deliverability
3-6 months	Increased soft bounces	Minor reputation ding, potential for reduced inbox placement for some recipients.
6-12 months	Higher chance of recycled spam traps	Moderate reputation damage, more frequent spam folder delivery.
12+ months	High risk of pure spam traps and hard bounces	Severe reputation impact, high risk of blocklisting, significant email rejection.

Financial and operational drawbacks

Beyond deliverability issues, sending to inactive users also comes with tangible financial and operational costs. Most email service providers (ESPs) charge based on the number of subscribers you have or the volume of emails you send. Continuing to email unengaged addresses means you are literally paying to send messages that are unlikely to be opened, clicked, or converted. This is a direct drain on your marketing budget without a corresponding return on investment.

Furthermore, a bloated list filled with inactive contacts can skew your analytics, making it difficult to accurately assess the performance of your email campaigns. Your open rates, click-through rates, and conversion rates will naturally appear lower than they should be, simply because a large portion of your audience isn't engaged. This can lead to misinformed strategic decisions and wasted efforts on campaigns that appear to be underperforming due to poor list quality rather than content.

Managing a larger, less responsive list also consumes valuable resources. It takes time and effort to segment, create, and deploy campaigns to an audience that isn't providing a return. Focusing these resources on engaged subscribers, or on strategies to re-engage genuinely interested users, will yield much better results.

Best practices for list hygiene and re-engagement

To mitigate these risks, maintaining a healthy and engaged email list is paramount. This starts with regular list hygiene, which involves identifying and removing inactive subscribers. Defining what constitutes an "inactive" user depends on your business and email frequency, but generally, subscribers who haven't opened or clicked an email in 6-12 months are considered inactive.

Before outright removing them, consider a re-engagement campaign. These campaigns are specifically designed to attempt to reactivate inactive subscribers with targeted content, special offers, or updated preferences. However, it's crucial to approach re-engagement safely and strategically to avoid further damaging your reputation.

Risks of sending to inactives

Reputation damage: Lower open/click rates degrade your sender reputation with ISPs and mailbox providers.
Spam trap hits: Increased likelihood of hitting recycled spam traps, leading to immediate blocklisting.
Hard bounces: Sending to deleted accounts results in hard bounces, signaling poor list quality.
Wasted spend: Paying ESP fees for unengaged subscribers offers no ROI.

Proactive list management

Improved deliverability: Focus on engaged users to signal positive behavior to ISPs.
Reduced spam traps: Regular cleaning reduces the risk of hitting traps and getting IP blocklisted.
Accurate metrics: Get a clear view of campaign performance, leading to better optimization.
Cost savings: Pay only for active, engaged subscribers who are likely to convert.

Ultimately, the goal is to cultivate a responsive and high-quality email list. Regularly pruning inactive subscribers ensures that your marketing efforts are efficient and effective. This proactive approach safeguards your sender reputation and maximizes your inbox placement rates, leading to better overall email marketing results.

Prioritizing healthy email engagement

The risks of sending emails to inactive users are clear and substantial. From eroding your sender reputation to increasing your chances of hitting spam traps and incurring unnecessary costs, the downsides far outweigh any perceived benefit of reaching a slightly larger audience. A healthy email list is not just about quantity, but quality.

By actively managing your subscriber list, removing dormant contacts, and focusing your efforts on engaged users, you protect your sender reputation and improve your overall email deliverability. This strategic approach ensures that your valuable messages consistently reach the inbox, where they can generate real results.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Regularly segment your email list based on engagement levels to identify truly active subscribers.

Implement a clear re-engagement strategy for inactive users before considering their removal from your list.

Common pitfalls

Ignoring inactive subscribers, hoping they will eventually re-engage on their own.

Sending a large, untargeted re-engagement campaign to a massive inactive list.

Expert tips

Consider a sunsetting policy for subscribers who remain unengaged after re-engagement attempts.

Use preference centers to allow inactive users to adjust their communication frequency or content.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says if you send to your inactives, you will likely burn your sending reputation to the ground.

2020-10-21 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says to pull ROI data from regular email campaigns and explain that proceeding with a large, barely active database will jeopardize current ROI for months.

2020-10-22 - Email Geeks