You write great email copy. You have a solid strategy. Your flows are in place.
But guess what?
None of that matters if your emails aren’t landing in the inbox.
Hence, the importance of list health.
List health’s the quality and engagement level of your email list. Healthy lists have:
- Consistent opens/clicks
- Low spam complaints
- Low bounce rates
- Regular primary inbox placement
Resulting in regular engagement and sales.
On the other hand, poor list health means:
- Emails aren’t landing in the inbox
- Those that do aren’t read as much
- You’re burning money on dead, unengaged leads
- You risk harming your send reputation via spam complaints and similar
So in this article, we’ll cover 7 simple habits to improve your list health to help you maximize email marketing ROI.
1. Build a Sunset Flow
A Sunset Flow is an email automation that can help clean your list of inactive/unengaged subscribers — people who haven’t interacted with your emails in a long time.
Once someone’s profile reaches the Sunset Flow’s criteria, they’ll get a series of emails attempting to re-engage them.
If they interact, great! They’re back on your list. If not, the flow updates their profile at the end to suppress it.
These flows are short, often 3 emails maximum with the goal of getting them to engage (at least click a button to indicate they’re still interested in receiving emails).
This is because, well, the flow’s target audience is people who are not likely to interact. You want to preserve deliverability here.
“Engaged” generally means the recipient does ANY of the following after some specified large number of days or emails:
- Open
- Click
- Reply
- Buy
Some count viewing products as engaged, too.
2. Manually Suppress Profiles Regularly
Sunset Flows are a great automated solution to list cleaning, but they won’t catch everyone. Relevant subscribers might miss its criteria yet stay on your list.
Some examples include:
- Hard bounce risks: Incorrect/nonexistent email addresses, no-reply email addresses, info@ style email addresses, and so on
- Repeated soft bounce risks: Such as a full/unavailable mailbox
- Inactive: Not engaging with emails at all, whether new or existing customers, but only after winback efforts fail (usually X days after not doing
- Duplicate subscribers: Someone who signed up with multiple emails, costing you money and hurting your deliverability
- Geography/market mismatch: For example, if you only sell in the US but have international (unless you plan on going international)
Also worth noting:
Since Sunset Sequences, by definition, send to people less likely to open…
It makes sense to do regular manual suppressions alongside a Sunset Sequence, even for profiles that might go through it.
Reduces sends to likely non-openers and other problematic accounts, protecting deliverability.
3. Check Deliverability and Spam
Deliverability issues often go unnoticed until it’s too late. Even healthy lists can get flagged due to missing some of the more technical stuff.
Check that your DNS records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) are configured correctly. Test inbox placement regularly using tools like GlockApps to make sure you’re in the primary inbox (not spam, trash, or promos). Steer clear of spammy subject lines or suspicious links..
Also, don’t send from free email domains (such as @gmail.com, which shouldn’t be an issue for most businesses).
The technical stuff’s a pain, I know. This resource shows you how to do it all without having to hire an expert.
4. Follow an “Engagement Window” Strategy
I like to keep things simple when it comes to segmentation. Most emails go to a general “engaged” segment based on a time range.
For example, 90-day engaged. This is anyone who has “engaged” within the last 90 days.
Doing this ensures emails are only going to those likely to engage… keeping deliverability (and sales) high.
But I don’t stay in the same engagement window forever. I adjust it based on stats — usually, open rate.
For example, we’ll pick an open rate range of 40-50%.
Every time open rates consistently clear that upper limit, expand the engagement window by 30 days (so in the example, to 120 days). That way, we can safely reach more subscribers (meaning more potential sales) with less risk to deliverability.
On the other hand, say open rates drop to ~38% consistently. We might shrink by 15-30 days (so, to 60-75 days).
This is how you balance reach with deliverability.
5. Lighten Your Emails
I’ve come around a bit to more “design-heavy” emails. However, emails that are too “heavy” can cause issues with list health.
For one, some email providers, like Gmail, might throw them right into the spam or trash.
This doesn’t always happen. The issue might be overstated, and senders with excellent reputations will have fewer issues.
But when you’re building up your reputation, leaning more toward text-based might be the best option.
Some of the better image-heavy emails might still land in the Promo tab (if it’s Gmail). Still worth lightening them up.
However, even if your image-heavy emails make it to the primary inbox…
Your clicks and sales will plummet if the emails take 8 years to load.
The lesson:
Keep emails as lightweight as possible. Design is ok, but try to trim out any unnecessary elements that could weigh it down. Mix in plain text emails, too.
6. Audit Your Lead Signup Sources
Every time you create a new lead signup source, there’s a chance you forget to disable the last one.
Maybe you want to test them both and forget to end the test. Or you just totally forget to switch it off.
Either way, old signup sources might bring you lower-quality leads. This is especially true as you get better at running your business and hone in on the best channels and methods to get your ideal audience.
And so you might gather some less-than-ideal subscribers who don’t engage much, unsub quickly, mark you as spam, etc.
Audit your lead signup sources:
- Squeeze pages (landing pages where you collect emails)
- Ad channels
- Headers/footers (and which pages they’re coming from)
See what’s getting low engagement leads. Tweak, pause, or rethink that lead source.
I know this can happen because it happens to me. I got a few leads off an old squeeze page I forgot to turn off.
They didn’t get my new lead magnet or welcome email because I didn’t set those up to send to people who signed up the old way.
7. Encourage Replies
Replies tell the email provider (such as Gmail) that people are interested in what you’re sending. It says “yes, people are engaging with these emails. This is not spam, but a genuine sender.”
So encourage replies wherever it makes sense. Ideas include:
- Post-purchase flows
- Testimonial/review request emails
- “Why didn’t you buy?” emails
- Occasional broadcast emails
Encouraging replies can also defuse potential spam complaints. An unhappy customer might reply to you instead of marking it as spam. They could do both, but the chance of them doing so after a well-handled interaction drops.
And hey, even if they write an angry screed… at least they replied and didn’t hit the spam button.
A Healthy List is a Lucrative List
An email list is almost a living thing. So it needs a little love and care to stay in good health… and do its best work for you.
Build that Sunset Sequence, get into a manual suppression habit, check your deliverability, and audit your signup sources. On the mailing side, follow an “engagement window” mailing strategy and lighten your emails.
If you’re doing everything right, but still not seeing the results you want… this might be what you need.
Doing the right things will increase your email marketing ROI by saving money and landing more emails in the primary inbox.
What To Do Next
- Share this article with someone who might find it helpful (or entertaining).
- Get my free eBook using the form below to learn the 5 things stopping you from turning “one-and-done” customers into repeat buyers.
- Reach out to me if you have a sizable email list and make less than 20% of your revenue through email.