Email List Scrubbing

What is Email List Scrubbing?

Scrubbing an email list refers to the removal of inactive contacts.

The purpose of email scrubbing is to ensure that only active and engaged contacts remain on a list, so that marketing campaigns have a better chance of being opened and read.

Email scrubbing can be performed by using email marketing automation software such as EcoSend. The software will automatically separate disengaged users.

A re-engagement campaign can then be sent, and if no activity is generated, these contacts can be removed (or 'scrubbed') from the list.

It is good practice to perform email scrubbing every few months to avoid large quantities of spam or inactive contacts building up on a list.

Example

A company with 10,000 email subscribers identifies that 1,500 contacts haven't opened any emails in the past 6 months. They send a re-engagement campaign with the subject line "We miss you! Here's what you've been missing..." to these inactive subscribers. After 2 weeks, only 200 of the 1,500 contacts engage with the re-engagement email. The remaining 1,300 unengaged contacts are then removed from the email list, leaving a cleaner, more engaged audience of 8,900 active subscribers.