Stay on top of your newsletter performance with Letterhead’s Automated List Optimization (also known as list cleanup).This feature helps keep your email list healthy by identifying and managing inactive contacts to boost deliverability and engagement
What is List Optimization?
List Optimization helps you keep your subscriber list healthy by identifying people who haven’t opened your newsletter in over 90 days. We’ll automatically send these subscribers a re-engagement email, and based on how they respond, we’ll either keep them active or mark them as inactive.
This helps:
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Improve open and click-through rates
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Reduce bounce rates
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Maintain a better sender reputation with email providers
How Does It Work?
When List Optimization is enabled:
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After 90 days of inactivity, a re-engagement email is automatically sent to the subscriber.
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Their status changes to "Pending re-engagement confirmation".
- Once in the "Pending re-engagement confirmation" status, they'll receive an email asking to confirm their subscription. If they confirm, then they are moved back to the subscribed status.
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If they do not confirm within 72 hours, their status is updated to "Disengaged."
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This process runs daily to ensure continuous list optimization.
Once flagged, these users are suppressed from future sends and added to your Inactive Audience.
💡 Suppressed = You keep the contact in your database, but they won’t receive any newsletters unless reactivated.
Why Should You Use List Optimization?
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Improves Email Deliverability: Removing disengaged subscribers helps boost open rates and reduces the chance of emails being marked as spam.
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Enhances Engagement: Keeps your subscriber list active and engaged.
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Protects Your Sender Reputation: Ensures you’re sending emails to people who want them, improving your email credibility.
How to Enable List Optimization
You can enable List Optimization at two levels:
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Organization Level: Applies to all channels within the organization. When enabled, channel-level settings will be disabled.
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Channel Level: Applies only to a specific channel if organization-level optimization is not enabled.
To enable it:
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Go to Settings.
- At the Organization level, it's in Settings under Newsletters.
- At the Channel level, it's in Settings under Sending emails.
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Navigate to List Optimization.
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Toggle the option ON at either the Organization or Channel level.
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The system will begin processing inactive subscribers daily.