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To Delete or Not To Delete Inactive Subscribers!?

by satrap
20 replies
Just wondering how do you guys go about deleting inactive subs.

I have this list that I have been building for 5 years now and it's getting big. And while I am making money with it, I feel like I am losing money by paying for the total amount of subs when many are not even active anymore.

I know some folks argue that some people won't buy until they are ready, so it's not a good idea to delete them. But at the same time, I am like how long are you going to keep an extra few thousands subs and pay for them in hopes of them someday reaching for their wallet.

So, after how many not opens or not clicked do you guys normally just delete them?...

Thanks in advance.
#delete #inactive #subscribers
  • Profile picture of the author myob
    If you have demonstrated commercial intent and subscribers are not buying within a reasonable period of time, then perhaps it's time to evaluate your funnel system. In my own testing of my niche lists, an average 83% of purchases are made within 30 days and 97% within 90 days. Personally, I cull inactive subscribers or non-buyers within 4 months as the probability of further sales approaches negligible. IMO, carrying the dead weight of unresponsive subscribers in the hope of some far distant sales is unrealistic, and can get to be rather expensive and/or unmanageable.
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  • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
    Originally Posted by satrap View Post

    so it's not a good idea to delete them
    No way, keeping inactive subscribers isn't a good idea. Here are only two of the reasons:

    1) you keep paying for them for no reason, hoping that they'll be ready next year, or next century? It doesn't make sense.

    2) have you heard about spam traps? If you haven't, google it.

    Decide when you consider a subscriber inactive. Then make them an offer they can't refuse (via series of re-engaging emails). If you still cannot activate them, delete them.
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  • Profile picture of the author sidiniquity
    Do what some of the pros do. Send out a mail to all subscribers telling them that you're building a serious community and only those who are serious get to stay.

    Then tell them that you're going to start culling those who haven't been active for the last X months. Tell them they they have the option of opting out immediately too and give them an unsubscribe link.

    By doing this you're -
    a) Generating exclusivity by telling people only serious members are allowed.
    b) Showing them that you don't care about quantity but rather quality by telling people to unsubscribe and culling them yourself.

    The people who don't give a damn will leave. The rest will start getting more engaged. You'll be left with a slightly smaller but much more active group.
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  • Profile picture of the author dlundy1
    It depends on how you acquired the list.

    When you say inactive, do you mean they no longer OPEN emails...

    Or that they no longer purchase from you?

    But if they are not even opening, I would delete them after about a year.

    But if they are not CLICKING then the problem is not them, It is your content.

    The Goal of your SUBJECT is to get them to open. Therefore if they open, your subject did its job!

    The Goal of your content is to get them to CLICK, if they do... then your content does its job.

    The Goal of your Sales page is to get them to BUY, if they do... then your Sales Page has done ITS job.

    So whichever they are not doing, then someone is not doing their JOB!

    Hope that helps
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    • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
      Deon, your theory is very good, but the practice is different. Open rates cannot be measured accurately. Imperfect technology

      A subscriber who always opens your emails (added later: according to the reports) but never clicks your links may be an INACTIVE subscriber and the opens may not be real.
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      • Profile picture of the author dlundy1
        Originally Posted by Adrian Jock View Post

        Deon, your theory is very good, but the practice is different. Open rates cannot be measured accurately. Imperfect technology

        A subscriber who always opens your emails but never clicks your links may be an INACTIVE subscriber and the opens may not be real.
        Deon: Thanks for your response Adrian. But I agree that Technology is imperfect, but I would have to say that it is also relatively perfect.

        When you dive into Advance Email Marketing then in order to get the BEST insights into your List... you can't settle for what I consider "Basic" auto-responders.

        You have to up your game to some of the Big-Boy Auto-responders that give you extreme statistics so you can measure and test.

        But most Marketers aren't THAT serious about squeezing every cent from their email marketing campaign.

        In that case I would just suggest dumping the inactive users.
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        • Profile picture of the author Adrian Jock
          Originally Posted by dlundy1 View Post

          When you dive into Advance Email Marketing then in order to get the BEST insights into your List... you can't settle for what I consider "Basic" auto-responders.

          You have to up your game to some of the Big-Boy Auto-responders that give you extreme statistics so you can measure and test.
          I was talking about big boys technology The open rates statistics you get from them aren't accurate. Do you know how the opens are measured?
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          • Profile picture of the author dlundy1
            Originally Posted by Adrian Jock View Post

            I was talking about big boys technology The open rates statistics you get from them aren't accurate. Do you know how the opens are measured?
            The platforms that I have in mind show UNIQUE open-rates.
            (unlike Aweber)

            I don't know how a unique Open-rate can be inaccurate.

            But I'd like to hear your take on how it could
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  • Profile picture of the author Barry Unruh
    Open rates are often based on a graphic included in the email. When the graphic is triggered, it lists the email as "opened". With Google's latest ploy of trapping the graphic on their servers instead of letting them open from the original source, open rate number become less accurate.

    Even users who do not allow graphics to be displayed skew the results. Those "not opens" could actually be people using Gmail, or another email program, that allows them to avoid seeing the images, so therefore, nothing gets reported back to your service to indicate the message was opened.

    Assuming "unopened" means unopened, is just a guess.
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  • Profile picture of the author Zack Lim
    Originally Posted by satrap View Post

    Just wondering how do you guys go about deleting inactive subs.

    I have this list that I have been building for 5 years now and it's getting big. And while I am making money with it, I feel like I am losing money by paying for the total amount of subs when many are not even active anymore.

    I know some folks argue that some people won't buy until they are ready, so it's not a good idea to delete them. But at the same time, I am like how long are you going to keep an extra few thousands subs and pay for them in hopes of them someday reaching for their wallet.

    So, after how many not opens or not clicked do you guys normally just delete them?...

    Thanks in advance.
    You might be interested in this blog post from Getresponse that shows how to reactivate your list by using custom Facebook custom audiences.

    Inactive Email List? Reactivate with Facebook Custom Audiences - GetResponse Blog - Email Marketing Tips

    I find it useful and I hope you find it useful too
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  • Profile picture of the author mrgoe
    No point in having an inactive list of subscribers. It would only make sense if you intend to sell it or something.
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  • Profile picture of the author kevin timothy
    Well...

    If you use an email marketing provider that
    doesn't base your list size on your subscription
    cost (like I do), this shouldn't be a major concern.

    When I used strictly Aweber (which charges you
    based on list size) I usually hung on to the inactives
    for a year max.

    After six months since their last response I would
    personally send those (inactives) a mailing
    with my best attention getting headlines.

    I do this until that year anniversary then off they
    went. But that was with Aweber.
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  • Profile picture of the author lukeblower
    I have a two month cut off, if they haven't done anything for two months I delete them. But I don't do this purge regularly maybe just a couple of times a year.
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  • Profile picture of the author Randall Magwood
    I'll delete most of them dudes... especially if they've been on my freebie list for 11 months and still haven't bought. They make my autoresponder costs go up... no need to lose money for people who dont buy anything. I got a new business model now anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author Graham Darch
    I prefer to have small list of buyers rather than keeping a big list of people who even don't bother to open my emails.
    Give them a time and if they aren't buyers, delete them.
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  • Profile picture of the author satrap
    Thanks everyone for sharing your take. I really appreciate it. I think I am going to try the idea brought up by sidiniquity above. That makes perfect sense. Thanks everyone.
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  • Profile picture of the author nicheblogger75
    I delete any subscriber that has not opened one of my emails for 180 days. If they have not opened one of my emails in 6 months, then I am pretty sure they never will! I also agree that I would rather have my lists small and full of buyers than huge and mostly dead weight. In fact, I just shaved 3,000 subscribers off of my list and I know that they were dead weight because doing this did not affect my open and click-through rates one bit.
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  • Profile picture of the author onlineleben
    Segment your list into active (e.g. buyers) and inactive.
    For the active ones, you continue with your standard autoresponder sequence.
    For the inactive ones, you can try to reactivate them after a certain period (its up to you to define). Send them a special offer included in a short email sequnece, something like "We are missing you". When someone becomes active again, you can move him into the 'active' group of subscribers. If they don't react, purge them.
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