Avoid paying for inactive email contacts

There's a hidden setting in Klaviyo that 90% of brands never touch... And it's costing them thousands in lost revenue every month. It's buried in your account settings under "Billing." Most brands are paying for dead email addresses they don't even know exist. Here's what I see when I audit accounts: → 15-20% of email lists are completely inactive → Fake emails from bots and spam signups → Typos like "gmial.com" instead of "gmail.com" → Role-based emails that never convert → Chronic bounces killing your sender reputation But here's the kicker: You're paying Klaviyo for every single one of these dead contacts. Every month. The brands I work with who generate $12M+ per month do this differently. They clean their lists methodically using tools like MillionVerify. Not just removing people who haven't opened emails. Real list cleaning means: Verifying email addresses are actually deliverable. Removing syntax errors and typos. Identifying and purging spam traps. Flagging risky domains that hurt deliverability. Once you clean your list properly, here's the hidden setting: Go to Account > Settings > Billing. Remove those verified bad contacts from your active subscriber count. Your cost per send drops immediately. Your deliverability improves. Your engagement rates go up. And you stop paying for contacts that were never going to buy anyway. I've seen brands cut their Klaviyo bill by 30% just by doing this properly. While simultaneously improving their email performance. Most brands think a bigger list equals more revenue. The smartest brands know a clean list beats a big list every time. When's the last time you actually cleaned your email list?

Just saved a client $19,260/year on Klaviyo. Their last agency said these costs were "normal". Spoiler alert: They're not. The client was paying $2,985 per month to send emails - a figure they'd been told was "standard for their size." But the money was going toward dead weight: A massive swath of subscribers who hadn't opened an email in over a year. On top of wasting tons of cash, the dormant contacts were actively harming deliverability and skewing performance data. We went in with a systematic cleanup, and their monthly costs dropped to $1,380. A lot of agencies avoid these conversations because bigger subscriber counts often "justify" higher retainers. But software costs should scale with your active, engaged audience - not with a stockpile of inactive, useless addresses.

Are you cleaning your email list regularly? Many brands will flex about the size of their email list, but in reality, a good number of those emails should be suppressed. What ends up happening over time is that your Klaviyo bill grows and increases because of this. So essentially, you're paying for someone who never engaged (and never will). To clean the list, create the following segment: - If someone can or cannot receive marketing > can receive email marketing AND  - What someone has done or not done > Received email is at 5 in the last 180 days AND  - What someone has done or not done > Opened email 0 times over all time AND  - What someone has done or not done > Clicked email 0 times over all time AND  - What someone has done or not done > Viewed Product 0 times over all time AND  - What someone has done or not done > Placed Order 0 times over all time Once you have created your segment, you can suppress those that did not engage with your sunset flow. To suppress the segment:  1. Go to the Lists & segments tab. 2. Click the Never engaged segment and click the 3 dots to the far right. 3. Click Suppress current members to suppress all of the unengaged profiles in bulk. On the confirmation modal, confirm the number of profiles you’d like to suppress. But that's suppressing the unengaged, there is more to list cleaning. Make sure to also do the following: -> Suppressing the unengaged – You stop emailing contacts who haven’t opened or clicked in 60–90+ days (depending on your send volume and business model). -> Removing hard bounces – These are invalid emails that failed to deliver. Keeping them hurts your sender reputation. -> Deleting spam complaints – If someone marked your email as spam, remove them. Keeping them increases risk with inbox providers. -> Checking for role-based or generic emails – Like info@, support@, etc. These often don’t belong to a real subscriber and can be risky. -> Running an email verification tool (optional but useful) – Especially for old lists, this helps identify invalid or risky emails before sending.

You’re still emailing people who haven’t opened a single message in 2 years. And you’re wondering why your deliverability is tanking. Here’s what I see over and over inside Klaviyo accounts: - Huge lists bloated with zombie profiles - Campaigns sent to users who never engaged—even once - Tens of thousands of people getting emails who literally never opened a message or placed an order It’s not just a waste of money (although… that too). It’s hurting your inbox placement. It’s inflating your metrics. It’s increasing spam complaints. After inbox providers tightened their sender standards, it’s a real risk. 👉 If your spam complaint rate is over 0.3%, that’s a red flag. 👉 If your bounce rate is creeping up, that’s another. 👉 If your “active” list includes people with zero opens, clicks, or purchases ever—you’ve got a problem. So what do you do? You get aggressive about segmentation and suppression. Start by building these segments: - Bounced at least once in the last 30 days, or 3+ times all time - Received 10+ emails, opened 0, purchased 0 - No clicks, no site activity, and no orders in the last 180 days These aren’t just nice-to-haves. They’re your retention safety net. 💡 Suppress the worst offenders 💡 Win back the maybes 💡 Stop paying for ghosts Clean list = stronger deliverability = more real revenue.

“Email less to avoid unsubscribes.” How many times have you heard that advice? Here’s the reality: It’s not about sending fewer emails. It’s about sending the right emails. I worked with a client who cut their email volume by 40% after a deliverability scare. Their engagement improved briefly, but revenue plummeted. What they missed was this: volume wasn’t the issue. Their list quality was. We implemented a simple shift: - We aggressively cleaned their list, removing unengaged and invalid contacts. - We doubled down on their high-intent segments, sending more personalized emails to the people who actually cared. Result? Revenue jumped 25%, and their unsubscribe rate stayed flat. Don’t email less, clean more. Then, email the right people as much as they can handle.