Avoiding deliverability issues with unengaged email lists

“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.

After auditing 100+ ecommerce email programs, I've found something concerning: Most brands focus on the wrong deliverability factors. Yes, everyone knows about: Using double opt-in Cleaning your list Avoiding spam words But here are the advanced tactics actually moving the needle for our clients: 1. Engagement-Based Sending Identifying highly engaged subscribers Sending to them first Gradually expanding to less engaged segments Only sending to the full list for critical campaigns 2. IP and Domain Warming New ESP? Don't blast your entire list day one. We follow this warming schedule: Week 1: 10% of engaged subscribers Week 2: 25% of engaged subscribers Week 3: 50% of list Week 4: Full list 3. Authentication Isn't Optional We recently took over a client's program where they had: No SPF records No DKIM No DMARC policy After implementing all three: Deliverability did a 180. 4. The Gmail Reply Hack Want to boost Gmail deliverability? Ask for replies. When subscribers reply, it signals to Gmail you're a trusted sender.

Here are our top 3 ways to save credits on AIQ.com (Alpine IQ) ▶ Clean Lists - around 5-15% of your email list is invalid or full inbox email addresses - run it through an online list cleaner like Reoon and re-import that list of invalid emails into AIQ as “Opt Out = True” ▶ Exclude Non-Engagers - create audiences of email opt-ins that have not opened any email in a long time - start at the last 180-720 days - then work your way sooner or adjust based on how many emails they’ve opened - for example, exclude people that have received 20+ emails in the last 180 days but have not opened any - they’re likely never going to open your regular emails again anyway ▶ Routine Credit Analysis - right now, look at the historical invoices and credit usage - see if you’ve been going under credits or getting charged overages - if you’re under, that means you can send more campaigns and reach more customers - if you’re getting charged overages, calculate how many less emails it will take to fall under your credit plan threshold, and see if removing those Non-Engagers or Invalid emails will help We did this with a client in New Jersey with 43,000 email opt-ins. They had a 60,000 AIQ credit package and were routinely getting charged credit overages, so they thought they should upgrade to the 125,000 package (+$500/mo). When we came in we did a full list and credit analysis. We found 35,000 people hadn’t opened ANY emails. So we set those people aside. Then we cleaned the entire list and found 3,000 invalid emails. We completely opted those emails out of the system. We not only saved them from adding another $500/mo onto their expenses, but now exposed that they were actually underutilizing their 60k credits with all those emails excluded. So what did we do next? We messaged the customers that were engaging the most, more frequently and up to 4 times per week. Then we initiated re-engagement funnels to activate people that never opened, and a lot of those now fall into a full sunset list. Then we helped them increase opt-ins of people with REAL emails and engaged them from the start so they fell into regular messaging. And implemented our Full Retention System to make all this happen… all within the AIQ platform. I know a lot of dispensaries out there struggle using AIQ. It’s powerful!! But it can be overwhelming. We can help. Just like we’ve helped and analyzed over 150 dispensaries take full advantage of the platform, and implementing a Full Retention System that saves money while making money.