Removing Inactive Subscribers from the Past 6 Months
About This Feature
Just as you can create a list of all the subscribers who have opened your newsletters, you can also create a list of all the subscribers who have not opened your newsletters. This is an effective tool for locating and removing inactive subscribers from your list. To successfully complete this process, you’ll need to know where files download to on your computer and should plan on renaming file downloads.
How to Use This Feature
In order to create a list of subscribers who have not opened a newsletter in the past 6 months, you will first need to create a list of those who did open your newsletter. You can then use this list to create a new list, based off of your full subscriber list, which will consist only of inactive subscribers.
[+] Create a List of Subscribers Who Opened in the Last 6 Months
- Go to “Subscribers” in the main menu and select “Groups”
- Create a new group using the name “temporary” (or similar)
- Now click “Reports” in the main menu. On the reports page, click on the number of opens for your most recent email
- On the following page, click “Copy Subscribers” in the left menu.
- On the next page, check the box next to your new group (“temporary”) and click “Copy”
- Repeat this process for each newsletter sent in the last 6 months
Once you complete this process, your “temporary” group will contain all the subscribers who did open in the past 6 months. Compare that to your full list of active subscribers in order to get the list of subscribers who didn’t open.
[+] Create a List of All Subscribers
- Go to “Subscribers, Groups” again in the main menu
- Create a new subscriber group called “full list” (or similar) for your full subscriber list
- Navigate to “Subscribers” in the main menu and click “Export Active” in the left menu - this downloads a “Subscriber_Report.csv” file of all subscribers in your account
- Rename the file “FullList.csv” so you do not confuse it with other reports
- Click on “Subscribers” in the main menu and select “Add”
- On the “Add Subscribers” page, select the “full list” subscriber group
- Under “Upload Detailed File,” browse to locate “FullList.csv” and then click “Upload”
Once you’ve completed this process, your “full list” group will contain all of your subscribers, including any subscribers you may have removed in the last 30 days. This will not include any former subscribers who opted to unsubscribe from your newsletters.
[+] Create “Did Not Open in Past 6 Months” list
Now your “full list” group contains everyone in your account, and the “temporary” list contains everyone who did open your emails over the past 6 months. To get a list of non-responsive email addresses, we will remove the “temporary” list from the “full list” group.
To do this, first you will need to export the temporary list:
- Go to "Subscribers" in the main menu and click the “temporary” group
- On the next page, click “Export All.” “'subscriber_report.csv” will download - rename the file “Temporary.csv” so as not to confuse it with other subscriber reports
- Next, hover over “Subscribers” in the main menu and select “Remove.” Check the box next to your “full list” group
- Upload the file “Temporary.csv”
To check the status of the removal, hover over “Reports” in the main menu and select “Activity.” You will need to refresh the page to see status updates. Please note that csv files can take some time to process; thank you for your patience.
Once the removal has completed, click “Subscribers” in the main menu. Click on the “edit group” icon next to the “full list” group and rename the group “did not open in past 6 months.” To completely remove these subscribers (recommended):
- Click “Subscribers” in the main menu and click on the “did not open in past 6 months” group
- On the next page, select “Export All” to download “subscriber_report.csv”
- Rename the file “RemovalList.csv” so you don’t confuse it with other lists
- Click on “Remove” in the sub-menu
- In step one, click on “Delete Permanently (Unsubscribe)”
- In step three, browse for the file “RemovalList.csv” and upload the file
- Click remove and allow time for processing
To check the status of the removal, navigate to “Reports, Activity” from the main menu. This will give you the status of your request. Large lists may take some time to process, thank you for your patience.
Best Uses
We normally suggest going back 6 months if you are looking to lower the size of your email list and remove subscribers that aren't quite as likely to open in the future. The general rule of thumb is that most subscribers who have not opened in 6 months are not likely to ever open again. You can go back more or less if you choose.