Food brand recovered email engagement through better list hygiene
the team thought content was the problem. the real issue was list quality. a large inactive segment was dragging down inbox placement, making even strong campaigns look weak before customers ever saw them.
open rate post-hygiene
+
0
%
- Verified Outcome
click rate post-hygiene
+
0
%
THE PROBLEM
A growing list was hiding a shrinking engaged audience
38% of sendable subscribers had not opened or clicked in 180+ days
Unengaged contacts stayed active because there was no suppression process
spam complaints rose to 0.08%, double the 0.04% threshold, putting gmail and outlook inbox placement at risk.
WHY IT MATTERED
sending to unengaged subscribers was damaging future inbox placement.
- Low engagement trained inbox providers to deprioritize the sender’s domain.
- Poor deliverability made content look like the problem, leading the team to solve the wrong issue.
- a complaint rate above the 0.01% threshold put even engaged subscribers at risk of landing in spam.
WHAT ENVIARY CHANGED
enviary segmented the list by engagement level before sending another campaign.
What we built
- Cold subscribers received a 3-email re-engagement sequence over 14 days.
- Dormant subscribers were suppressed immediately due to low recovery and high complaint risk.
- An ongoing suppression rule was added to prevent inactive contacts from building up again.
pre-agency
0
%
Deliverability score
after working with enviary
0
%
Score within 2 months
THE RESULT
a smaller engaged list outperformed the larger one on every metric
open rate
+
0
%
click rate
+
0
%
spam complaint rate
0
%
CREATIVE EXCELLENCE
Aesthetics that convert
Results Snapshot
measurable growth through through better list hygiene
WHY IT WORKED
Deliverability is what determines whether anyone sees the email at all.
“the issue was not weak subject lines or poor content. the list was. once unengaged contacts were removed, the same emails performed better because they were finally reaching the inbox.”
