Maintaining good Klaviyo list hygiene is crucial for e-commerce marketers who want to ensure high deliverability, strong engagement rates, and compliance with email marketing regulations. Poor list hygiene can lead to increased bounce rates, spam complaints, and a damaged sender reputation.
This guide will explore the best practices for keeping your email lists clean in Klaviyo, share actionable list management tips, and provide insights to help optimize your email marketing strategy.
What Is Klaviyo List Hygiene and Why Is It Important?
Klaviyo list hygiene refers to the process of regularly cleaning and managing your email contact lists to remove inactive, invalid, or unengaged subscribers. Good list hygiene ensures your emails reach the right audience, improves open and click-through rates, and helps avoid deliverability issues. Maintaining clean email lists in Klaviyo is essential for keeping your sender reputation strong and achieving the best possible performance from your email campaigns.
How to Maintain Good Klaviyo List Hygiene: Quick Answer
To maintain good Klaviyo list hygiene, regularly remove inactive contacts, verify email addresses, implement a double opt-in process, and use suppression lists to avoid sending to unengaged subscribers.
Step-by-Step: How to Implement Klaviyo List Hygiene
1. Log Into Your Klaviyo Account
Visit www.klaviyo.com and sign in to access your dashboard.
2. Create a Segment of Inactive Contacts
Navigate to "Lists & Segments" in the left-hand menu.
Click "Create List/Segment" and select "Segment."
Name the segment something clear, like "Inactive Contacts 180 Days."
3. Define Inactivity Criteria
In the segment conditions, set up rules such as:
What someone has not done: "Opened Email" > "in the last 180 days."
Additional filters: "Has not clicked email" or "Has not placed an order."
This will create a dynamic list of contacts who are not engaging with your emails.
4. Use Suppression Lists to Avoid Sending to Inactive Contacts
Go to "Profiles" > "Suppressed Profiles" in Klaviyo.
Click "Add Suppressed Profiles" and upload a CSV of your inactive contacts.
Suppressed profiles will not receive any future communications but will remain in your database for historical analysis.
5. Remove Invalid and Hard-Bounced Emails
Navigate to "Analytics" > "Reports" > "Deliverability."
Identify contacts with hard bounces and manually remove them or add them to your suppression list.
You can also use third-party email verification tools to validate email addresses.
6. Automate List Cleaning with Flows
Set up a flow in Klaviyo to automatically add unengaged contacts to a suppression list.
Use a "Sunset Flow" that identifies when a subscriber has not engaged for a specified period and triggers a re-engagement email before suppression.
Best Practices for Klaviyo List Hygiene
1. Use Double Opt-In for New Subscribers
Prevent invalid or fake email addresses by enabling the double opt-in feature:
Go to "Lists & Segments" > Select the list > "Settings" > Enable "Double Opt-In."
2. Segment Your Audience by Engagement
Regularly update dynamic segments to target only engaged subscribers with your campaigns.
Examples of effective segments include "Recently Engaged" and "High-Intent Buyers."
3. Run Re-Engagement Campaigns
Before removing inactive contacts, send a targeted re-engagement campaign.
Offer incentives like a discount or exclusive content to encourage re-engagement.
4. Clean Your List Regularly
Schedule quarterly or bi-annual list clean-ups to keep your email list healthy.
Automate the process using dynamic segments and suppression lists.
5. Monitor Deliverability Metrics
Keep an eye on bounce rates, open rates, and spam complaints.
High bounce rates or frequent spam complaints indicate poor list hygiene.
Common Mistakes to Avoid in Klaviyo List Hygiene
❌ Not Using a Suppression List
Suppression lists are critical for avoiding the risk of sending to unengaged or problematic contacts.
❌ Removing Contacts Too Quickly
Always run a re-engagement campaign before deleting inactive subscribers.
❌ Ignoring Double Opt-In
Without a double opt-in, you might collect invalid or low-quality email addresses, leading to higher bounce rates.
❌ Overlooking Segmentation
Sending mass emails to your entire list without segmentation can lead to decreased engagement and increased unsubscribes.
How to Use Klaviyo List Hygiene to Improve Campaign Performance
Boost Engagement: By only sending to engaged contacts, your open and click-through rates will naturally improve.
Enhance Deliverability: Good list hygiene helps avoid spam filters and maintain a high sender score.
Save Costs: Most email platforms, including Klaviyo, charge based on the number of active contacts. A clean list means you only pay for valuable subscribers.
Conclusion: Ready to Improve Your Klaviyo List Hygiene?
Implementing best practices for Klaviyo list hygiene is a powerful strategy to enhance your email marketing performance. By regularly cleaning your email list, using suppression lists, and maintaining active engagement with your subscribers, you can ensure your campaigns deliver results.
📩 If your email program is underperforming and you’re unsure how to optimize frequency, let’s talk.
At Dispatch, we help brands maximize revenue from email & SMS without damaging subscriber engagement.
👉 Connect with Dispatch today to optimize your email marketing strategy.
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