How can you isolate risky contacts without deleting them?
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The instinct when you find risky contacts is to delete them. But there's a better move: isolate them into tiers and treat each tier differently, rather than making a permanent call right away.
Here's a four-tier structure that works well:
Tier 1: Highly engaged. Clicked in the last 30 days. These are your active readers. They receive everything. Their engagement signals help maintain your sender reputation across all providers.
Tier 2: Engaged. Clicked in the last 30-90 days. Still responsive but less active. Include in most campaigns. Watch for decline trends over time.
Tier 3: Fading. Clicked in the last 90-180 days. Interest is dropping. Send only your best content. This is where a re-engagement campaign belongs, before they drift into Tier 4.
Tier 4: Unengaged. No clicks in 180+ days. High risk to your reputation. Exclude from regular campaigns. Run a targeted re-engagement series with a clear win-back offer, then suppress whoever doesn't respond. Don't keep sending to this group indefinitely hoping things improve. They won't.
The reason not to delete Tier 4 immediately: some will re-engage when given the right prompt. Deleting them is irreversible. Suppression lets you keep the option open while protecting your reputation in the meantime.
Mailbox providers score you based on the engagement patterns across everything you send. When you send mostly to people who click and open, your metrics stay healthy. When you mix in large batches of non-engagers, your overall signals drop and filtering increases. The tier structure keeps your main campaigns insulated from your riskiest contacts.
Set up your default campaign target as Tiers 1-3. Promotional sends with time-sensitive offers might target only Tiers 1-2. Re-engagement campaigns explicitly target Tier 4 with content designed to remind them why they signed up.
Review and re-classify subscribers into tiers every 30-60 days. Someone who re-engages moves back up. Someone who's been silent for a year moves to suppression.
For the full context on why this matters for inbox placement, the risk segmentation overview gives the broader picture.
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