How to suppress unengaged users without deleting them?
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Suppression means excluding a subscriber from campaigns without removing their record from your database. They stay in your system with their history intact. You just stop sending to them. Here's how to do it.
Step 1: Define your suppression threshold. The most common criterion is "no open or click in X days". Typically 90–180 days depending on how frequently you send. If you send weekly, 90 days without a click is a meaningful signal. If you send monthly, extend the window to 180 days before considering suppression.
Step 2: Run a re-engagement campaign first. Before suppressing anyone, send a direct re-engagement message: "We've noticed you haven't clicked anything lately. Still want to hear from us?" with a prominent re-opt-in button. Anyone who clicks stays active. Anyone who doesn't responds to this is a suppression candidate.
Step 3: Create a suppression segment or list. In most ESPs, you either tag contacts as suppressed or add them to an exclusion list that's automatically excluded from future campaign sends. Apply this exclusion to your main marketing campaigns while leaving transactional sends (receipts, account alerts) unaffected. Suppression should target marketing mail, not transactional.
Step 4: Keep the record. The suppressed contact's history, signup date, consent record, engagement history, suppression date, stays in your database. This matters for compliance documentation and for recognizing returning customers. If a suppressed contact makes a new purchase or re-opts-in through another channel, you can remove the suppression and treat them as a re-engaged subscriber.
Step 5: Review quarterly. Suppression isn't permanent. Run a lightweight re-engagement test to your oldest suppression cohort twice a year. Anyone who responds comes back off suppression. For anyone who still doesn't respond after 12+ months of suppression, deletion may be the cleaner option. Especially if you're managing GDPR data retention obligations.
The goal is protecting your sender reputation without permanently losing contact records you may need later.
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