How To Build A Sunset Policy For Inactive Subscribers That Works

A sunset policy is a simple set of rules for when an email address stops getting regular campaigns because it has gone inactive, and it matters because repeated sending to unengaged contacts can drag down deliverability and sender reputation. The strongest policies start by defining “inactive” based on your cadence and signals that show real interest, like recent opens or clicks, site activity, and purchases. Next, move those contacts into a short re-engagement flow with a clear choice to stay subscribed, then suppress anyone who still does nothing so they are excluded from future sends while keeping unsubscribe compliance intact. The non-obvious mistake is treating inactivity as one universal number instead of tying it to what you send and what “engaged” truly means for your list.

Why inactive subscribers hurt deliverability and sender reputation

What ISPs infer from inactivity

Mailbox providers and spam filters look at how people react to your email over time. When a big chunk of your list never opens, never clicks, and never replies, it can signal that your messages are not wanted or not relevant. That does not automatically mean you are a spammer. But it does increase the risk that future campaigns get routed to Promotions tabs, bulk folders, or spam.

Inactive subscribers also tend to create downstream problems. Old addresses are more likely to turn into bounces. Some can later become recycled as spam traps by mailbox providers or anti-abuse orgs. A sunset policy helps you stop sending before those contacts start harming performance.

Engagement signals that matter most

“Engagement” is not one metric. In practice, inbox placement is influenced by a mix of:

• Positive signals: opens (with caveats), clicks, replies, adding you to contacts, moving your email to the inbox, and consistent reading behavior.
• Negative signals: deletes without reading, low or declining engagement over time, spam complaints, and high bounce rates.
• Consistency signals: steady sending cadence and predictable audience response, not sharp spikes from mailing cold segments.

Because open tracking is less reliable than it used to be, a good sunset policy uses multiple signals, not just “no opens in 90 days.”

Benefits beyond inbox placement

List hygiene is not only about deliverability. When you suppress inactive subscribers, your reporting becomes more honest. Click-through rates, revenue per recipient, and A/B tests stop being diluted by people who were never going to respond.

You also reduce cost and operational noise. You send fewer emails, create fewer bounces, and spend less time chasing “deliverability mysteries” that are really just an aging list. For a team running campaigns in Mailscribe, that means cleaner segments, clearer lifecycle stages, and more predictable results from every send.

Defining an inactive subscriber across email and customer signals

Opens and clicks in a privacy-first world

Start with a definition of “inactive” that fits your list size, sending frequency, and buying cycle. Then make it resilient to imperfect tracking.

Opens are directionally useful, but they are no longer a clean indicator of human intent. Some engaged people will look inactive. Some inactive people can look engaged due to automated prefetching. Treat opens as a soft signal, not the final word.

Clicks are typically a stronger engagement signal because they reflect an intentional action. Still, clicks alone can undercount engagement for “read-only” audiences who consume content without clicking.

A practical approach is to score inactivity using multiple rules, for example: no recent clicks, no recent opens (if you track them), and no other signs of customer activity over a defined window.

Purchase, website, and app engagement signals

Email behavior is only part of the story. A subscriber can stop clicking emails but still be an active customer.

Useful “still interested” signals include:

• Recent purchase, renewal, or subscription payment
• Recent website sessions tied to the contact (logged-in or known user)
• Key on-site events like viewing pricing, adding to cart, starting checkout, or downloading a resource
• App activity like logins, feature usage, or completed milestones

When these signals exist, many teams keep the contact out of the sunset flow, or place them in a lighter version. This keeps you from suppressing people who are active elsewhere but quiet in the inbox.

Segment rules for different message types

One definition rarely fits every program. Build separate inactivity rules for:

• Promotional campaigns: use the strictest thresholds, since these drive most complaints and fatigue.
• Newsletters/content: allow more time, especially if your cadence is weekly or monthly.
• Lifecycle and transactional mail: do not sunset true transactional messages (receipts, password resets). For lifecycle nurturing, use separate rules based on funnel stage.

In Mailscribe, aim for clear lifecycle states like Engaged, At-risk, Re-engagement, and Suppressed. The goal is not to label people. It is to decide what they should receive next.

Sunset policy rules that balance re-engagement and list hygiene

Inactivity thresholds and frequency caps

A workable sunset policy is firm enough to protect deliverability, but flexible enough to match your sales cycle. Set thresholds based on send frequency, not vibes. A daily sender can identify inactivity faster than a monthly newsletter.

Common patterns look like “no clicks (and no reliable engagement) for X days” plus a second check for broader customer activity. Then add a frequency cap so you do not keep poking the same inactive segment:

• If a contact is At-risk, limit sends to only your best-performing campaigns.
• If a contact enters Re-engagement, stop regular promos and send a short sequence only.
• If they do nothing, move them to Suppressed and exclude them from future campaigns.

In Mailscribe, this is easiest when you treat inactivity as a lifecycle state that automatically updates after every send and site or purchase event.

Suppression versus deletion decisions

In most cases, suppression is the safer default than deletion. Suppressed contacts stay in your system for hygiene and compliance, but you stop emailing them. This helps prevent accidental re-imports and repeat mailings to people who already showed no interest.

Deletion can make sense when you have a clear data retention policy, or when records are truly unnecessary. If you delete, be careful: you can lose unsubscribe history, which increases the risk of emailing someone again later if they re-enter from another source.

Documenting exceptions and edge cases

Write down the exceptions so the policy survives team changes:

• VIP customers or high LTV accounts
• Recent purchasers who are email-inactive but active on site or in-app
• Customer support threads where replies matter
• Seasonal businesses where long gaps are normal
• Compliance-driven messages that must be sent regardless of engagement

A short internal one-pager with the rules, thresholds, and exceptions prevents “one-off” decisions from quietly breaking your list hygiene.

Re-engagement campaign structure that earns a real response

Message sequence and offer strategy

A re-engagement campaign should feel like a helpful check-in, not a last-chance ultimatum. Keep it short, clear, and easy to act on.

For most brands, a 2 to 4 message sequence works well:

1. Message 1: Simple reset. Confirm what they are subscribed to and why they are receiving emails. Ask them to click one clear “keep me subscribed” button.
2. Message 2: Value reminder. Share your strongest proof of value: best content, most-loved products, or a practical resource. Keep the CTA the same.
3. Message 3: Optional incentive. If discounts fit your brand, use a modest offer. If not, offer something else: early access, a guide, or a personalized recommendation quiz.
4. Message 4: Confirmation of pause. Let them know you will stop sending regular emails unless they opt back in.

Spacing depends on your cadence, but typically 3 to 7 days between messages is enough to avoid dragging this out.

Preference center and opt-down options

Many “inactive” subscribers are not truly uninterested. They are overwhelmed. Give them a way to reduce volume instead of leaving.

Your re-engagement emails should link to a preference experience where they can:

• Choose topics or product categories
• Switch from daily promos to weekly or monthly updates
• Keep only critical messages like receipts, account notices, or replenishment reminders

If you do not have a full preference center, an “opt-down” can be as simple as one click that moves them to a lower-frequency segment in Mailscribe.

Win-back success criteria

Define success before you launch. Otherwise, you will keep too many inactive contacts “just in case.”

A practical win-back definition is any high-intent action during the sequence, such as a click, a reply, updating preferences, logging in, or making a purchase. Decide what counts, and for how long it keeps someone eligible for regular sends.

Also set a clear failure rule: if they take no qualifying action by the end of the sequence, they move to Suppressed. That single decision is what turns a re-engagement campaign into an actual sunset policy.

Workflow for automated sunsetting in your ESP and CRM

Segmentation, tagging, and lifecycle states

Automation is what makes a sunset policy stick. The goal is to make “who should receive what” a rules-based system, not a spreadsheet project.

In Mailscribe (and your CRM), set up a few durable fields:

• Lifecycle state: Engaged, At-risk, Re-engagement, Suppressed
• Last engagement date: last click, last qualifying site event, or last purchase
• Sunset entry date: when they first met your inactivity rule
• Re-engagement outcome: won back, suppressed, opted-down

From there, build segments that update automatically. A simple model is:

• Engaged: recent qualifying engagement inside your window.
• At-risk: outside the engagement window, but not yet in re-engagement.
• Re-engagement: currently in the reactivation sequence, excluded from regular campaigns.
• Suppressed: excluded from all marketing sends by default.

Make sure any “wins” (click, purchase, preference update) immediately move the contact back to Engaged or to a lower-frequency track. That one rule prevents people from staying stuck in the wrong bucket.

Handling hard bounces, soft bounces, and unsubscribes

Treat deliverability events as part of sunsetting, not separate cleanup.

• Hard bounces: suppress immediately. These addresses are not deliverable, and repeated attempts can hurt reputation.
• Soft bounces: do not panic, but do not ignore them. If an address soft bounces repeatedly across campaigns, stop sending for a period or suppress until it stabilizes.
• Unsubscribes: always honor instantly and globally for marketing mail. Do not try to “re-engage” an unsubscribed contact unless they explicitly opt back in through a compliant flow.

Align your ESP and CRM so these statuses sync in both directions. Otherwise, a suppressed or unsubscribed record can get reactivated by a CRM import.

Suppression list governance and access control

Most list hygiene failures are process failures. Put guardrails around who can change suppression rules and how imports work.

At minimum:

• Restrict permission to edit suppression logic and lifecycle automation.
• Require a standard import template that includes unsubscribe and suppression fields.
• Keep a small “do-not-email” governance checklist for launches, migrations, and vendor changes.

When suppression is treated as shared infrastructure, your sunset policy stays intact even as campaigns, teams, and tools evolve.

GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CCPA considerations for sunsetting policies

Lawful basis, legitimate interest, and data minimization

A sunset policy is usually privacy-positive because it reduces unnecessary processing and messaging. Under the GDPR, it lines up well with the principles of data minimisation and storage limitation: do not keep using personal data “just in case” if you no longer have a clear need.

Where teams get into trouble is assuming list hygiene overrides everything else. You still need a lawful basis to keep processing a person’s data, including engagement data you use to manage suppression. Many organizations rely on consent for marketing sends, and sometimes legitimate interests for limited operational processing like maintaining a suppression record. If you use legitimate interests, document a simple balancing assessment and make opt-out easy.

In the US, CAN-SPAM is more about how you send marketing email than why. The core operational rule for sunsetting is simple: if someone opts out, you must honor it promptly and keep honoring it. The FTC notes you must process opt-out requests within 10 business days and you cannot require extra steps beyond a simple request. CAN-SPAM compliance guidance also makes clear you should not transfer or sell opted-out addresses except for compliance support.

Profiling versus segmentation: practical guidance

Most sunset policies are basic segmentation, not high-risk profiling. Keep it that way. Use minimal signals (recent click, purchase, login) and avoid sensitive inferences. If you do scoring, keep it transparent internally, reversible, and focused on email frequency decisions, not eligibility decisions.

Retention and deletion expectations

CCPA and GDPR both push you toward clear retention limits. “Suppress” and “delete” are different actions: suppression keeps a minimal record to prevent re-mailing, while deletion removes broader data. Under CCPA, deletion rights have exceptions, including keeping data reasonably necessary for security, internal uses aligned with expectations, or legal obligations. Build your policy so you can delete what is not needed while still retaining a narrow do-not-contact record when permitted.

KPIs to track before, during, and after sunsetting

Deliverability and reputation metrics

Track deliverability KPIs in three windows: baseline (2 to 4 weeks before), during the sunset rollout, and after (2 to 8 weeks after). You are looking for trend direction, not one perfect number.

The most useful metrics:

• Spam complaint rate: even small increases are a warning sign.
• Bounce rate: split into hard vs soft bounces. Hard bounces should fall as you stop mailing older addresses.
• Inbox placement proxies: open rate can be noisy, but sharp drops often signal placement issues when everything else stayed constant.
• Domain-level performance: watch Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook separately if your reporting allows it. A single provider can drag the rest down.

Also watch operational metrics like “percent of sends to Suppressed” and “percent of list in At-risk.” If those stay high forever, your policy is not actually sunsetting.

Engagement and revenue per recipient

Sunsetting should make engagement metrics more honest. The key is to measure per delivered email, not per total list size.

Focus on:

• Click rate and click-to-open rate (CTOR)
• Reply rate (for B2B or creator-style lists)
• Conversion rate and revenue per recipient (or per delivered)
• Re-engagement recovery rate: percent of Re-engagement contacts who take your chosen success action

For Mailscribe users, it helps to compare campaign performance for Engaged vs At-risk segments. If At-risk drives negligible clicks and complaints are higher, suppression is usually the right call.

Common pitfalls that skew results

A few mistakes can make a good sunset policy look “bad” on paper:

• Judging too quickly: deliverability changes can lag by days or weeks.
• Changing multiple variables at once: new sending cadence, new content, and sunsetting in the same month makes attribution messy.
• Using only opens to define inactivity: you will suppress real readers and misread outcomes.
• Not excluding Re-engagement from promos: this inflates volume and irritates the exact people you are trying to win back.
• Forgetting channel spillover: some “inactive” subscribers convert via direct, paid, or in-app. If you can, include those signals before you suppress.