List hygiene protects deliverability and makes campaign reporting easier to interpret. The safest routine combines suppression rules, engagement review, and a documented decision for uncertain records.
Protect consent signals
Keep consent status and source visible. Suppress unsubscribed, bounced, and otherwise restricted records according to the system's rules. Never restore a suppressed contact just to increase the audience size.
Review engagement
Look at recent opens, clicks, replies, and conversions together. A single signal is not enough to label a person inactive. Separate a re-engagement experiment from the main campaign audience.
Remove obvious errors
Correct malformed addresses and merge clear duplicates only after preserving history. Coordinate list changes with CRM ownership. The email segmentation operations guide shows how clean fields support useful audiences.
Record the run
Log the date, filters, records suppressed, exceptions, and reviewer. Repeat on a schedule and investigate new spikes in bounces or complaints. Hygiene is a routine that reduces risk before the next send.
