What Most Marketers Get Completely Wrong About Email Lists

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Let me ask you something.

How much do you really worry about your unsubscribe rate?

If you're like most marketers, the answer is: a lot.

You keep a close eye on that number. You feel a sting every time someone opts out. You treat it as a performance metric, as if every unsubscribe is a little failure.

You’re not alone. This mindset is what the gurus preach, what platforms reinforce, and what courses teach:
"Reduce list churn." or
"Email less so people don’t leave."

But…

What if this whole approach is backward?

What if trying to keep everyone on your list is the real mistake?

What if the best thing that could happen to your email program…
...is that more people leave?

Let’s break it down

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Why Fewer Subscribers Can Mean More Sales

Sounds crazy, right?

But here's the truth most marketers don’t want to hear:
A certain level of unsubscribes is not just acceptable, it’s essential to building a high-performing email list.

Every unsubscribe is a signal.

It’s someone saying, “This isn’t for me.”
They’re not your people. They’re not buyers. They’re not aligned with your mission, your voice, or your offers.

And keeping them around just inflates your ego while quietly eroding your results.

Here’s what happens when you stop fearing unsubscribes:

• Your deliverability improves.
  Email platforms reward high engagement. Disengaged subs tank that.

• Your metrics become meaningful.
  When only your real audience is left, open and click rates reveal what’s actually working.

• You stop wasting money.
  Most ESPs charge by list size. Why pay for people who haven’t opened in 6 months?

• You sharpen your strategy.
  A focused list gives better feedback, clearer signals, and more profitable responses.

• You reduce spam complaints.
  Hiding the unsubscribe link doesn’t keep people, it annoys them. And when they can’t leave easily, they mark you as spam.

Case Study: When “Losing” Subscribers Led to 8X Conversions

One of our B2B clients came to us beaming with pride over their email list:
87,000 subscribers. Just a 0.1% unsubscribe rate.

But behind the scenes?

• Opens: 12%

• Clicks: 0.8%

• Conversions: 0.05%

• Deliverability issues in multiple inboxes

They were sending to the masses… and barely moving the needle.

We flipped the model.

We made the unsubscribe link obvious.
We segmented out disengaged users.
We ran a “re-permission” campaign and cleaned the list.

Over 3 months:

• List size dropped 31%

• Unsubscribes rose (briefly) to 0.7%

• Opens jumped to 28%

• Clicks hit 3.2%

• Conversions surged to 0.4%

• Deliverability issues? Gone.

The smaller list brought in more revenue. Because it wasn’t about volume, it was about alignment.

Here’s what to do

1. Define Your Ideal Subscriber
Who are your true fans? The ones who open, click, buy, refer, reply?

2. Measure Engagement, Not Just Size
Track opens, clicks, replies, not just how many people are “on the list.”

3. Clean Your List Quarterly
Create a disengaged segment (90+ days of no opens), and run re-permission or removal campaigns.

4. Make It Easy to Leave
Put your unsubscribe link in a visible spot. Not as a trapdoor, but as a clean exit for non-buyers.

5. Challenge Your Audience Sometimes
Send strong messages. Take a stand. Be real. If someone leaves when you show your true voice, they weren’t yours to begin with.

The key insight:
Your list isn’t a museum. It’s a marketplace.
And in a marketplace, the people who don’t buy get out of the way for those who do.

What You Can Do Today

If you want to shift from list hoarding to list optimization, start here:

✅ Calculate your true engagement rate
What % of your list has opened any email in the last 90 days?

✅ Segment your ghosts
Find those who haven’t engaged in 3–6 months.

✅ Run a re-permission campaign
Ask: “Do you still want to hear from us?” Give them the option to stay or go.

✅ Move your unsubscribe link up
Make it easy to leave. It’s counterintuitive, but builds trust.

✅ Remove the dead weight
After one last check-in, clear out the disengaged.

It’s not about chasing numbers. It’s about building a responsive, loyal, profitable audience.

And that means being okay, even glad, when the wrong people opt out.

The Wrap-Up

The most successful email marketers I know don’t obsess over keeping everyone.

They obsess over keeping the right people.

People who open. People who click. People who buy.

Unsubscribes aren’t a threat, they’re a tool.
Use them wisely.

To your smarter, leaner, more profitable list,
Cheers
The InBoXer Team