After your email campaigns are suspended, we may ask you to clean your contact database before manually reactivating your account in the Deliverability Center. Sending campaigns to a clean database improves open and click rates, reduces sending costs, and ensures your emails reach engaged contacts.
Good to know
- We recommend that you regularly clean your contact database to avoid being suspended again. Note that a second suspension can lead to permanent account deactivation. To learn more, check our dedicated article Optimize and clean your contact list to improve email deliverability.
- Your account may be suspended for various reasons. The Maintain your database step only appears when your account is suspended due to either negative email campaign results or after sending a campaign to new contacts. To learn more, check our dedicated article Why have my email campaigns or account been suspended?.
Why was I suspended?
At Brevo, ensuring the effectiveness of your email campaigns is our priority. If any email campaign targeting newly imported contacts delivers poor results, we will temporarily suspend your campaigns. This process has been implemented to safeguard your online reputation and ensure the success of your next campaigns.
In the Deliverability Center, we've added the results of your latest campaign so you can understand what went wrong. Several factors could contribute to poor campaign performance, including:
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High number of complaints
Some recipients may not have given their consent to receive your emails or might struggle to find your unsubscribe link, leading them to mark your email campaign as spam. -
High unsubscribe rate
Some recipients may have lost interest in your content, leading them to unsubscribe from receiving your email campaigns. -
High number of hard bounces
Some recipients' email addresses may no longer exist, resulting in a high number of hard bounces. -
Spam traps
Some recipients' email addresses could actually be spam traps, which can cause your campaign to land in the spam folder.
Access the segment of contacts you need to clean
To help you clean your database, we’re giving you access to a segment gathering all the new contacts from your last email campaign. These new contacts triggered poor results for your campaign and need to be checked to ensure they are legitimate contacts.
You will be redirected to the Contacts page with your contact list segmented by the following two conditions:
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Clean your database
You should now clean your database. You can do so by using segments or by exporting the contacts and reimporting them as blocklisted.
With this option, you will clean your contacts directly in Brevo by applying filters and adding unwanted contacts to a blocklist. These contacts will not receive further emails, safeguarding your metrics.
We've added a few examples below, but these are only ideas to help you clean your contact database, they don't necessarily apply to your case.
Step 1: Filter out the problematic contacts
You can add conditions to the main segment to display the contacts you should blocklist. Ensure you keep the main segment (New contacts and last campaign sent).
Here are some examples of conditions you can add:
When importing contacts into Brevo from your website or another platform, you can include the date they joined your database. Contacts added over two years ago are less likely to engage with your emails.
To filter out contacts added more than two years ago:
- Under the segment, click + And.
- Add the following condition: Contact details > Creation date > More than > 24 > months.
If you didn't import this date, we suggest exporting it from your website or previous platform and re-importing it to Brevo. Otherwise, the date displayed in Brevo reflects the date they were imported into Brevo itself.
When importing contacts into Brevo from your website or another platform, you can include the date they were last updated. Contacts last updated over two years ago are less likely to engage with your emails.
To filter out contacts last updated more than two years ago:
- Under the segment, click + And.
- Add the following condition: Contact details > Edit date > More than > 24 > months.
If you didn't import this date, we suggest exporting it from your website or previous platform and re-importing it to Brevo. Otherwise, the date displayed in Brevo reflects the date they were last updated in Brevo itself.
Generic email addresses are often unmonitored and shared among multiple users or teams. These contacts usually aren't tied to specific individuals, leading to significantly lower engagement rates for emails received through them.
- Under the segment, click + And.
- Add the following condition: Contacts details > Email (address) > Contains > contact@, sales@, admin@, noreply@, info@, support@. You can enter several options by hitting Enter after each.
Here are some other examples of contacts you should look for:
Purchased or rented lists are against GDPR regulations and are prohibited in Brevo according to our Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Policy. These lists often contain spam traps, which can significantly damage your deliverability.
Scraped contacts refer to email addresses obtained by copying information from the internet or social media. They are against GDPR regulations and are prohibited in Brevo according to our Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Policy. These contacts have not provided explicit consent to receive your emails, making it likely that they will mark them as spam. Furthermore, scraped contacts often double as spam traps, which can significantly damage your deliverability.
Email addresses with typos often lead to bounces, negatively impacting your metrics and online reputation. A double opt-in sign-up form is advisable to prevent invalid email addresses from entering your database.
Contacts with email addresses guessed based on their company's format are prone to marking your emails as spam. They haven't consented to receive your emails and are not anticipating them.
Step 2: Blocklist the contacts
After applying a condition to the segment, follow these steps to blocklist the matching contacts:
- Manually review if the segmented contacts in the list are indeed contacts you should clean.
- If so, check the box at the top left of the table and click Select all contacts. You can also select the contacts individually if you don't want to blocklist all of them.
- Click Blocklist.
- In the Type "#" to confirm field, enter the number of contacts to blocklist.
- Click Blocklist to confirm.
Another option is to export your database to filter the contacts in a spreadsheet and reimport them in a blocklist. These contacts will not receive further emails, safeguarding your metrics.
Step 1: Export the contacts
On the Contacts page, your contacts are now filtered with the predefined segment (New contacts and last campaign sent):
- Scroll down to view the list of contacts under the segment.
- Check the box at the top left of the table and click Select all contacts.
- Click More actions > Export.
- In the Attributes to export dropdown, select All options and choose a CSV field separator.
- Click Export to confirm.
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Download the export file from your Notifications: click the bell icon 🔔 next to your account name and click download the file on the corresponding notification.
The owner of the Brevo account also receives the export file by email.
To learn more about exporting contacts, check our dedicated article Export your contacts from Brevo.
Step 2: Filter out the problematic contacts
Filter out contacts likely to generate poor metrics in your email campaigns. We recommend you copy/paste these problematic contacts into a separate file so that you can reimport them in a blocklist.
Here are some examples of contacts you can add to the problematic contacts file:
When importing contacts into Brevo from your website or another platform, you can include the date they joined your database. Contacts added over two years ago are less likely to engage with your emails.
If you didn't import this date, we suggest exporting it from your website or previous platform and re-importing it to Brevo. Otherwise, the date displayed in Brevo reflects the date they were imported into Brevo itself.
When importing contacts into Brevo from your website or another platform, you can include the date they were last updated. Contacts last updated over two years ago are less likely to engage with your emails.
If you didn't import this date, we suggest exporting it from your website or previous platform and re-importing it to Brevo. Otherwise, the date displayed in Brevo reflects the date they were last updated in Brevo itself.
Generic email addresses are often unmonitored and shared among multiple users or teams. These contacts usually aren't tied to specific individuals, leading to significantly lower engagement rates for emails received through them.
Here are some other examples of contacts you should look for:
Purchased or rented lists are against GDPR regulations and are prohibited in Brevo according to our Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Policy. These lists often contain spam traps, which can significantly damage your deliverability.
Scraped contacts refer to email addresses obtained by copying information from the internet or social media. They are against GDPR regulations and are prohibited in Brevo according to our Terms of Use and Anti-Spam Policy. These contacts have not provided explicit consent to receive your emails, making it likely that they will mark them as spam. Furthermore, scraped contacts often double as spam traps, which can significantly damage your deliverability.
Email addresses with typos often lead to bounces, negatively impacting your metrics and online reputation. A double opt-in sign-up form is advisable to prevent invalid email addresses from entering your database.
Contacts with email addresses guessed based on their company's format are prone to marking your emails as spam. They haven't consented to receive your emails and are not anticipating them.
Step 3: Re-import them in Brevo as blocklisted contacts
Once you have filtered out your problematic contacts, you can blocklist them in bulk by importing the file in Brevo containing the problematic contacts, and choosing the option Blocklist the imported Email contacts at the Finalize your import step. This ensures that they won't receive your campaigns anymore.
To learn more, check our dedicated article Import a list of blocklisted contacts.
Reactivate your account
You can now go back to the Deliverability Center and click Reactivate my account.
🤔 Have a question?
If you have a question, feel free to contact our support team by creating a ticket from your account. If you don't have an account yet, you can contact us here.
If you’re looking for help with a project using Brevo, we can match you with the right certified Brevo Agency partner.