Clean your contact database after the suspension of your email campaigns

In this article, we'll guide you in cleaning your database after the suspension of your email campaigns.

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.

On the Compliance page, 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: 

  • 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.

What should I do?

Before manually reactivating your account from the Compliance page, we ask you to clean your contact database. Sending email campaigns to a clean database will boost open and click rates while minimizing sending costs. This approach allows you to send fewer emails, ensuring that those sent reach engaged contacts.

For more details about having the best contact database, check our dedicated article Optimize and clean your contact list to improve email deliverability.

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.

  1. Go to the Compliance page.
  2. Go to the step Clean your database.
  3. Click Clean my database.

You will be redirected to the Contacts page with your contact list segmented with the following two conditions:

  • New contacts
    Contacts you contacted for the first time
  • Last campaign sent
    The campaign with unsatisfying results
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Option 1. Clean your database in Brevo (segments)

With this option, you will clean your contacts directly in Brevo using filters and adding the 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. 

Filter out the problematic contacts

In this step, 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:

Contacts added to your database more than two years ago

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:

  1. Under the segment, click + And.
  2. Add the following condition: Contact details > Creation date > More than > 24 > months.
💡 Good to know

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.

Contacts last updated in your database more than two years ago

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:

  1. Under the segment, click + And.
  2. Add the following condition: Contact details > Edit date > More than > 24 > months.
💡 Good to know

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

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.

  1. Under the segment, click + And.
  2. 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:

Rented or purchased contacts

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

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.

Contacts that contain typos

Email addresses with typos often lead to bounces, negatively impacting your metrics and online reputation. A double opt-in subscription form is advisable to prevent invalid email addresses from entering your database.

Guessed emails based on the company format

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.

Blocklist the contacts

After applying a condition to the segment, follow these steps to blocklist the matching contacts:

  1. Verify if the contacts in the below list are indeed contacts you should clean.
  2. 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.
  3. Click Blocklist.
  4. In the Type "#" to confirm field, enter the number of contacts to blocklist.
  5. Click Blocklist to confirm.
💡 Good to know
We recommend blocklisting these contacts and not deleting them. To learn more, check our dedicated article Why not delete contacts who are blocklisted?.

Option 2. Clean your database in a spreadsheet (export)

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.

Export the contacts

Still from the Compliance page, click Clean my contacts in step 2 Clean your database. You'll be redirected to the Contacts page with a predefined segment.

  1. Scroll down to view the list of contacts under the segment.
  2. Check the box at the top left of the table and click Select all contacts.
  3. Click More actions > Export.
  4. In the Attributes to export dropdown, select All options and choose a CSV field separator.
  5. Click Export to confirm.
  6. Download the export file from your notifications center

Filter out the problematic contacts

In this step, you can use the same examples as the section above to 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.

Re-import them in Brevo as blocklisted contacts

Once you have filtered out your problematic contacts, you can blocklist them in bulk by re-importing the file in Brevo and choosing the option Blocklist the imported Email contacts. 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

As a last step, go back to the Compliance page to finish the last step by clicking Reactivate my account.

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🤔 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 expert partner.

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