Hard bounces: when should an address come off the suppression list?Not every hard bounce is a dead address. What the bounce codes mean, which ones to suppress for good, which ones deserve a quarantine, and how Mailchimp handles it.
Ruth Williams · Blog
The acadion experts' blog
What we've learned about email lists, deliverability and reputation, written for email marketers.
Hard bounces: when should an address come off the suppression list?Not every hard bounce is a dead address. What the bounce codes mean, which ones to suppress for good, which ones deserve a quarantine, and how Mailchimp handles it.Ruth Williams · 
How to clean up your Mailchimp audience, step by stepA practical checklist to clean a Mailchimp list: back it up, clear unsubscribed and duplicate contacts, archive the inactive ones safely, and keep it clean every month.Ruth Williams · 
How to archive contacts in Mailchimp, including in bulkStep by step: archive one contact, a whole group or every unsubscribed contact in Mailchimp, find them later, bring them back, and do it through the API.Ruth Williams · 
Mailchimp contact limits: what counts, and what happens when you go overEvery Mailchimp plan has a contact limit. Which contacts count toward it, whether archived and cleaned ones do, and what happens when you pass it.Ruth Williams · 
How Mailchimp charges for contacts (and why unsubscribed ones count)Mailchimp prices every plan by contacts, and the count includes people you can't email. How the bill is worked out, why it keeps growing, and how to read it.Ruth Williams · 
What "cleaned" means in Mailchimp, and whether you still pay for themMailchimp marks a contact as cleaned when its address bounces. What causes it, whether cleaned contacts count toward your bill, and what to do with them.Ruth Williams · 
How to sunset inactive subscribers in Mailchimp without losing buyersA sunset flow gives inactive subscribers one last chance before you let them go. How to define inactive, split by purchase history, and retire contacts without deleting them.Ruth Williams · 
Mailchimp: archive vs. delete contacts, and when to use eachArchiving, deleting and permanently deleting do very different things in Mailchimp. What each one does to your bill, your history and your ability to bring a contact back.Ruth Williams · 
How to lower your Mailchimp bill without losing subscribersMailchimp bills by contacts, including many you can't or won't email. Five changes that shrink the count, and the bill, without losing anyone who still reads.Ruth Williams · 
Choosing a Mailchimp list cleaning tool: what to look forEmail verifiers, CSV scripts and automated cleaners solve different problems. Seven questions to ask before you let any tool touch your Mailchimp audience.Ruth Williams · 
Sender reputation: the score your Mailchimp list is quietly earningEvery send to someone who never reacts counts against your domain. What sender reputation is, how inactive contacts drag it down, and how to protect it without deleting anyone.Ruth Williams · 
Inbox placement: why "delivered" doesn't mean anyone saw your emailDelivery rate counts what mailbox providers accepted. Inbox placement is where it went afterwards. How to tell them apart, what drags placement down, and how a cleaner list fixes it.Ruth Williams · 
Brand reputation: what mailing people who never asked does to your nameBeyond deliverability, a neglected list costs you trust. How non-subscribed contacts, stale addresses and endless sends to the disengaged shape what people think of your brand, and the maintenance that prevents it.Ruth Williams · 
What's the point of cleaning your list if cold contacts still convert?A fair objection from a marketer who still gets the odd sale from "dead" segments, and the answers that hold up: what those contacts cost everyone else, why opens mislead, and how to clean without losing anyone.Ruth Williams ·