Email & Retention
Sunset Flow
The process of removing long-inactive subscribers from your list so that poor engagement doesn't drag down deliverability for everyone else.
Sunsetting is the process of removing long-inactive subscribers from your email list. Inactive subscribers (non-openers over 90-180 days) drag down deliverability for every active subscriber on the list — email providers (Gmail, Outlook) interpret low overall engagement as a spam signal and start routing your emails to spam folders.
A clean sunset flow sends one last re-engagement email to anyone who hasn't opened or clicked in 180 days. Anyone who doesn't engage with it is suppressed. List size drops; open rates rise; deliverability improves; revenue per remaining subscriber typically goes up.
New operators resist sunsetting because it "shrinks the list." Mature operators embrace it, because list health is worth more than list size.