This week I’m doing something that feels completely backwards: I’m asking some of my email subscribers to leave.
Not in a grumpy way! I’m sending a friendly little “Still want to hear from me?” email to everyone who’s hardly opened my newsletters. If they don’t click to stay, I’ll take them off my list in two weeks.
I’m not going to lie, it stings a bit. Every one of those people signed up at some point because they liked what I do, and watching your list number go down feels like going backwards. But the more I looked into it, the more I realised a smaller list of people who actually want my emails is worth far more than a bigger one full of people who don’t. So here’s why I’m doing it, and how you can do the same.
Why a smaller list is a better list
1. Your emails land in more inboxes. Gmail, Outlook and others watch how people react to your emails. If lots of people ignore you, they start to think you’re not worth reading and quietly send you to junk. That hurts the people who do want to hear from you, too.
2. You avoid the dreaded spam button. Someone who’s forgotten they ever signed up is far more likely to hit “junk” than “unsubscribe”. A spam report does much more damage to your reputation with inbox providers than an unsubscribe ever will.
3. It saves you money (and sends). I use MailerLite, and since July 2026 its free plan covers up to 250 active subscribers and 2,500 emails a month. Every person who never opens an email still counts towards both limits. Clear them out and you stay on the free plan for longer, with more sends left for the people who actually read them.
4. Your numbers start telling the truth. When a chunk of your list never opens anything, your open and click rates are dragged down and you can’t tell what’s really working. A smaller, keener list gives you data you can actually learn from. (One caveat: some email apps, like Apple Mail, count emails as “opened” automatically, so clicks and replies are the truest sign someone’s interested.)
5. It’s the right thing to do. UK law means you need people’s permission to send them marketing emails, and keeping your list tidy makes that easy to stand behind. Beyond the rules, I simply don’t want to be cluttering up inboxes of people who aren’t interested. That’s not the kind of business I want to run.
6. An unsubscribe isn’t personal. People’s lives and businesses change. Someone leaving your list isn’t a rejection of you, it’s them making space. And the door’s always open if they want to come back!
My real numbers
Here’s what I found when I went through my own list properly for the first time in ages:
| What I found | How many |
|---|---|
| Active subscribers after the tidy-up | 191 |
| People who’ve hardly opened anything: nothing in over a year, or just one email in years | 39 |
| People on my list twice, under two different email addresses | 5 |
| Old addresses that bounce (MailerLite already stops sending to these) | 12 |
| Share of people opening my last two newsletters | 44-47% |
Most of those 39 have been sent at least seven emails and opened one at most. That’s not a reflection on them, it’s just a sign my emails aren’t landing where they want them (or at all!). If none of them stay, I’ll be down to about 150, comfortably under that 250 free plan limit, and my numbers will finally show me who’s really reading.
How to clean up your own list
- Set your rule. Decide what “inactive” means for you. I went with anyone who’d been on my list over a year and either hadn’t opened anything in that time or had only ever opened one email and never clicked a link. I’d only recently started sending again, so I wanted to give everyone a fair chance. If you email weekly, six months might be plenty.
- Leave your newbies alone. Anyone who joined recently hasn’t had a chance to get to know you yet, so only look at people who’ve been on your list longer than your cut-off.
- Tidy up the easy wins first. Look for people on your list twice under different email addresses and keep the one they actually use (or just ask them!). Check for addresses that bounce, too. Most email platforms stop sending to these automatically.
- Send one friendly check-in. Keep it short and warm, with one clear button to click if they want to stay. No guilt-tripping, no “we’ll miss you” sob stories. Let them know what they’ll get if they stay, and that you’ll remove them if you don’t hear back.
- Give them a deadline. I’m giving mine two weeks. Anyone who clicks stays, and everyone else gets unsubscribed.
- Unsubscribe, don’t delete. Unsubscribing keeps a record that they’ve left, so they can’t accidentally be re-added if you ever import a list again.
- Make it a habit. Pop a reminder in your diary to do this once a year. It takes a fraction of the time once your list is in good shape.
Quality over quantity, always
It feels strange to celebrate a smaller number, but I’d much rather write to 150 people who are glad to see my name pop up than 190 where some of them are wondering who I am. It’s the same way I run my shoots: fewer clients, more attention, better results.
If you’re thinking of starting a newsletter (or giving yours a fresh start), I highly recommend MailerLite as a user friendly and useful tool.
And if you’d like more help showing up confidently in your business, grab my free pocket guide, or book a £99 Visual Brand Review and I’ll take a proper look at your website and socials with you.
Now, if you’re one of my lovely subscribers reading this because you clicked through from my check-in email: thank you for sticking around!
