Inactive contacts hurt deliverability, inflate costs, and skew campaign metrics. Review your contact list regularly, ideally every 3–6 months, or before high-volume campaigns.
This guide shows you how to identify disengaged subscribers in Omnisend and choose between two paths: re-engage them with and/or remove them to improve list health.
Why Remove Inactive Contacts?
Disengaged subscribers:
Lower open and click rates (inbox providers notice).
Trigger spam filters (inactive addresses become spam traps).
Increase costs (you pay for contacts who never engage).
Distort reporting (metrics don't reflect true audience interest).
Removing or re-engaging them improves deliverability, reduces waste, and focuses your efforts on interested contacts.
💡 Tip: For faulty emails (invalid addresses, spam traps, typos), use Omnisend's automatic list cleaning tool instead. Learn how to clean your email list.
How to Re-engage or Remove Inactive Contacts
Follow these steps to segment disengaged contacts and decide whether to re-engage or directly remove them.
Step 1. Identify Inactive Contacts
Omnisend provides pre-built segments to identify disengaged subscribers.
Go to Audience → Segments → Create Segment.
Under Filter, select Disengaged Contacts.
Choose one of the following:
Inactive contacts — Subscribed but haven't engaged with recent messages.
Lapsed email subscribers — Received campaigns, didn't click, no purchase in 90 days.
Click Customize to adjust filters (e.g., change 90 days to 60 days).
Save your segment.
Important: Pick the segment that matches your business. For example:
Use Inactive contacts if you send emails frequently (3+ per week).
Use Lapsed email subscribers if you focus on purchase activity.
Use At Risk to Churn (another pre-built segment) if you prioritize customer retention.
Step 2. Re-engage with Email (One-Time or Automated)
If you want to give inactive contacts a second chance, send a re-engagement campaign.
💡 Want to skip re-engagement? Go straight to Step 3 to unsubscribe all inactive contacts immediately.
You have two options:
Option 1: One-Time Re-engagement Email
Send a single campaign to your disengaged segment. To create a one-time campaign:
Go to Campaigns → Create campaign → Email Campaign.
Write a compelling subject line (see examples below).
Include an incentive (discount, exclusive content, or survey).
On the Recipients step, select your disengaged segment (learn how to create it above).
Send the campaign.
💬 Learn how to Build an Email Campaign.
Subject line examples:
We miss you! Come back and see what's new.
Is it over between us? Let's rekindle our relationship!
Here's a special offer just for you.
Your inbox has been quiet without us.
Let's pick up where we left off.
Content ideas:
Exclusive offer — Discount or early access to new products.
Survey — Ask why they disengaged (provides insights).
Customer testimonials — Show social proof to rebuild trust.
Helpful resources — Blog posts or guides relevant to their interests.
After sending:
Wait 7–14 days. Then, create a segment of contacts who did not open or click the re-engagement email.
To build the segment:
Go to Audience → Segments → Create from Scratch.
Add filters:
Message sent → [Your re-engagement campaign]
Did not open email (or/and did not click email) → [Your re-engagement campaign]
Save the segment.
Unsubscribe everyone in this segment (see Step 3 below).
Option 2: Automated Re-engagement Workflow
Automate the re-engagement process to handle new disengaged contacts continuously. To create an automation workflow:
Go to Automations → Create Workflow → Create from scratch.
Set the trigger: Contact enters a segment → Select your disengaged segment.
Build your email sequence (see example below).
Set exit conditions (see next section).
Start the workflow.
Example workflow:
Email 1: "Can we make it better? We miss you"
Highlight product benefits, testimonials, or discounts.
Delay: 5 days
Email 2: "Time to say goodbye? Click to stay subscribed"
Include a clear CTA button (e.g., "I want to stay subscribed").
Remind them why your emails matter.
Delay: 3 days
Email 3: "Sorry to see you go"
Final chance to re-engage.
Express genuine interest in their feedback.
Delay: 7 days (increase based on your preference)
Split: If the contact did not open or click Email 3, add the tag "To Unsubscribe".
💡 Use the "To Unsubscribe" tag to create a segment, identifying contacts with this tag. Then, unsubscribe these contacts as in Step 3.
Set Exit Conditions to Prevent Over-Sending
Exit conditions automatically remove contacts from the workflow when they engage.
Recommended exit conditions:
Contact opens any email in the workflow.
Contact clicks any email in the workflow.
Contact exits the disengaged segment (because they engaged).
To use "contact exited a segment", your segment must include an engagement rule, such as:
Have not opened email in the last 90 days
When a contact opens an email from your re-engagement workflow, they no longer match this rule and exit the segment automatically.
Alternatively, set exit conditions directly in the automation setup:
Click Trigger settings → Exit conditions → Add Opened message or Clicked message.
Step 3. Unsubscribe Inactive Contacts
To unsubscribe contacts in your segment:
Open your disengaged segment (from Step 1).
Select the checkbox beside Name (at the top of the list).
Click Select All (if you have multiple pages).
Click Actions → Unsubscribe.
Confirm.
Result: Disengaged contacts are unsubscribed.
Billing: They no longer count toward your contact limit.
History: Purchase data and engagement history are preserved.
Campaigns: They won't receive future email camapigns.
What About Faulty Emails?
Inactive contacts (disengaged) are different from invalid emails (faulty addresses, spam traps, typos).
For faulty emails, use Omnisend's Automatic List Cleaning tool:
Scans your entire contact list.
Identifies invalid addresses, spam traps, disposable emails, and typos.
Costs $0.20 per 100 contacts (minimum $0.50).
FAQ
What's the difference between inactive contacts and invalid emails?
Inactive contacts — Real customers who subscribed but stopped engaging.
Invalid emails — Faulty addresses (typos, spam traps, deleted accounts) that bounce or harm deliverability.
Use re-engagement workflows for inactive contacts. Use automatic list cleaning for invalid emails.
How often should I review disengaged segments?
Every 3–6 months. Run a re-engagement campaign quarterly, or set up an automation workflow to handle it continuously.
Will unsubscribing contacts delete their purchase history?
No. Unsubscribing removes contacts from billing and stops campaign sends, but preserves all purchase history and engagement data. Deleting permanently erases all information.
Can I re-subscribe someone I unsubscribed?
Only if they voluntarily re-subscribe via a signup form. Never manually re-subscribe someone without their consent.
For further guidance, feel free to contact our support specialists via chat or email [email protected].