Create a segment of inactive contacts to protect your sender reputation, improve deliverability, and reduce your monthly subscription cost. This guide shows you how to identify truly disengaged contacts and safely unsubscribe them without losing valuable customer data.
Before You Begin
Segments are available on all Omnisend pricing plans.
Familiarize yourself with the Email Sunset Policy concept.
If you recently created your Omnisend account, there will be no engagement data yet. You need to send a few campaigns before this segmentation works. Learn more about managing non-subscribed contacts.
If you migrated from another platform, we recommend importing your inactive contact segments from your previous service or transferring engagement data. Once you've sent enough campaigns through Omnisend, use Omnisend's engagement data for more accurate results.
If your account is less than 60 days old or you've sent fewer than 5 campaigns, wait until you've established sending patterns before creating this segment.
Defining Inactive Contacts
Before identifying inactive contacts, define what "inactive" means for your business. This ensures you're removing only truly disengaged contacts, not customers who still show interest through purchases or store visits.
How Long Should Contacts Be Inactive?
The timeframe depends on your sending frequency. To calculate yours, multiply your typical days between campaigns by 3–4:
Daily sender (every 1 day) → 30–40 days of inactivity
Weekly sender (every 7 days) → 21–28 days of inactivity
Monthly sender (every 30 days) → 90–120 days of inactivity
This guide uses a 90-day default, which works well for weekly senders. Adjust the timeframe in Step 2 to match your frequency.
What Makes a Contact Inactive?
When defining inactivity, consider these conditions:
The contact hasn't placed any orders in the last X months.
The contact received several campaigns but hasn't opened or clicked any.
The most reliable sign of inactivity is email engagement – particularly opens and clicks. Even if a contact visits your website but never opens emails, continuing to send campaigns can hurt your sender reputation.
💡 Tip: Try reaching inactive contacts one last time with an exclusive offer, or through another channel like SMS or Push Notifications. If there's still no response, unsubscribe them from a re-engagement campaign.
Inactive Contacts Segment Setup
Follow these steps to create a segment of fully inactive contacts. With the right filters applied, you'll identify only truly disengaged contacts who are safe to unsubscribe.
Step 1. Start with the Pre-Built Segment
Go to Audience → Segments → Create Segment → filter by Disengaged contacts → Lapsed email subscribers.
💡 Note: The Lapsed Email Subscribers pre-built segment is a starting point, not a complete solution. It uses default filters (90 days, email engagement only) that may not fit your business. You'll refine it in Steps 2–3 to capture all inactive contacts based on your sending frequency and customer behavior.
Step 2. Add Email Engagement Filters
The segment rules should be based on your customers' email activity:
Add a group of filters with the
ANDconnector → have not opened a message at least 1 time in the last 90 daysAdd a filter and change the connector between these 2 rules to
OR→ have not clicked on a message at least 1 time in the last 90 days
You can adjust the timeframe from 90 days to another period (e.g., 120 days) if it fits your sending frequency better. Remember: the longer your timeframe, the more inactive contacts you'll keep on your list.
💡 When to use AND vs OR:
Use AND between filters when contacts must meet all conditions (subscribed AND no opens AND no clicks AND no purchases). Use OR when contacts meeting any condition should qualify (no opens OR no clicks). For inactive segments, AND is almost always correct.
Step 2b. Add Purchase Behavior Filter (Critical)
⚠️ Important: Always combine email engagement with purchase behavior. A contact who hasn't opened emails in 90 days but purchased last week is NOT inactive – they're an active customer who doesn't engage with email. Add this filter to avoid unsubscribing valuable customers.
Add a filter with AND → have not placed an order at least 1 time in the last 90 days. This ensures you only unsubscribe contacts who are truly disengaged across both email and purchase activity.
Step 3. Save and Name Your Segment
Click Save and Show Contacts → Name your Segment. This name is internal and will help you identify the segment in your saved segments list.
Your filtered contacts will automatically appear below your ruleset, giving you a better idea of who met your segment filters.
Important! If you recently migrated from another service, your segment may look slightly different. Because Omnisend doesn't yet have engagement data for your contacts, you can import engagement segments from your previous platform. Once you've sent enough campaigns through Omnisend, use Omnisend segmentation for more accurate results.
Step 4. Unsubscribe Inactive Contacts
Once you save your segment, you'll find it under the Segments tab.
Unsubscribing inactive contacts immediately removes them from your billable contact count, which can reduce your monthly subscription cost. This is the fastest way to lower your fee without losing customer data.
We do not recommend deleting contacts because:
Changing contacts' status to unsubscribed prevents them from receiving campaigns, but they can still trigger transactional messages (order confirmations, shipping updates) despite their subscription status.
If you delete the contact from Omnisend, all campaign activity data and synced store data will be removed permanently. If you unsubscribe instead, Omnisend keeps this information.
Unsubscribed contacts do NOT count toward your billable contact limit. Unsubscribing 2,000 inactive contacts can move you to a lower pricing tier immediately. Check Store Settings → Pricing & plans after unsubscribing to see your new rate.
To unsubscribe contacts in the segment: go to the Saved Segment you just created → select all contacts → Actions → Unsubscribe. Make sure you select all contacts within the segment.
⚠️ If you're running a re-engagement campaign targeting inactive contacts, wait until it completes before unsubscribing. Unsubscribing mid-campaign prevents contacts from receiving your final re-engagement attempt.
And that's it. Your contact list is clean and healthy now! Feel free to send your marketing campaigns to the remaining engaged contacts.
FAQ
Why does my inactive segment only show a small number of contacts?
The pre-built segment uses default timeframes (90 days) that may be too short for your business. To expand your segment:
Increase the timeframe to 120–180 days if you send less frequently than weekly.
Add "have not clicked" alongside "have not opened" using the OR connector.
Ensure you've added purchase behavior filters to capture contacts who don't engage via email but may still purchase.
Segments update in real-time, so try adjusting one filter at a time to see how the count changes.
Should I delete or unsubscribe inactive contacts?
Always unsubscribe inactive contacts unless you have a specific reason to delete.
Unsubscribing:
Removes contacts from billing immediately
Keeps all purchase history and data
Allows contacts to receive transactional emails (order confirmations, shipping updates)
Deleting:
Permanently removes all data and cannot be undone
Also removes from billing but you lose customer history
Choose unsubscribe to reduce costs while preserving valuable data. Learn more about contact statuses.
Will unsubscribing inactive contacts reduce my monthly bill?
Yes. Unsubscribed contacts don't count toward your billable contact limit, so unsubscribing inactive contacts can move you to a lower pricing tier immediately. Your next invoice will reflect the reduced contact count. Check your new pricing tier at Store Settings after unsubscribing.
My segment includes contacts who have recently purchased. How do I exclude them?
Your segment is filtering by email engagement only (opens/clicks), but not by purchase behavior. A customer who doesn't open emails but still makes purchases is an active buyer, not inactive.
To exclude recent purchasers, add this filter with an AND connector:
have not placed an order at least 1 time in the last 90 days (adjust days to match your inactive timeframe). This ensures you only unsubscribe truly disengaged contacts.
Why does my segment show 700 contacts, but only 200 can receive my campaign?
Segments show all contacts who meet your filters, regardless of subscription status. When sending campaigns, Omnisend automatically excludes unsubscribed and non-subscribed contacts, so only subscribed contacts receive marketing emails.
To see how many are subscribed, add a filter: Subscription status is subscribed to Email channel. The difference (700 vs 200) represents contacts who never subscribed or have already unsubscribed.
When should I use AND vs OR between filters?
For inactive segments, use AND between most filters. AND means contacts must meet all conditions (no opens AND no clicks AND no purchases).
Use OR only when you want contacts who meet any single condition – for example, "have not opened OR have not clicked" captures contacts who failed either engagement test.
If you're unsure, use AND; it creates a stricter definition of "inactive."
Have any additional questions? Feel free to contact us at [email protected] or via in-app chat.