What Is Email List Cleaning?
Email list cleaning is the process of identifying and removing inactive or unengaged subscribers from your list. In Klaviyo, these are profiles that haven’t opened or clicked your emails for months.
Instead of keeping these inactive contacts, email cleaning helps you:
- Reduce the number of active profiles in Klaviyo and lower your bill.
- Improve deliverability by focusing only on subscribers who want to hear from you.
- Increase open and click rates, since your campaigns are only sent to engaged audiences.
What Is Email Hygiene?
Before diving into Klaviyo, let’s define what email hygiene is. In simple terms, email hygiene refers to the process of keeping your contact database accurate, up to date, and free of inactive or unengaged subscribers.
Following email hygiene best practices means regularly identifying contacts who haven’t opened or clicked your emails, correcting invalid addresses, and ensuring you’re only sending campaigns to people who truly want to hear from you.
Within Klaviyo, this process is often called email list cleaning or profile suppression, and it’s one of the easiest ways to maintain sender reputation and deliverability.
Why Cleaning Your Klaviyo List Is So Important
Klaviyo’s pricing is based on active profiles, not the number of emails sent. According to their official Active Profile Management guide, an active profile is anyone who has opted into marketing or interacted through checkout.
That means if you never remove inactive subscribers in Klaviyo, you’re effectively paying for people who haven’t opened an email in months. By contrast, when you clean your list, you can suppress inactive profiles to immediately reduce your bill while maintaining historical data.
This process known as Klaviyo profile suppression is safe, reversible, and highly effective. In fact, many brands see hundreds of dollars in monthly savings after cleaning their list, while also enjoying higher engagement and inbox placement rates.
How to Clean Your Klaviyo Email List (Step by Step)
Here’s a simple framework you can follow inside Klaviyo to clean your list effectively and maintain great email list hygiene over time.
1. Identify Inactive Subscribers
Use Klaviyo’s segmentation tool to create a list of subscribers who haven’t opened or clicked an email in the last 6–12 months.
- If you send emails frequently (daily or weekly): choose 6+ months of inactivity.
- If you send less often (monthly or quarterly): choose 9+ months of in activity.
2. Run a Re-Engagement Campaign
Before removing anyone, send a re-engagement campaign to this segment.
- Subject line ideas: “Do you still want to hear from us?”
- Offer a discount, bonus, or exclusive update.
- Give them a simple one-click way to stay subscribed.
3. Suppress Inactive Profiles
If contacts still don’t engage, suppress them. Suppression keeps historical data intact but ensures they’re no longer counted in your billing or included in campaigns.
To do this:
- Go to Profiles → Manage Suppressions.
- Upload your inactive segment.
- Confirm suppression to clean up your account.
This step alone can reduce your bill instantly while protecting your sender reputation.
4. Repeat Regularly
The key to long-term success is consistency. Schedule email hygiene maintenance every 3–6 months to ensure your list stays healthy. Over time, this habit will:
- Keep your subscriber base engaged.
- Maintain excellent deliverability and high engagement.
- Provide cleaner analytics and more accurate reporting.
Benefits of Regular Klaviyo Email List Cleaning
Consistent list cleaning isn’t just about cutting costs — it’s about improving the quality of your marketing as a whole. Practicing email hygiene best practices helps you:
- Reduce costs: Ensures you pay only for engaged contacts.
- Improve email deliverability: ISPs reward senders with higher engagement rates.
- Increase engagement: Cleaner lists mean higher open and click-through rates.
- Gain clearer insights: Reports reflect real audience behaviour, not inflated numbers.
In short, strong email list hygiene turns your Klaviyo account into a leaner, more efficient marketing machine.
Final Thoughts
Learning how to clean your Klaviyo list is one of the most valuable skills you can develop as a marketer. It’s not just about trimming costs — it’s about respecting your audience, protecting your sender reputation, and ensuring every campaign you send drives results.
By combining smart segmentation, re-engagement campaigns, and consistent profile suppression, you’ll keep your database healthy, boost engagement, and see tangible improvements in your bottom line.
👉 Don’t wait until your next bill surprises you. Start your next round of email list cleaning today — or let our team handle it for you. Explore our Klaviyo Email Marketing Services to get your account fully optimised for performance and deliverability.
References & Resources
- Klaviyo Help Center – What is Active Profile Management?
- Klaviyo Blog – From Clutter to Conversion: Maintaining Email List Hygiene
- Gavin Hewitson – How To Lower Your Klaviyo Bill (YouTube)
