Why silence in your list can be louder than complaints

Are you ready to start culling your zombies and reaping the rewards?

September 23, 2025

Zombie Apocalypse: Prune Dead Weight — Lift Deliverability and Revenue
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Tuesday, September 23, 2025 • List hygiene • Re-engagement • CTR protection
Fast-Track Summary

Dead subscribers are hurting your deliverability & revenue

Mailbox providers reward recent engagement. Inactive addresses drag that signal down. Privacy tools inflate opens. Bots skew clicks. Strategy: revive → segment → prune with care.
See Validity’s 2025 Deliverability Benchmark Report for how inbox placement declined and why list hygiene is now one of the top predictors of success.

  • Problem: Low engagement hurts sender reputation and inbox placement. Validity Report 2025 shows global placement rates slipping.
  • Facts: AI summaries, Apple Mail Privacy Protections (MPP), and bot clicks are changing what signals providers trust. (Attentive 2025 Trends)
  • Plan of Action: Start re-engagement 1-2 emails for 60-90 day inactives; suppress or prune those who don’t respond. Protect the engaged core.
Case Brief

Same creator. Same niche. Same month. Before pruning: 12,000 subs at 8% open, 0.3% click, about $400 in revenue while paying $180 to the ESP. After pruning to 2,000 engaged: 47% open, 12% click, about $2,800 revenue on $40 cost. Unit economics flipped when the zombies were removed.

Source: Big List Energy, Chapter 2 composite example.
Symptoms We’re Seeing
Open rates look “fine” yet replies fallClicks spike at send time from bot scannersESP costs rise while revenue stallsSpam complaints nudge reputation down
Primary Diagnosis

Inactives depress engagement signals that mailbox providers use

Reputation depends on recent engagement. Keep mailing the dead and providers bury you. Meanwhile, Apple Mail Privacy Protection inflates opens and security tools click links automatically, which hides the problem until conversions flatline.

  • Reality: Engagement is the core deliverability signal.
  • Complication: MPP preloads pixels. Reported opens are unreliable.
  • Twist: Bot scanners click links fast, making fake CTR spikes.
September 2025 Context
• Gmail’s new Manage Subscriptions view spotlights one-click unsubscribes
• Apple MPP continues to inflate opens across iOS and macOS
• ESPs and security tools report more bot-origin clicks at send time
Know Your Zombies
TypeHow to SpotRiskWhat To Do
Fast Zombies — sprintersWere engaged, then dropped off hard in 30–60 daysSudden drag on averages and reputationRun a personal 2-email revive, then reduce frequency; prune at 90 days
Slow Zombies — lumberersLow engagement from the start, occasional opens onlyInflate list cost and mute CTRSuppress from main cadence; try quarterly revive; archive if silent
Hivemind Zombies — the herdEngage only on big drops, sales, or viral piecesVolatile metrics, inconsistent signalsSegment for specials only; exclude from routine sends
Phantoms — ghostsZero opens or clicks in 60–90 days or hard bouncesSpam trap risk and heavy reputation damageQuarantine and remove; validate address health
Note: Always check for Apple MPP-inflated opens and bot-origin clicks before labeling someone a zombie. Use replies and genuine clicks as hard signals.
Vitals — Next 30 Days
Suppress 60–90 day inactives • Ask-email Reply Rate 5–15% • Primary CTA above the fold • Reduce above-the-fold links to ≤ 5
Observed Outcome
“Revive plus selective pruning raised CTR on new cohorts by double digits and cut time-to-click by over 20% without hurting long-form engagement.”
— Field data from operator accounts
14-Day Treatment Plan
Revive — Segment — Prune — Reset cadence — Measure
  1. Baseline: Compute Alive % and Reply Rate. Split Engaged vs 60–90 day Inactive.
  2. Hygiene: Confirm SPF, DKIM, DMARC. Use List-Unsubscribe. Keep one primary CTA.
  3. Revive #1: One specific question to Inactives. Reply target 5–15%.
  4. Revive #2: Value + binary choice. Click = tag interest. Silent = suppress.
  5. Prune: Remove Phantoms. Archive Slow Zombies to a low-freq segment.
  6. Reset: Re-onboard Engaged with a 2-email expectations mini-sequence.
  7. Offer: Ship a capacity-capped offer to the Active segment. Track Take Rate.
  8. Measure: Recheck Alive %, Reply Rate, Rev/100 Active. Calendar a quarterly prune.
Deep Dive

Big List Energy: The 500-Reader Advantage

The playbook for operating at boutique scale. Frameworks for Alive %, Reply Rate, Rev/100 Active, and the revive → prune → rebuild protocol.

Get Big List Energy →
Practical math. Real operator patterns. No fluff.
Big List Energy Book Cover