The Logic & Illogic of Email Suppressions Explained

Email suppression refers to the process of excluding certain email addresses from your email campaigns. These addresses are typically placed on a suppression list to ensure they don’t receive future emails. Suppression is commonly used for managing unsubscribes, hard bounces, spam complaints, and other opt-out scenarios.

But there’s a right way and a wrong way to do email suppression. 

And most of you do realize that, except there isn’t always a clear signal that tells you whether or not to suppress. 

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to segmentation and suppression. It is more about being willing to experiment to find what works best for each specific brand and using data to prove your point,” reminds Elizabeth Jacobi of MochaBear Marketing. 

In this blog post, our subject matter expert talks about how and when email suppression is logical or illogical. Let’s roll! 

The logic behind suppressions

The primary purpose of email suppression is to protect your sender reputation and ensure that you are compliant with data privacy regulations (such as GDPR). Here’s why it is crucial:

1. Preventing Spam Complaints: By suppressing addresses that have unsubscribed or marked emails as spam, you can reduce complaints and improve deliverability.
   
2. Regulatory Compliance: Laws like GDPR and CAN-SPAM require you to honor opt-out requests and respect unsubscribe preferences. Failing to do so can result in fines or penalties.
   
3. Sender Reputation: Sending emails to invalid or uninterested addresses can hurt your sender reputation. Suppressing these contacts helps maintain a positive reputation with ESPs. 

Below is a list of regulations which can lead to or influence email suppressions: 

1. California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)

• What it is: The CCPA provides California residents with rights to control how their personal data is used. It includes provisions for opting out of marketing communications.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: Businesses must honor requests to opt-out of email marketing and suppress those email addresses to remain compliant. 

2. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

• What it is: A comprehensive data protection regulation for the European Union (EU) that governs the processing of personal data.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: Under GDPR, marketers must suppress any email addresses belonging to users who request not to receive communications (opt-out). In addition, individuals can ask for their data to be deleted, meaning businesses must ensure they comply by removing such contacts from email lists.

3. Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation (CASL)

• What it is: CASL is one of the strictest anti-spam laws globally, aimed at protecting Canadian consumers from unsolicited electronic communications.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: The law requires businesses to obtain express consent before sending commercial emails. If a recipient withdraws their consent or unsubscribes, businesses must suppress their email address from future marketing messages to avoid penalties.

4. The UK’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR)

• What it is: The PECR sits alongside GDPR in the UK and specifically governs how companies handle direct marketing, including email communications.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: Similar to GDPR, PECR requires that businesses suppress the details of individuals who have opted out of receiving marketing communications.

5. Email Marketing Industry Standards (e.g., MAAWG, ESP Best Practices)

• What it is: The Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) provides best practices for maintaining sender reputation and improving email deliverability.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: While these aren’t legal regulations, ESPs and anti-abuse groups strongly recommend maintaining clean suppression lists to ensure your emails reach legitimate recipients and to avoid being blacklisted by ISPs.

6. The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)

• What it is: Although primarily focused on phone calls and text messages, the TCPA also governs certain types of marketing emails.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: If a consumer requests to stop receiving marketing communications via email or texts, their contact information must be suppressed from future marketing efforts.

7. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Regulations

• What it is: The FTC enforces various consumer protection laws that overlap with email marketing.
  
• Email Suppression Impact: The FTC enforces laws related to email marketing, such as preventing deceptive practices or unauthorized marketing, which include suppressing unsubscribed contacts and ensuring compliance with opt-out requests.

The illogic of suppressions

While suppression lists are essential, they can sometimes be misused, leading to inefficiencies in your email marketing strategy. Here are a few common mistakes:

1. Over-Suppressing Contacts: It’s tempting to suppress anyone who bounces or unsubscribes. However, overly aggressive suppression can result in excluding potential customers who may have accidentally unsubscribed or provided incorrect email addresses. Re-engagement campaigns are vital to ensuring you’re not missing out on valuable segments.
   
2. Failing to Clean Suppression Lists: Keeping old suppression data around for too long can cause issues, especially when there are changes in email preferences or valid re-engagement opportunities. Regularly cleaning and updating suppression lists is crucial for maintaining email list health.
   
3. Suppressing Instead of Updating Preferences: When customers express a desire for fewer emails or more relevant content, suppressing them entirely could lead to a loss of potential future interactions. Instead of removing them from the list entirely, you could allow them to select preferences (e.g., frequency of emails, types of emails they wish to receive). This allows you to keep the relationship going while respecting their wishes.
   
4. Using a “One-Size-Fits-All” Suppression Strategy: Different contacts have different reasons for unsubscribing, not engaging, or marking emails as spam. Suppressing all of them in the same way can be damaging. For example, an inactive subscriber might just need a targeted re-engagement campaign, while a hard bounce or a spam complaint requires immediate suppression. Understanding the unique context behind suppression reasons allows for better, more personalized strategies.

Wrapping up 

Email suppression entails both internal and external maneuvering. Finding the middle ground isn’t always easy. 

If you need help with campaign management/automation, get in touch with our email marketing team. From Discovery to Reporting, our six-tier email marketing framework will help you get the best out of your email campaigns no matter your brand.