Hey it’s Chase and Jimmy here!

You can have the most beautifully designed email. The most perfectly timed SMS. But if your list is full of ghosts, you’re just lighting money on fire.

This week’s deep dive is all about list hygiene—what it is, why it matters, and how keeping your lists clean can drive better deliverability, stronger engagement, and lower costs. Whether you’re sending emails, texts, or both, a bloated list drags everything down. We’ll show you how to fix it.

Plus, in Quick Clips:

 📉 TikTok Shop’s fate is up in the air—but social commerce isn’t slowing down.

 💸 CPG founders push back against new tariffs (one got hit with a $200K surprise).

 📱 And a new short-form app wants to de-influence the algorithm.

👇 Let’s get into it.

🧠 How Agencies Scale Retention Programs (Without Burning Out Their Team)

Missed the live session? We’ve got you covered.

In this webinar, Chase and I joined forces with agency leaders including Nick Shackelford, Sydney McCarthy, and Jesse Kay to break down how we approach scaling retention marketing—without overcomplicating strategy or stretching their team too thin.

You’ll hear exactly how top agencies manage clients, streamline execution, and drive big results across email, SMS, and retention channels.

Here’s what you’ll learn:

• How top agencies set up efficient retention frameworks for eCommerce clients

• Where they see brands overcomplicating email + SMS—and how to simplify

• How to structure internal teams to stay lean while growing accounts

• Tools and systems they actually use to stay organized

• Retention strategies that drive long-term results (not just one-off wins)

💬 List Hygiene In Email & SMS: What eCommerce Brands Need to Know

A strong email or SMS strategy starts with a clean list.

If your contact list is full of bad data, you’re likely paying more than you need to – and reaching fewer people than you think.

Let’s break down what list hygiene is, why it matters, and how to maintain it.

What Is List Hygiene?

List hygiene means keeping your contact lists free of invalid, unengaged, or fake entries.

This includes:

• Incorrect or outdated email addresses

• Mobile numbers that bounce or go nowhere

• Duplicate contacts

• People who haven’t opened or clicked in months

Cleaning your list regularly keeps your engagement rates healthy (and brings down costs).

We’ll talk more about that later, but first…

What’s the Real Cost of Email & SMS Marketing?

Email might seem cheap. SMS? Not so much.

Every text you send costs money – so if it’s going to the wrong number or someone who hasn’t clicked in months, that’s budget down the drain. Even email costs can sneak up on you when your list is packed with unengaged contacts.

If you’re sending to thousands but only a handful are actually engaging, you’re overspending without much to show for it.

4 Benefits of a Sparkly Clean List

1. Better deliverability

Email providers like Gmail and Outlook are paying attention. If too many people ignore your messages or mark them as spam, your sender reputation takes a hit.

And once that happens, even your best campaigns end up buried in the promotions tab or filtered out entirely.

A clean list makes sure your emails land where they belong: the inbox.

2. Lower costs

Most platforms charge based on how many contacts you have or how many messages you send. That means every inactive subscriber is money wasted.

Cleaning your list regularly ensures your budget goes toward people who are actually interested and more likely to convert.

3. High engagement rates

When you focus on people who actually want to hear from you, your open and click rates naturally improve.

And when people are engaged, they’re way more likely to browse, buy, and stick around.

4. Reliable analytics

A bloated list makes it harder to trust your data. If half your subscribers aren’t opening or clicking, your results are skewed.

This means you could end up optimizing based on the wrong signals. Cleaning up your list helps you get more accurate insights, so you can make better decisions moving forward.

How to Keep Your List Clean

Remove inactive subscribers

Check for contacts who haven’t opened or clicked in 60 to 90 days. Don’t cut them right away – start with a re-engagement flow.

If there’s still no activity, it’s time to suppress or remove them. Keeping unresponsive contacts around only drags down performance.

Use double opt-in

When someone signs up, send a quick confirmation email or text before adding them to your list. It’s a simple way to make sure the contact is real, the info is accurate, and they actually want to hear from you.

Run regular email verification

Use tools like NeverBounce or ZeroBounce to clean your list of invalid, fake, or disposable email addresses. These tools help prevent bounces and keep your deliverability on track, especially before big sends.

Don’t Skip SMS Hygiene

SMS costs more per contact, so list quality is even more important.

Here’s what to focus on:

• Only collect numbers with confirmed opt-in

• Remove or suppress contacts with repeated hard bounces or no activity

• Set up a simple win-back flow for people who stop engaging

• Monitor response and click-through rates regularly

If someone hasn’t clicked or replied in several months, it's worth suppressing them or pausing sends to that segment.

Final Thoughts: Practice Good List Hygiene

List cleaning isn’t a one-and-done task. It’s something you build into your workflow – just like checking campaign performance or updating flows.

Here’s a checklist to keep in mind:

✅ Set a regular schedule (monthly or quarterly)
✅ Use re-engagement and suppression flows
✅ Run email verification before big sends
✅ Automate what you can

And don’t hang on to unresponsive contacts just to make your list look bigger. Remember, a smaller, more engaged list will always outperform a bloated one!

⚡ From 2 Hours to 2 Minutes: How Obvi Streamlined Sales Tax with Kintsugi

Manual tax management nearly cost Obvi thousands—literally.

With sales across multiple states and products with different tax rules, keeping up was a nightmare. Late filings. Penalties. Hours of spreadsheet mayhem.

Then they found Kintsugi.

Now? What used to take 2 hours twice a month takes 2 minutes.

Plus, they uncovered $40,000 in missed obligations their old tool completely overlooked.

Here’s what Kintsugi delivered:

• 60x faster sales tax management

• No more missed filings or penalties

• SKU-level accuracy across jurisdictions

• Seamless Shopify integration

• Responsive, white-glove support

👉 Want results like Obvi? Book your demo now.

🗞️ Quick Clips

• TikTok teeters, but carts keep filling: As U.S. lawmakers debate TikTok’s fate, social commerce continues to gain ground. Brands are testing new channels, and platforms like Meta and YouTube are ramping up native shopping tools. The channel might shift, but the behavior is sticking.

• Founders fight back—an open letter: 38 women-led CPG brands signed an open letter warning that Trump’s proposed tariffs on Chinese imports could devastate small businesses. One founder was blindsided by a $200K bill—just from a policy shift.

• Neptune Makes Waves While the Clock Tiks: Meet Neptune, a new short-form video app where creators can hide follower counts and likes. It’s positioning itself as the anti-clout alternative to TikTok—no vanity metrics, just vibes.

Annnnd that’s a wrap for this edition! 

Thanks for hanging with Chase and me—always a pleasure to have you here.

If you found this newsletter helpful (or even just a little fun), don’t keep it to yourself! Share ecomemailmarketer.com with your favorite DTC marketer. Let’s get them on board so they don’t miss next week’s drops.

Remember: Do shit you love.

🤘 Jimmy Kim & Chase Dimond

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