The OPTIZMO™ Blog

News and tips from the industry leaders in email compliance.

Originally published on DesignRush on 10/25/24

Suppression lists filter out unengaged or risky contacts to maintain deliverability, which are essential for protecting a business’s sending reputation.

Yet, many companies fail to see them as a strategic asset, focusing instead on list growth or content engagement.

Brands that overlook their suppression lists risk sending to contacts who could harm their reputation, ultimately impacting their email campaign success.

In this interview, OPTIZMO COO Tom Wozniak discusses:

  • The effectiveness of suppression lists management
  • Why suppression list security matters for businesses
  • The need to respect customer preferences and privacy in marketing campaigns
  • Email compliance updates businesses must prepare for in 2025

Who Is Tom Wozniak?

Tom has over 25 years of experience in affiliate, email, display, video, and other forms of digital marketing. He regularly writes for Forbes.com and other industry publications and speaks on email marketing and compliance at various conferences. Before OPTIZMO, he was VP of Marketing at SpotX, headed up marketing at Media Breakaway, and held senior leadership roles with Trueffect and NextAction, among other companies.

Proactivity is key to your brand’s security.

“For some businesses, the only suppression files they are aware of are their opt-outs.
They know to follow the law and ensure that once a consumer has opted out of receiving future email marketing communications, they need to put that address on a suppression file to apply to future marketing campaigns.
But, that may be all they do,” Tom says.

He believes that this misses two major value propositions of strategic suppression list management:

  1. A great deal can be learned by analyzing opt-outs and looking for patterns in opt-out activity
  2. Suppression shouldn’t be limited to just opt-outs

Watch our video to learn what are triggered emails and how they can benefit your business:

How Effective Suppression Lists Management Drive Better Email Campaigns

Using suppression lists strategically can lead to higher overall campaign performance.

Hence, businesses should analyze their opt-outs for better targeting.

“Learning what aspects of your current email program may be driving a higher-than-normal opt-out rate can help you better plan future campaigns.
Looking at your opt-outs may help identify audience segments that you aren’t effectively communicating within your current campaign program.
By identifying them, you can create messaging designed to engage with these new segments more effectively, driving up overall performance,” Tom explains.

Additionally, he says that differentiating between prospective and existing customers improves the entire email marketing program.

“Even if you don’t have offers that are only available to new customers, chances are that the messaging you provide to existing vs. potential customers should differ.
You don’t have to win over an existing customer in the same way as a new one.
So, making sure you segment these two groups in your campaigns allows you to more effectively target each one with relevant offers and messaging,” he notes.

But how often should businesses audit and update their suppression lists?

Tom recommends that most suppression files should be dynamically updated on an ongoing basis, whereas unsubscribe lists should be updated each time a new opt-out request is received and processed.

Other suppression files, like existing customer files, should also be updated regularly as new customers are added, and potentially lapsed customers removed from the list, he advises.

“However, you may have other suppression lists that are created at a specific time, for a particular purpose.
Those more static lists should be audited or re-examined and updated on a fairly regular basis, typically lined up with your mailing frequency or how often that data changes,” he adds.

Tom highlights that automation is a key driver of efficiency when it comes to managing unsubscribe files.

“In particular, if you are using third parties (such as affiliates or performance agencies) to power your email marketing program, automation makes these programs scalable,” he explains.

He says that OPTIZMO automates both the collection of new unsubscribe requests generated by all of your mailing partners and then makes the updated suppression file(s) available for automatic distribution, all within a secure environment.

Without such a solution, this would all be a manual process, leading to potential human error, let alone poor data privacy practices.

Tom shares OPTIZMO’s case study on Publishers Clearing House (PCH) which faced the challenge of managing complex email suppression lists while ensuring compliance with privacy regulations like CAN-SPAM.

OPTIZMO automated platform helped streamline the updating, distribution, and encryption of suppression files, saving time and resources and ultimately leading to optimized email marketing campaigns and business growth.

Read the full interview on DesignRush Here, and for more content like this, check out our Full Blog.

Share This