Clean up your list: dead contacts cost money
Photo: Avila Ops Tecnologia
A dead contact is a record for someone who has not bought, responded, or opened anything in over two years, and anyone inactive for over one year is heading the same way. Both cost you in three ways: sending fees in email or WhatsApp tools charged per contact; the time of people trying to reach them; and reduced email deliverability, because providers view senders with many inactive addresses as suspicious. Cleaning the list once a year, for example at the start of the year, recovers all three.
Cleaning does not mean deleting everyone inactive. It means separating people who may return from those who will not, trying once with the first group, and moving the second out of the way. A smaller, engaged list sells more than a large, dead one because each message reaches someone who reads it.
How do you divide the list into three groups?
Use the date of the last real interaction: a purchase, reply, click, or visit. If your database does not have that date, it is the first field to create, as explained in Customer records: the fields that really matter.
| Group | Criterion | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Active | Purchased or replied within the last 12 months | Nothing changes. They keep receiving what they receive |
| Dormant | No sign of activity for 12 to 24 months | One reactivation message, just one. Anyone who responds returns to active |
| Dead | No sign of activity for over 24 months, bounced email, or a number that no longer exists | Remove from the mailing list. Keep in the history, marked inactive |
These periods are starting points. A children’s clothing store has a short cycle: 12 months without a purchase already means dormant. A renovation company has a long cycle: a customer not returning for two years is still normal. Adjust to your cycle, and keep the criteria written down.
What should you send dormant contacts?
One personal, short message with an easy question. Use the channel where the person last spoke to you.
“Hi, Fernanda. It has been a while since we spoke. I am organizing our customer list and wanted to ask: would you still like me to let you know when something new arrives? If so, just reply ‘yes.’ If not, you can ignore this and I will remove you from the list, no problem.”
Anyone replying “yes” returns to active, with today as the last contact date. Anyone replying “no” is removed, with thanks. Anyone who does not respond within 15 days moves to dead. Do not send a second message: the first was their chance.
Do not offer a reactivation discount. People who return for a discount return once. People who return because they are still interested stay.
What should you do with dead contacts?
Remove them from the sending list, not the system. Their history, what they bought, when, and how much, still helps you understand customers and meet legal requirements to retain sales records. What changes is that they receive nothing further and no longer count as paid contacts.
If someone asks to unsubscribe, stop sending immediately; if they request deletion, erase their contact details. In both cases, record the request and date. This is what Brazil’s LGPD provides, and the record prevents them from accidentally returning to the list in a future import.
Email addresses that bounce as nonexistent are removed immediately, without a reactivation message. Every send to a nonexistent address damages your domain’s reputation with providers, and the consequence is active customers’ email going to spam.
Cleaning also reveals contact sources. If half the dead contacts came from a giveaway, the giveaway brought numbers, not customers. Why the list is yours and what it is worth is covered in What is a contact list, and why is it yours rather than the social network’s?.
What to do now
Export your database to a spreadsheet with the last-contact column. Separate it into the three groups. Send the reactivation message to dormant contacts this week, set a 15-day deadline, and finish the cleanup with an engaged list at the end. Record the criteria to repeat it in a year. When the database becomes too large for a spreadsheet, CRM records the last interaction automatically, sends reactivation on schedule by email or the official WhatsApp API with an approved template, and shows how many returned: avilaops.com/crm-para-pequenas-empresas or contact us on WhatsApp: wa.me/5517997811471.
Frequently asked questions
Is deleting contacts that cost money to acquire wasteful?
The cost is already spent. Keeping unresponsive contacts does not recover it; it only adds sending costs and deliverability damage. You preserve the history, which stays. What stops is sending.
Can I send a mass reactivation message through WhatsApp?
On regular WhatsApp, mass messaging people who have not spoken with you for two years follows the pattern that gets numbers blocked. Send small batches over several days, or use the WhatsApp Business API, which is built for this, with an approved template and only for people who authorized messages.
How often should I clean the list?
Once a year is enough for most businesses. If your sending tool charges per contact, every six months. With written criteria, the second cleanup is quick.
Turn what you learned into your next step.
Tell us about your company and what you want to improve. We can explore the right tools, integrations or custom project together.