# What is list hygiene in email marketing?

List hygiene is the routine of keeping an email list to addresses that work and people who still want to hear from you: confirming new sign-ups, removing bad addresses, and letting go of readers who stopped opening. It also helps keep spam complaints low.

Last reviewed 30 October 2026. Web page: https://chapbook.ink/glossary/list-hygiene/

## What it means in practice

The routine is short, and Google's sender guidelines ask for most of it:

- Confirm each address before you subscribe it.
- Don't email people who didn't sign up.
- Make unsubscribing easy, so nobody has to report you as spam instead.
- Now and then, ask quiet readers whether they want to stay, and remove those who don't answer.


## How Chapbook uses it

Most list hygiene happens in your email tool, which sends the mail and sees the bounces, opens and unsubscribes. Chapbook sees none of those.

What it does: the sign-up form has spam protection, a reader's address is one row however many books they sign up for, and every address is marked unconfirmed, so nothing suggests it has been checked. Export the list as a CSV and import it into Kit, Mailchimp, Beehiiv, MailerLite or any other email tool, which can ask each reader to confirm. Deleting a reader in Chapbook does not remove them from your email tool, so remove them there too.

In the sample on this page, the chapter on emails 6 and 7 builds in the easy way out: the last email offers the unsubscribe link plainly.

## Made with Chapbook: The Welcome Sequence

The Welcome Sequence: Seven emails that turn a subscriber into a reader, by Dana Okafor. Lead magnet, 3,626 words, 17 pages. A sample generated from one brief and exported unedited; it is not a customer's book. Read every page: https://chapbook.ink/examples/newsletter/

The brief:

> A seven-email welcome sequence for a new newsletter: what each email does, what to write, and when to send it. Promise: By the end you have a complete seven-email welcome sequence drafted, with a send schedule. Reader: Someone with fewer than a thousand subscribers who writes the newsletter themselves. Voice: Second person, warm and direct, worked examples with fictional newsletters, no invented open-rate statistics.

The outline the planner proposed:

1. Introduction (282 words)
2. Email 1: The one they actually open (681 words)
3. Emails 2 and 3: Who you are and what to expect (729 words)
4. Emails 4 and 5: Your best two pieces, reframed (669 words)
5. Emails 6 and 7: The ask, and the door left open (743 words)
6. The schedule and the template (478 words)

## Questions

### What spam rate should a sender stay under?

Google's sender guidelines, checked on 30 October 2026, say to keep the rate reported in Postmaster Tools below 0.10% and to avoid ever reaching 0.30%.

### Should I remove subscribers who don't open my emails?

Google's sender guidelines suggest considering it, and also suggest periodically asking recipients to confirm they want to stay subscribed. Ask first, then remove those who don't answer.

## Sources

- [Google, “Email sender guidelines”](https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126)