Stop emailing people who never open my emails
Some people on your list never open anything you send. Mail services notice, and over time they treat all your email less kindly. This rule stops emailing those people for you, every night, so your newsletter keeps reaching the people who read it.
The prompt
“Stop emailing people on [my site] who have not opened or clicked anything in [6] months. Tell me how many that would be tonight before you switch it on.”
Signed in, Get my prompt fills in your site for you. Otherwise press Copy and fill in the [bracketed] parts. First time? Connect your AI to bernard once: Use your own AI (opens in a new tab).
It is off until you switch it on. Ask Bernard: “stop emailing people who have not opened anything in six months”. You choose the months, from 3 to 36. Bernard first tells you how many people it would stop emailing tonight. It switches the rule on only after your approval. Only the account owner can switch it on, change it or switch it off.
Who it judges
The rule is careful about who it can judge, because an absence of a record is not proof that somebody is not reading. A person is stopped only when all of these are true:
- your site records opens and clicks;
- the person agreed to their opens and clicks being recorded;
- they were sent at least 3 emails in the months you chose, each sent in a way that lets bernard see an open;
- they opened none of them and clicked nothing.
A fetched open keeps them. Some mail apps open every email on their own. Apple Mail does this. bernard cannot tell if the person read it, so a person with an open like that is unknown, not quiet, and the rule leaves them alone.
It needs opens to be recorded. Without opens, everybody would look as if they never opened. So the rule refuses to switch on while your site does not record opens and clicks, and it does nothing on a night when recording is off. Can I see who opened my email? covers how recording works.
What happens to them
They go on your do-not-email list under “manual”: your own choice. Nothing is deleted. Their orders, course access and history stay where they are. You can bring any one of them back from the list: Who is on my do-not-email list, and why?.
The rule stops at most 500 people a night. A bigger group is spread over the next nights.
How it differs from the yearly tidy
The tidy (How do I tidy my mailing list once a year?) shows you the people who have gone quiet for a year, and you decide with your own click. This rule acts on its own, every night, after you switch it on. You can use both.
Questions people ask
- Is this on already?
- No. It is off until you switch it on. Only the account owner can switch it on, change it or switch it off.
- Who can it stop emailing?
- Only people who agreed to their opens and clicks being recorded, on a site that records them. They must have been sent at least 3 emails in the months you chose and opened or clicked none of them. Nobody else is ever touched.
- What if their mail app opens every email on its own?
- Then they are left alone. Apple Mail, for example, fetches every email by itself. bernard cannot tell if a person read it, so it treats them as unknown, not quiet.
- Can I bring someone back?
- Yes. They go on your do-not-email list as your own choice (“manual”), which is the one kind you can undo yourself. Open the Do not email section, find the address and choose Undo.
- Do I approve it first?
- Yes. Bernard tells you how many people it would stop emailing tonight, and switches it on only after your approval.
- How is this different from the yearly tidy?
- The tidy shows you a list and you decide. This rule acts on its own, every night, after you switch it on.