Unit 1: Overview – What Makes a Clean List
A clean email list is the foundation of successful cold outreach. Even with warmed-up accounts and great messages, sending to bad or unverified emails will hurt deliverability and reputation.
Characteristics of a Clean List
- ✅ Real, working emails
- ✅ No duplicates
- ✅ Cleaned within the last 30 days
- ✅ Collected only from trusted sources
Risks of a Dirty List
- ❌ High bounce rates: Too many invalid emails cause email providers to flag you.
- ❌ Spam complaints: Recipients may mark you as spam if they never opted in or if your list is outdated.
- ❌ Blocked by Gmail and others: Repeated sending to invalid addresses damages your sender reputation.
👉 Remember: Even perfectly warmed accounts will fail to reach inboxes if you use a bad list.