For years, we followed a practice that many other businesses also do — and one that I continue to recommend to my clients regularly. But with the rise of AI, the rules changed. Without realizing it, we were missing one critical new factor, and it quietly began to undermine our success.
Like many marketers, we occasionally offered something for free — an eBook, a checklist, a quick-start guide — in exchange for the person’s email address. This tactic still makes perfect sense on paper because once you have a person’s email, you can market to them forever for free until they unsubscribe. It’s a cornerstone of the value ladder approach I often teach clients, and it remains a sound list-building strategy.
But the recent adoption of AI by many popular email service providers marked an evolution that has caught many off guard, including myself, after years of doing things the old way.
The Hidden Flaw in the Plan
Many of my site visitors stumbled upon one of our free offers while browsing our site and, impulsively, entered their email to claim the reward and simultaneously signing up for our bimonthly email newsletter. However, once they received our free offer and that moment of interest passed, they placed little to no value on receiving our regular messages. Instead of unsubscribing, they simply ignored our bi-monthly emails.
Like many business owners, I assumed there was no real harm in sending emails to people who never opened them. After all, a big list feels like proof you have fans — and let’s be honest, it’s satisfying to see the number of subscribers increase. But in reality, that false sense of security can quietly damage your email marketing in ways you don’t see coming until it’s too late.
Enter the Algorithm
Today, many email service providers such as Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail use AI-powered filtering systems to decide where your message belongs — primary inbox, promotions, or spam.
These algorithms don’t just look at keywords or graphics. They track engagement signals like opens, clicks, replies, deletions, and spam complaints — not just for one recipient, but across your entire audience.
When a large portion of your list repeatedly ignores your emails, the system doesn’t think,
“Well, maybe these people just aren’t interested in this email today.”
Instead, it concludes:
“This sender isn’t producing content people value — so let’s show their messages to fewer people.”
The “Email Death Spiral” in Action
And here’s the kicker: this decision affects everyone on your list, even your most loyal subscribers.
As I continued researching how AI is changing marketing, I discovered a pattern affecting many businesses. Engagement rates dip, open rates slip, clicks drop — and before long, even people who want to hear from you stop seeing your emails because they’re no longer getting prime inbox placement.
This is what experts call the email death spiral:
Low engagement from disengaged subscribers tanks your reputation as a sender.
The algorithm places your email to fewer people’s prime inbox placement.
Engagement drops again.
This repeats itself until you find your email mainly in Promotions or Spam.
The Counterintuitive Fix: Purging the List
Here’s the part I didn’t fully grasp until more recently: Offering something free to get an email address is still a great tactic — but it only works long-term if you add one extra, counterintuitive step. You have to regularly purge your list of disengaged subscribers.
Yes, it feels wrong to shrink your email subscriber list after you’ve worked so hard to build it. But research shows that removing people who hadn’t opened an email in months improves your open rates almost immediately.
The logic is simple:
A smaller, more engaged list sends a strong positive signal to the algorithm.
The algorithm rewards you with better inbox placement.
Better placement means more opens, more clicks, and more sales.
How These Algorithms Work (and How to Work with Them)
These AI systems are constantly measuring:
Opens – Do people bother reading?
Clicks – Are they engaging with links?
Replies – The strongest possible trust signal.
Deletes without opening – A red flag for irrelevance.
Spam complaints – A fast track to deliverability issues.
They also weigh list-wide patterns, not just individual actions. That’s why a small number of freebie grabbers who never engage can quietly drag down your entire list.
Five Ways to Stay in the Algorithm’s Good Graces
Prune Your List Regularly -Remove subscribers who haven’t opened in months.Better to have 1,000 engaged readers than 10,000 ghosts.
Segment by Engagement – Send to your most active audience first, then slowly reintroduce the less active ones.
Simplify Design -The plainer and more personal your email looks, the less likely it is to be filtered as promotional.
Encourage Replies – Ask authentic questions that prompt real responses — replies are gold for your reputation.
Stay Consistent – Send on a predictable schedule. Sudden email bursts can look suspicious to the AI.
The Big Takeaway
The “free offer in exchange for email address” strategy still works — I still use it and still recommend it to clients — but it comes with an obligation we didn’t understand at first: you must actively manage and purge your list to protect your sender reputation.
Without this step, your email marketing slowly erodes from the inside, and you might not notice until it’s too late.
Focus on engagement over volume, and the invisible algorithm will start working for you, not against you — bringing your open rates, deliverability, and revenue back where they belong.
When was the last time you purged your email list?
Related Video: The Secret to Getting Your Emails Opened, Read, and Clicked – Neil Patel
