When does the email busy season start?
Still have a question, spotted an error, or have a better explanation or a source we should cite?
Most senders start planning for the busy season in October. By then it has already begun.
The seasonal peak starts in August and runs through September to the holidays. If you wait until October to get your list in shape, you are cleaning in the middle of it.
So clean before August. That way the bad and silent addresses are gone before your volume goes up.
Then grow your sending gradually. A sudden spike looks like a compromised account or a spam campaign, even for a holiday sale, because providers can't read your marketing calendar. What they can read is engagement from your list. Adding 20-30% more volume per send is a reasonable pace, and seasonal spikes like Black Friday are fine if you ramp up gradually in the days before.
The most useful email questions, once a month
One email a month. New questions worth reading, real deliverability changes (Gmail and Outlook updates, etc.), and any tool or report that landed since the last issue. No fluff, no upsell.
Contributors
Who worked on this answer
Every name links to their profile. Every company links to their site. Real people, real accountability.
