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Answer: Most email list-management programs remove undeliverable addresses after they bounce two or three times. But, because the addresses are not being reported to you as bounces, your removal function doesn't act. Thus, the old addresses hang around on your list and drag down your metrics.
So, you'll have to remove those addresses manually. First, audit all the domain names on your mailing list to find those that are out of date or obsolete, like those you mentioned. Your software should allow you to order your addresses by domain name (the part that comes after the @ symbol). Once you order your list by domain, find the obsolete domains and delete all the email addresses associated with them from your list.
You probably have many other dormant addresses lurking in your list, too, either because some recipients delete your emails without opening or move on to new addresses without unsubscribing. Pre-Gmail, when Web clients such as Hotmail and Yahoo! gave users a comparatively stingy 2MB of storage space, those addresses would bounce sooner because the mailboxes filled up faster. Today, 1GB and 2GB mailboxes take longer to overflow. That means addresses hang around longer without bouncing.
The problem is, you don't know which addresses belong to out-of-date or obsolete domains and which belong to people who don't bother to open or don't live there anymore. So, give them a chance to reconnect with you by implementing a “reactivation program”. And if they don't, boot them off your list.
Create a sublist of any email address that has generated no action, open or click, for a set period, say one year. Send a message inviting those users either to resubscribe or unsubscribe. Give them a week or so to respond, and then scrub any nonresponding addresses from your master list.
Here's a list of common domain names that have disappeared over the last five years:
- attbi.com
- gateway.net
- compuserve.com
- ix.netcom.com
- uunet.com
- delphi.com
- mediaone.com
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