Build a Suppression List From lemlist or Instantly Before You Reuse Old Leads

Export the campaign leads, put everyone who bounced, unsubscribed, replied or said no on a suppression list, merge in the tool's own unsubscribe or blocklist records, and load that file into every sending tool before you reuse anyone. What's left, the leads who finished the sequence without answering, is the reusable part, and it needs a live check before the new campaign.

This matters most in two moments: when you recycle old leads into a new angle, and when you move from one sequencer to another. In both cases the opt-outs and bounces sit inside the old tool, and they don't come with you unless you take them. Our cold email suppression list post covers the master list and the legal deadlines; this one is the export-and-split how-to.

Which statuses go where

Lead status	List	Why
Bounced	Suppression	The address failed; resending hurts the sending domain
Unsubscribed	Suppression	They asked you to stop
Replied, Interested, Meeting booked, Won	Suppression (handle by hand)	Past the cold stage
Not interested, Wrong person, Lost	Suppression	They answered no
Invalid verification status	Suppression	Never deliverable
Completed, Contacted, never replied	Reusable	Check live first
Risky or catch-all verification	Reusable, flagged	Unproven; send slower or drop

lemlist: export and split

1. Open the campaign, go to the Leads tab, filter by status if you like, tick the leads and choose Export as .CSV from the bulk actions bar (lemlist help).
2. Repeat for each campaign you want to reuse. The same person in two campaigns should merge into one row, with the strongest reason to suppress winning.
3. Open the Unsubscribes section. lemlist's help on it says you can filter records by type (API, Bounced, Lead, User, Abuse) and that a bounce marks only that address as unsubscribed. It also holds domain-level unsubscribes entered as @domain.com. Those records aren't always in a campaign export, so copy them out too (the help page doesn't describe an export button, so filter and copy if there isn't one).
4. Upload the exports to the lemlist leads to email list tool. It reads the status, interest and email status columns, and gives you a reusable file and a suppression file.

lemlist's lead status article explains each status name if your export uses ones not in the table above. The lemlist export steps page shows where each button is.

Instantly: export and split

1. Open the campaign's Leads tab, filter if you like, select the leads and click Download. From the CRM or the main Leads tab, select leads and use Row actions > Download selected (Instantly help).
2. Repeat per campaign and per workspace.
3. Copy out your Global Blocklist entries as well. Leads on it but not in a campaign won't be in the download. Instantly's help centre doesn't describe a blocklist export button, so if you can't find one in your workspace, keep your own copy of everything you add to it from now on.
4. Upload the files to the Instantly leads to email list tool. Bounced, unsubscribed and invalid go to suppression; replied and interested statuses are set aside as engaged; not interested and wrong person as said no.

The Instantly export steps page has more detail on the download options.

Load the suppression file everywhere

A suppression list only works if every tool that sends has it.

• Instantly: Instantly's Global Blocklist article says to open the Blocklist tab, click Import and choose CSV, manual entry or Google Sheets. One email or domain per row, domains without the @, files under 5 MB, one sheet per file. The Blocklist tab is checked at upload and across ongoing campaigns; a Google Sheet blocklist is checked only at import, so use the tab for anything already running.
• lemlist: add addresses and @domain entries as unsubscribe variables, one per line.
• Other sequencers and your CRM: import the same file. If you have several tool lists to combine, the suppression list merger dedupes them into one.

Keep the master file somewhere outside any one tool, so a future migration starts from it.

Check the reusable leads

A lead that completed a sequence in the summer didn't bounce then. Since then some of those people changed jobs, and their old work inboxes have closed. Catch-all leads were never proven at all.

1. Remove the suppression list from the reusable file. The compare email lists tool does this if you're doing it by hand.
2. Upload the rest at /verify. Every address gets a live mailbox check; valid, risky and invalid download as separate files, and catch-all domains are marked.
3. Import only the valid file into the new campaign. Put catch-all leads in a smaller, slower one or drop them.

Our re-verify leads older than 30 days post explains the timing.

What each export misses

• Column names aren't published. Neither lemlist nor Instantly documents its CSV headings; the tools find status columns by name, so check the notes above the result.
• Records outside the campaign. Workspace blocklists, the lemlist Unsubscribes section and leads deleted from a campaign may not be in a campaign export.
• Other tools. Replies that came in through your inbox or CRM, and unsubscribes from your newsletter platform, need merging in separately.

Where SimpleVerifier fits

Both export tools are free and run in your browser; nothing is uploaded until you choose to check the addresses. The live check is the paid part: the first 100 checks are free with a Google sign-in on the verify page. Pro is $39 a month with the first 100,000 checks a month at full speed, then slower, never cut off, and one-time packs of 10,000 checks for $15 never expire. See pricing.