Reactivating the subscribers who have gone quiet
Among the emails you have sent in the past, some subscribers were once genuinely active — responding regularly, taking the call to action. Over time, work and life change and they are no longer what they were. They still receive the email, but they no longer spend much time on it: they open it and drop it in the bin, and eventually they stop opening at all. That prolonged non-engagement damages the sender’s reputation over time, and later emails start getting blocked. So do not take it lightly and assume a stored list is enough — failing to evaluate and segment your recipient list periodically has real consequences.
How should we treat these inactive subscribers? Start by defining what “inactive” means. It varies by industry, and a year is common — but in an age this fast-moving, if a subscriber has taken no action within an email for six months, it is time to start responding and find out why.
Seven ways to call these inactive subscribers back into participation:
- Tell them the data system has been updated and invite them to re-register.
- Offer a special coupon and invite them to log in and claim it.
- Invite them to take part in a survey, with a gift attached.
- Enter them into a competition with substantial prizes to claim.
- Send a gift directly and invite them to register.
- Highlight changes to the site or the company and invite them to take a look.
- Run the above periodically over the next six months and wait for a response. If there is still nothing, take action and simply ask them to unsubscribe and leave, because they will affect the email you send later. Express regret when you do, of course, and give them the choice to stay.
Email marketing is a long-running strategy that sustains reader feeling through content worth having, and every action affects that relationship. So treat inactive subscribers carefully and win them back. After all, finding a new customer is harder than keeping an existing one — do not give up on inactive subscribers lightly.