![\"\"](\"https:\/\/primeresults.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/how-to-re-engage-inactive-subscribers-1-1024x576.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nA re-engagement campaign, reactivation campaign, win-back or reconnect campaign\u2014whatever you wanna call it\u2014aims at re-engaging subscribers whose interactions with a brand\u2019s marketing have decreased or stopped completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Often, companies continue sending marketing messages to inactive subscribers, without a reactivation strategy. And as you\u2019d expect, the results are poor. You need a focused reactivation approach\u2014the more targeted, the better. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When you\u2019re trying to deliver emails to inactive subscribers, your email service provider (ESP) analyses how those subscribers engaged with your past and current emails to determine your reputation as a sender. That analysis, in turn, determines whether your email goes to the inbox or spam folder or gets blocked altogether. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Low engagement negatively affects your reputation and leads to email delivery problems. ESPs tend to convert invalid email addresses\u2014those with hard bounces\u2014into spam traps. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
If you\u2019re suppressing hard bounced addresses, you don\u2019t need to worry about falling into a spam trap. But if you send an email to these invalids or inactives, you put your sender reputation at risk and your future messages (even to valid addresses) could be blocked for long periods of time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
[bctt tweet=”If you send emails to inactive subscribers, you put your sender reputation at risk.”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, emailing inactive addresses can spell disaster for you and your business. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yes, your reputation as a sender is on the line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, that doesn\u2019t mean you should forget about your disengaged audience. They could be people who engaged with you or bought your products in the past\u2014which means they\u2019re likely to do it again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given that it\u2019s cheaper to market to existing customers than to try to acquire new ones, your disengaged audience presents a huge sales opportunity. Depending on which study you believe, and what industry you\u2019re in, acquiring new customers is anywhere from 5 to 25 times more expensive<\/a> than retaining existing ones. You don\u2019t have to spend time and resources going out and finding new clients\u2014all you have to do is keep the ones you have happy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Still not convinced that retaining customers is valuable? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check out the research by Frederick Reichheld<\/a>\u2014the guy who invented the net promoter score\u2014which shows that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Disengagement is common in email marketing. If your competitors aren\u2019t running a reactivation program, it could be your opportunity to take advantage of this low hanging fruit and stay one step ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Question is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n The answer lies in these four important steps: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 1<\/strong>: Identify who\u2019s inactive in your email base. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 2<\/strong>: Understand why they\u2019re inactive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 3<\/strong>: Draft, develop and launch a re-engagement program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Step 4<\/strong>: Identify other channels that they may be inactive in and try engaging them there instead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Each stage will not only help you target inactives strategically, it will also allow you to appreciate why they became disengaged and how you can mitigate against this in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n MailChimp<\/a> describes an inactive subscriber as \u201can opted-in contact with a valid email address who has not opened or clicked your campaigns recently.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n [bctt tweet=”How long it takes for a subscriber to become inactive depends on how often you send emails.”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n How long it takes for a subscriber to become inactive depends on how often you send emails (aka your sending frequency) and the type of product or service you promote. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, if you market a product with a short sales cycle, an inactive subscriber might be someone who hasn’t opened the last five campaigns you sent. But if you market seasonally, it might take a year or more for someone to be considered inactive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Who\u2019s inactive in your contacts list totally depends on how long you think an inactive period is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n More on this coming up in a bit. <\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the reasons subscribers disengage is because marketers fail to set expectations at the start. Did you communicate to subscribers what they have signed up for in the welcome programme? Are you currently adhering to what you promised the subscriber as they opted in? Was the subscriber soft-opted in? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another mistake marketers make is not setting and communicating the email frequency from the beginning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Did you ask subscribers how many times a week or month they\u2019d like to be emailed and are you honouring that commitment? Are you sending emails at the best time of day or day of week when the subscriber is more likely to open? <\/p>\n\n\n\n You also get inactive subscribers when you fail to optimise your content. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you use what you know about your subscribers to tailor content? Do you use personalised information and drop in the most relevant content? How\u2019s each section of your emails performing? Are you testing your content and copy testing? Do you use surveys to understand how your subscribers perceive your email? Have you set up preference centres to capture what your subscribers want to hear about? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Capturing incorrect email addresses also leads to subscriber inactivity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do you follow best practice and use a double opt-in? Do you use an email verification tool to regularly clean your data at point of capture and understand if each email address is active? <\/p>\n\n\n\n You may also be losing your subscribers\u2019 engagement if you\u2019re not optimising your emails for the most used devices in your segments like mobile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your subscribers may also be losing interest in your content and opting out emotionally. (Darn right, that\u2019s a thing). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps your emails are no longer relevant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps your emails have deliverability issues that are causing them to be filtered as junk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Perhaps the reason for subscribers becoming inactive is as simple as the fact that they\u2019ve never received messages because they\u2019re not part of a channel or segment. For example, subscribers who didn\u2019t quite fit into any of your segments may not be engaging because they\u2019re not getting any of your emails in the first place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s a host of reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you\u2019re not sure why you have inactives in your email database, just use the reasons above as a checklist to help you figure out where the problem lies. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n I mentioned earlier that inactivity is relative. It depends on how long you think an inactive period is and that might look different from business to business\u2014or industry to industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s two ways to single out inactive subscribers:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Option #1: You could group subscribers by their engagement every 6 months or<\/p>\n\n\n\n Option #2: Review your business activity cycle and seasonality<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grouping subscribers according to their engagement every 6 months<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Grouping inactive subscribers with similar behaviours together will help you address each group effectively. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Use the chart below (recommended by Experian<\/a>) as a general rule of thumb for classifying subscribers by engagement: <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll need a tailored approach to win each inactive type back and maintain an engaged subscriber-to-brand relationship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here\u2019s how to tackle each group: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Active subscribers<\/strong> engage with your email content regularly. You don\u2019t need a reactivation campaign for these folks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Inactive subscribers<\/strong> haven\u2019t engaged with your emails\u2014no clicks, opens, or purchases\u2014in 6 to 12 months. You need a reactivation campaign for this group to avoid them falling into the next pot of disengagement. Keep the reactivation slow, meaning that you send the least number of emails possible. Test different offers and personalise your messages for them to increase relevance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lapsing subscribers<\/strong> haven\u2019t engaged in 12 to 24 months and are very likely to fall into the dormant pot if you don\u2019t put a reactivation plan in place. Give this group one last chance with a \u2018please come back\u2019 campaign with an opt-back-in call to action. If you don\u2019t get a response, don\u2019t send emails to these addresses again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dormant subscribers<\/strong> no longer even qualify as subscribers because they\u2019re very risky addresses to be emailing. They could have turned into spam traps so it\u2019s best to suppress or remove these addresses from your list completely. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You should keep your email list as clean and up to date as possible. Create a filter or segment for any addresses which received at least one email in the last 24 months but didn\u2019t engage even once during that period. Collect these addresses and put them in a separate list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You\u2019ll want to eliminate inactives progressively, starting with the oldest addresses by subscription date or by domain (Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo!, etc). So, before you delete them, you should first double-check whether deliverability has improved. You should also compare each address against your customers, if possible, to see whether there\u2019s any inactives that are still making purchases. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We wouldn\u2019t want to send a paying customer packing now, would we? <\/p>\n\n\n\n The second way to determine who\u2019s inactive in your database is to: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Review your business activity cycle and seasonality.<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can\u2019t expect subscribers to be active on a daily, weekly, monthly, or even yearly basis without looking at your business cycle. Instead, you should consider your brand\u2019s activity cycle when segmenting subscribers into \u2018actives\u2019 and \u2018inactives\u2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Business cycles typically fall under three main categories as follows: <\/p>\n\n\n\n High activity cycle<\/strong>: Examples of businesses with high activity cycles include financial institutions, online newspapers or TV providers. An online newspaper, for instance, might consider a subscriber disengaged very quickly in terms of weeks because the frequency of opens is expected to be daily. When a customer signs up to services like these, they should intend to read every single email. Therefore, engagement drop off would be set in weeks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Medium activity cycle<\/strong>: Fashion retailers would fall under this category. A highly-engaged subscriber may not interact with every single email delivered to their inbox, but the sender should observe regular clicking or purchasing behaviour. Anything lower than 67% interaction<\/a> or less than 2 responses for every 3 emails sent is a symptom of lapsing engagement or disengagement. Companies with this cycle should consider a subscriber disengaged at a slower rate than the high activity cycle. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Low activity cycle<\/strong>: Brands with a low activity cycle (like furniture or high-end product retailers) can expect subscribers to interact with their emails less frequently or make purchases less regularly. Here, the engagement cycle would be a lot longer\u2014potentially on a yearly basis\u2014so, it would be normal for subscribers to open and click on emails once or twice a month minimum. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Other than business cycles, seasonal trends also affect subscriber engagement<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Take fashion retailers and travel companies, for example. A fashion retailer might expect more activity during new season launches (summer or winter wear), whereas a travel company would expect a lot of activity before summer or even Christmas holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s important is that marketers have realistic expectations of their subscriber activity. Weekly, monthly or yearly, you should set those numbers for your brand. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [bctt tweet=”You should have realistic expectations of your subscriber activity.”]<\/p>\n\n\n\n So far, we\u2019ve looked at ways to identify inactive subscribers in your database. We\u2019ve also reviewed reasons why subscribers become inactive. Now, let\u2019s see… <\/p>\n\n\n\n For the first part of your re-engagement campaign, you\u2019ll need to capture your subscriber’s attention and start a conversation. Acknowledge them and use emotive language to engage your inactive subscribers on a personal level. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Say, you send a first email with the subject line, \u201cWe need to talk.\u201d You\u2019d then acknowledge your subscriber\u2019s inactivity (no log-in, no purchase, etc.) and offer help with the goal of starting a conversation. You might ask them to update their email preferences or offer them a free live chat session with you, send them to an FAQ section, or offer them other channels for communicating with you (like social media or mobile). <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your emails for this first part should be targeted and include relevant information. You achieve relevance by displaying content related to your subscriber\u2019s past behaviour e.g., content they interacted with before. But most importantly, you should make it easy for the subscriber to stay or to leave using a clear, prominently featured opt-back-in or opt-out CTA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Part two of a reactivation campaign involves demonstrating value. Your conversation should be about how your brand has changed and improved its values and commitments to customers. You then educate your subscribers on the improvements you\u2019ve made and how they stand to benefit if they choose to stay on and interact with you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n An example subject line here would be, \u201cYou can always count on us.\u201d You\u2019d then highlight your brand\u2019s benefits and set expectations for the subscriber-brand relationship. Include different elements of social proof like customer testimonials, a live Twitter feed, or best social media comments to really make your case. And don\u2019t forget the opt-back-in or opt-out CTA here as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lastly, hook your subscribers. Incentivise them in a way that they\u2019ll find it difficult to turn away or stay inactive. You should have an accurate understanding of the types of incentives that work best for your brand and subscriber segments. You could even start with a small incentive during the first part of the campaign then turn it into an even bigger offer on this final part. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Your subject line may read, \u201cCome back and get 30% off!\u201d And then, depending on whether your subscriber opts in or out, say goodbye or welcome her back to the fold. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Time to go cross-channel…<\/p>\n\n\n\n Going cross-channel aka cross-channel marketing complements your reactivation strategy. It\u2019s an opportunity to mitigate against subscribers who don\u2019t engage with your reactivation campaign, where you send targeted and relevant messages to subscribers in the channels they\u2019re engaged in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n You can go cross-channel through mobile, display or social media advertising. Let\u2019s unpack the three of them: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mobile<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your subscribers or customers have also opted in to SMS, you can reach out to them via text messaging. Ask them to confirm whether SMS is their preferred channel for communication and choose how often they\u2019d like to hear from you through this channel, then deliver. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If your brand has a mobile app (kudos you, badass marketer \ud83d\udc4f), you could message users through push notifications. For example, you might set up triggered geo-fencing to intercept customers with your app as they pass near your physical stores. You\u2019d then send them relevant messages to build excitement and draw them into your store to make a purchase. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Triggered geo-fencing is also a brilliant way to check the validity of your dormant email addresses. How\u2019s that for having your cake and eating it! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Display<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Check who among your web visitors is also a subscriber, then match their cookies, email and IP address to display highly-targeted display ads\u2014an extremely effective technique, especially when used on your website\u2019s homepage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Social<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Twitter and Facebook allow advertisers to upload lists of users securely to their platforms using user email addresses as a common theme. This allows you to find your customers on either platform. Once you find a match, you can group these users as a custom audience. Then, next time you want to run social media ads, you\u2019ll already have an audience to advertise to\u2014and an audience more likely to buy from you at that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Facebook also allows you to add a Facebook pixel on your website such that, when a Facebook user visits your site, the pixel automatically places her into a custom audience you can target with your Facebook ads in future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Insights from the pixel add an extremely powerful tool to your digital marketing arsenal\u2014a user placed in your custom audience may have visited your webpage via their desktop, but are now targetable on their mobile device as well. You also get a great tool for reactivation, especially when subscribers are unresponsive through email and don\u2019t convert onsite. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Having Facebook or Twitter custom audiences as a re-engagement option can also help you drive users into your physical stores with mobile only targeting people near your store locations. Facebook, for example, turned on targeting within a mile of a store\u2019s location. Combine email reactivation with social media reactivation and you\u2019re practically unbeatable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Just remember: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If there\u2019s no activity throughout your re-engagement campaign (email or social), remove the email address. And be sure to erase addresses on a weekly basis to comply with best practises. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Got people on your list who haven’t opened or clicked on your email content in a while? You might be due for a re-engagement campaign.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nHow do you go about re-engaging with inactive subscribers?<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s begin by identifying your inactive email audience. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
For now, let\u2019s look at some of the reasons and guiding questions to help you understand why your subscribers are becoming inactive. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/media.giphy.com\/media\/3o85xGr7NxBC4eGTte\/giphy.gif\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/primeresults.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/classifying-inactivity-1024x246.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/primeresults.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/leaves-hanging-on-rope-1024x538.jpg\")
How to draft, develop and launch a reactivation campaign <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
After you\u2019ve run your re-engagement campaign, it\u2019s time to identify other channels your subscribers may be inactive in and try to engage them there. <\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/primeresults.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/man-holding-mobile-phone-happy-1024x538.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/primeresults.co\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/girls-browsing-phones-on-lawn-1024x538.jpg\")