How to Build a Re-Engagement Campaign for Inactive Subscribers
We recently shared an infographic on how to reverse your email engagement attrition rate, with some case studies and statistics on what can be done about them. This infographic from Email Monks, Re-Engagement Emails, takes it to a deeper level of detail to provide an actual campaign plan for reversing your email performance decay.
An average email list decays by 25% every year. And, According to a 2013 Marketing Sherpa report, 75% of #email subscribers are inactive.
While marketers typically ignore the dormant portion of their email list, they ignore the consequences. Low engagement rates hurt inbox placement rates, and unused emails can even be reclaimed by ISPs to setup traps to identify spammers! That means dormant subscribers are actually impacting whether or not your engaged email subscribers are seeing your emails.
Setting up a Re-Engagement Campaign
- Segment subscribers who have not opened, clicked or converted from your email subscriber list in the last year.
- Validate the email addresses of that segment through a reputable email validation service.
- Send a clear and concise email requesting the subscriber opt-in again to your email marketing list. Be sure to promote the benefits of receiving your email.
- Wait two weeks and measure the response of the email. This is enough time for people on vacation or that need to clear out their inbox and make room for your message.
- Follow-up with a second warning that the email subscriber will be removed from any further communication unless they opt-in again. Be sure to promote the benefits of receiving email communication from your company.
- Wait another two weeks and measure the response of the email. This is enough time for people on vacation or that need to clear out their inbox and make room for your message.
- Follow-up with a final message that the email subscriber has been removed from any further communication unless they opt-in again. Be sure to promote the benefits of receiving email communication from your company.
- Responses to opting back in should be thanked and you might even wish to solicit them for information on what would make them engage deeper with your brand.
- Inactive subscribers should be removed from your list(s). However, you may wish to move them to a retargeting campaign on social media, or even a direct marketing campaign to win them back!
The infographic from Email Monks also provides some best practices to increase your chances of getting your inactive subscribers re-engaged: