What are the best practices for re-engaging inactive email subscribers safely?
Summary
What email marketers say10Marketer opinions
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog recommends cleaning your email list by removing inactive subscribers who haven't engaged in a while. They suggest sending a re-engagement email before removing them, offering an incentive to stay subscribed or providing a clear option to unsubscribe.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign advocates for using win-back email campaigns to offer exclusive deals and to get inactive subscribers re-engaged with the brand. They recommend to personalize the emails and segment the users to determine what type of incentive will re-engage specific customers. Lastly, if there is no interaction it is essential to respect the user's choice and allow them to unsubscribe easily.
Email marketer from Sendinblue explains that segmenting your list by engagement level and crafting personalized re-engagement campaigns is key. Offer exclusive content or discounts and ensure it's easy to unsubscribe for those who aren't interested.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares their plan to re-engage inactive users, which involves extracting and reverifying the segment, then adding them back in patches. They will tag the users and monitor opens over a three-day span to check engagement, and continue this process until the original segment is exhausted.
Email marketer from Neil Patel Blog suggests segmenting inactive subscribers and sending them targeted re-engagement campaigns with special offers or valuable content to entice them to re-engage. He also emphasizes the importance of making it easy for them to unsubscribe if they are no longer interested.
Email marketer from Litmus emphasizes the importance of testing your re-engagement emails to ensure they render correctly across different email clients and devices. Use A/B testing on elements like subject lines, preview text and calls-to-action to optimize the campaign's performance, and also test different incentives and offers. They recommend to be aware of dark mode and how your emails will render, especially around logos.
Email marketer from Mailchimp advises creating a targeted re-engagement campaign that provides value and encourages subscribers to interact with your emails again. They recommend A/B testing different subject lines and content to see what resonates best with your inactive audience.
Email marketer from Reddit suggests cleaning the list by removing hard bounces and unsubscribes first. Then, send a re-engagement campaign offering a compelling reason to stay subscribed, like a special discount or exclusive content. Monitor results closely and remove anyone who doesn't engage after the campaign.
Email marketer from Email Geeks recommends cleaning the list with a service like Kickbox to remove spamtrap, mailbox full, and hard bounce addresses. They also suggest using a separate subdomain for the re-engagement campaign and sending at a low speed.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests setting up an automation with specific content designed to re-engage inactive users, treating them as a different persona. They note that automations may have more leniency on deliverability, and recommend a multi-part series, removing users once they re-engage or opt-out.
What the experts say2Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that when running win-back campaigns, you should expect a lower engagement rate than normal sends. She recommends sending these campaigns less frequently than regular mailings and closely monitoring complaints.
Expert from Spamresource.com says that it is important to have clear and specific unsubscribe instructions in all emails, especially when re-engaging inactive subscribers. This ensures that people who no longer want to receive your emails can easily opt out, helping to maintain a clean and engaged list.
What the documentation says3Technical articles
Documentation from RFC specifies that implementing DKIM signatures helps recipients verify that the email was sent and authorized by the domain owner, which is a crucial part of getting emails delivered into inboxes. This is particularly useful when sending campaigns to re-engage subscribers, as it increases trust.
Documentation from Gmail Help explains to improve deliverability to Gmail, authenticate your email using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Also, monitor your sender reputation in Postmaster Tools and ensure that your emails are not being marked as spam by users.
Documentation from Microsoft Support explains to ensure your sending IP address is not on any blocklists and implement a feedback loop with ISPs to address any deliverability issues. Furthermore, personalize your emails and avoid sending generic content to re-engage users.