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5 Keys to Successful E-mail Re-engagement

May 12, 2010 By Justin Premick
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Disengaged e-mail subscribers are a marketer's worst enemy. Not only does their presence on your list suppress open, clickthrough and conversion rates, it can increase the cost of mailing your list and even negatively impact your deliverability.

E-mail marketing best practices dictate removing subscribers who haven't taken action with any of your e-mails in the past three to six months, and moving forward with the ones who are still opening and clicking. But for many marketers, the thought that some of those subscribers might still be interested makes deleting them from the list a gut-wrenching experience.

Do your business, your conscience and your list a favor: Cut disengaged subscribers loose, but only after you try a re-engagement campaign. Here are five keys to successful e-mail subscriber re-engagement:

  1. Create opportunities for action. The goal of a re-engagement campaign isn't to close sales; it's to separate people who are still somewhat interested in your business from those who have completely checked out (and probably won't see your re-engagement e-mail anyway).

Make it easy for those still-interested subscribers to take some kind of action. Ask subscribers to tell you what they want to hear about by filling out a survey. Or ask them to tell you how often they want to hear from you (by clicking a link that says "weekly" or "monthly," or by visiting your preference center). Or use a simple yes/no question to ask subscribers if they're still interested in the benefit they get in your e-mails (this is a great opportunity to remind them of why they signed up originally).

2. Incentivize re-engagement. To maximize response to your re-engagement campaign, offer an incentive to subscribers.

While this can be a discount, you may find more success offering something of value that doesn't remind them that, ultimately, you want money from them. Remember, you're not trying to close a sale just yet. Free whitepapers, consultations, recipes and other relevant content can work well here: Not only do they deliver value, they re-establish your authority and expertise, and create reasons to talk to reengaged subscribers later.

3. Bring back your greatest hits. Subscribers who aren't engaged now used to open and click. Which of your e-mails got them to do that?

 
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Most Recent Comments:
Bill Kaplan - Posted on May 12, 2010
Inactive customers might just be the most misunderstood and neglected segment of your customer database. Relative to what most companies pay to acquire customers in the first place, the cost to reconnect with these former buyers is a fraction of what it costs to acquire a new customer.

Given that most inactive customers are the result of annual email address churn rates of ~30% per year, it's inaccurate to assume that these customers aren't interested in your offers anymore. It's simply that you've been sending your marketing campaigns to email boxes no one reads. Try an ECOA (Email Change of Address) service or postcarding your customers to gain their new email addresses and you'll be amazed at the impact to your bottom line.

Of course, the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, thereby making customer acquisition campaigns through advertising or SEM seem so much sexier but smart marketers have always known that updating one's database with the current, preferred email addresses of their customers typically yields an ROI no other marketing program can match.
Click here to view archived comments...
Archived Comments:
Bill Kaplan - Posted on May 12, 2010
Inactive customers might just be the most misunderstood and neglected segment of your customer database. Relative to what most companies pay to acquire customers in the first place, the cost to reconnect with these former buyers is a fraction of what it costs to acquire a new customer.

Given that most inactive customers are the result of annual email address churn rates of ~30% per year, it's inaccurate to assume that these customers aren't interested in your offers anymore. It's simply that you've been sending your marketing campaigns to email boxes no one reads. Try an ECOA (Email Change of Address) service or postcarding your customers to gain their new email addresses and you'll be amazed at the impact to your bottom line.

Of course, the grass always looks greener on the other side of the fence, thereby making customer acquisition campaigns through advertising or SEM seem so much sexier but smart marketers have always known that updating one's database with the current, preferred email addresses of their customers typically yields an ROI no other marketing program can match.