Whether it’s called a win back, reactivation, or re-engagement email series, the aim of it is self-explanatory:
Breathe new life into disengaged portions of your email list
But why even go to all this trouble?
After all, you’re doing what you’re supposed to – sending offers to subscribers, putting out informative content with clear calls to action throughout.
If they don’t like what they’re seeing and don’t want to respond, it’s their loss…Right?
Wrong! It’s your loss…
These aren’t random people who just happen to not be interested in what you’re offering. You did have them onboard at one point but lost them somewhere on the way.
Now it’s your job to get them back.
They are people who were interested in your business enough to give you their email address so they could have future interactions with your brand.
And make no mistake, they are quite valuable to your whole operation.
Fred Reichheld, the best-selling business strategist and loyalty marketing researcher, has stated that merely a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to upwards of a 25% increase in profits for a company.
It is far easier to convince a subscriber to purchase something than a person who hasn’t had any contact with your advertising or brand values.
You just have to know how to do it right.
What To Do With Old Email Lists
First of all, we need to isolate the problem so we can treat it more quickly and effectively.
Take advantage of platforms like ActiveCampaign by leveraging the data they collect in regards to your email campaigns, to better identify those subscribers that haven’t interacted with your content for more than 90 days and segment them, so your messaging can be more targeted towards them.
After that, your best bet is a re-engagement email series.
Why You Should Use A Re-Engagement Email Series
From what we have observed over the years, the two main negatives of disengaged email subscribers are:
- Email Service Providers take your deliverability (open, click and bounce rates, etc.) into account when they assign you a reputation score. This is done to ensure that people receive relevant emails in their inboxes, with the rest going straight into the spam folder. You may find your emails winding up in spam folders if this score takes a dive. This is a very hard position to get out of, so avoiding getting there in the first place would be the best strategy. Engaged subscribers are key to improving this metric.
- You’re wasting resources – Email Service Providers charge you based on the number of emails you send out. It’s common sense to at least make sure the emails you’re paying for have a chance at an ROI.
Best Practices For A Re-Engagement Email Series
Now that we know we should be using it, how exactly do we get this email sequence up and running? And more importantly, how do we avoid common re-engagement email mistakes?
Many of the guidelines for writing an outstanding email sequence apply to the re-engagement series, like writing clear Calls to Action (CTA).
Make your CTAs stand out with a button that is separated visually from the text around it so that it’s easy to understand at a glance what action you want your subscribers to take.
Both B2C and B2B re-engagement email subject lines should make the intent of your email body clear and upfront.
A subject line is like a store’s window – it gives an accurate insight into what there is to find inside.
You are both marketing sender and receiver, though not simultaneously. Look around your inbox to determine what has worked on you in the past. Set up a special folder where you can store your inspiration every time you see a nice subject line, email design or copy that you can draw from in the future.
Have the emails in your re-engagement email series centered around the shared general theme of starting the interaction between your subscriber and your brand back up, but talk about a different thing in each email.
This avoids annoying subscribers with repetitive messaging while staying relevant in their inboxes.
Moreover, this is why a sequence is preferable to just one customer winback email since a single oversized email packed to the brim with ideas and offers can overwhelm the reader and cause their attention to simply switch off.
At least one of the emails in your sequence should provide substantial value. This can take the form of limited-time offers, coupons, or a lead magnet.
This is the perfect moment to repurpose a piece of content that you have already produced. It could be an article, a guide, a course lesson, pretty much anything that could provide value.
Should You Delete Inactive Subscribers?
If all else fails, then yes, by all means, take them out, since at that point they are more of a liability, which far outweighs their potential benefit to your business.
As mentioned before, disengagement can lead to your emails being labeled as spam, which is absolutely not a position you want to find yourself in.
When it comes to your email list, think quality over quantity.
The large subscriber count doesn’t matter one bit if the sound of crickets is the only answer you get when you send an email asking them to interact with your content.
Final Words On Re-Engagement Email Series
All in all, when done right, a re-engagement email series can be the most cost-effective way of converting leads, since they are halfway there on the customer journey, signaled by the fact that they were in your email list to begin with.
All they need is the right jolt to get them to pay attention.
If you ever feel like you need a helping hand when it comes to email marketing, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact us right here.
We will gladly arrange a phone call to talk about the ways in which we can help you leverage marketing technology to help scale your business!
We hope to hear from you soon!
