Summary
Safely re-engaging inactive email subscribers is a multifaceted process that involves careful planning and execution. Key steps include segmenting your inactive subscribers, cleaning your email list to remove invalid or unengaged addresses, and creating personalized re-engagement campaigns with compelling offers or valuable content. Ensuring a clear and easy unsubscribe option is crucial for maintaining list hygiene and complying with regulations. Email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is vital for improving deliverability and sender reputation. Furthermore, monitoring engagement, managing IP reputation, testing email rendering, and adapting sending frequency based on engagement are all important considerations for a successful and safe re-engagement strategy.
Key findings
- Segmentation and Personalization: Segmenting inactive subscribers and personalizing re-engagement campaigns with targeted offers and relevant content is crucial for increasing engagement.
- List Hygiene: Regularly cleaning your email list by removing hard bounces, unsubscribes, and inactive subscribers improves deliverability and sender reputation.
- Email Authentication: Implementing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication protocols is essential for improving email deliverability and verifying the sender's identity.
- Clear Unsubscribe Option: Providing a clear and easily accessible unsubscribe option ensures compliance and helps maintain a clean and engaged subscriber list.
- Monitoring and Testing: Monitoring engagement rates, managing IP reputation, and testing email rendering across different clients and devices are vital for optimizing campaign performance.
Key considerations
- Deliverability: Prioritize email deliverability by authenticating your emails, monitoring your sender reputation, and avoiding blocklists.
- Campaign Frequency: Adjust the frequency of your re-engagement campaigns based on subscriber engagement and avoid overwhelming inactive users.
- IP Reputation: Monitor and maintain your sending IP reputation to avoid deliverability issues and ensure your re-engagement emails reach the inbox.
- Legal Compliance: Ensure compliance with email marketing regulations (e.g., GDPR, CAN-SPAM) by providing clear consent options and honoring unsubscribe requests promptly.
- Lowered Expectations: Recognize win-back campaigns typically have lower engagement, closely monitor complaints, and potentially use a different subdomain.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
Safely re-engaging inactive email subscribers involves a multi-faceted approach. Key strategies include segmenting inactive users, cleaning your email list, and personalizing re-engagement campaigns with valuable content or exclusive offers. It's essential to provide a clear and easy way for subscribers to unsubscribe, monitor engagement closely, and remove unengaged contacts after the campaign. Testing email rendering across different devices and email clients and authenticating emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are also crucial for optimal deliverability.
Key opinions
- Segmentation: Segment your inactive subscribers based on their last activity or engagement level to tailor your re-engagement efforts.
- List Cleaning: Regularly clean your email list by removing hard bounces, unsubscribes, and consistently inactive subscribers to maintain a healthy sender reputation.
- Personalization: Craft personalized re-engagement campaigns that offer value, exclusive content, or special discounts to entice subscribers to re-engage.
- Unsubscribe Option: Always provide a clear and easy-to-find unsubscribe option to allow users to opt-out of future communications.
- Testing: Testing your emails to ensure they render correctly on different email clients and devices to ensure your message is displayed correctly.
Key considerations
- Deliverability: Implement email authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) to improve email deliverability and ensure your re-engagement campaigns reach the inbox.
- Sender Reputation: Monitor your sender reputation to identify and address any deliverability issues that may impact your ability to reach inactive subscribers.
- Campaign Frequency: Avoid sending too many re-engagement emails to prevent further disengagement or spam complaints. A limited series of targeted emails is often more effective.
- Automation Leniency: Automated email series may have better deliverability than bulk emails.
- Monitor engagement: Tag and monitor the re-engaged users to measure the success and ROI of a re-engagement strategy.
Marketer view
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.
9 Jan 2024 - HubSpot Blog
Marketer view
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.
27 Jun 2022 - ActiveCampaign
What the experts say
2 expert opinions
Experts advise that re-engaging inactive email subscribers requires careful consideration of engagement rates and unsubscribe options. Expect lower engagement than normal sends and monitor complaints closely. Provide clear and specific unsubscribe instructions to ensure users who no longer want emails can easily opt out, maintaining a clean and engaged list.
Key opinions
- Lower Engagement: Expect lower engagement rates with win-back campaigns compared to regular email sends.
- Unsubscribe Clarity: Clear and specific unsubscribe instructions are crucial, especially for re-engagement emails.
Key considerations
- Campaign Frequency: Send re-engagement campaigns less frequently than regular mailings.
- Complaint Monitoring: Closely monitor complaints received during re-engagement campaigns.
- List Hygiene: Prioritize maintaining a clean and engaged list by making it easy for uninterested subscribers to opt out.
Expert view
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.
25 Jan 2024 - Word to the Wise
Expert view
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.
1 Nov 2022 - Spamresource.com
What the documentation says
3 technical articles
Email deliverability documentation emphasizes the importance of authentication and monitoring for successful re-engagement campaigns. Using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC ensures emails are verified and authorized, improving deliverability and sender reputation. Avoiding blocklists, establishing feedback loops with ISPs, and personalizing content are also crucial steps to reach inboxes effectively.
Key findings
- Email Authentication: Using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication enhances email deliverability to Gmail and helps ensure messages reach the intended recipient.
- Sender Reputation Monitoring: Monitoring sender reputation through tools like Gmail Postmaster Tools is crucial to identifying and addressing deliverability issues.
- IP Address Management: Ensuring the sending IP address is not on any blocklists is essential for reliable email delivery.
Key considerations
- Feedback Loops: Implementing feedback loops with ISPs helps identify and resolve deliverability issues, improving overall sending performance.
- Content Personalization: Personalizing emails and avoiding generic content is important to maintain user engagement and avoid being marked as spam.
- Domain Verification: Implementing DKIM helps recipients verify that the email was sent and authorized by the domain owner, increasing trust.
Technical article
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.
29 Jun 2022 - RFC
Technical article
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.
6 Oct 2024 - Gmail Help
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