Summary
Re-engagement email campaigns are a common tactic in email marketing, aiming to reignite interest from inactive subscribers or old leads. However, the line between effective re-engagement and deceptive practices can often blur, raising significant questions about deliverability and ethical sender behavior. This page delves into whether certain re-engagement subject lines and strategies are considered deceptive and offers guidance on managing interactions with old leads and unsubscribes responsibly.
Key findings
- Deceptive Tactics: Using subject lines like RE: without prior correspondence, or frequently changing sending domains to evade blocklists, are widely considered deceptive and harmful practices.
- List Decay: The value of an email contact decays significantly over time. Attempting to re-engage very old contacts, especially those inactive for years, poses substantial deliverability risks.
- Unsubscribe Misinterpretation: Mistaking an unsubscribe request for a soft bounce or continuing to email unsubscribed individuals is a severe compliance violation and a major red flag for inbox providers. For more on this, see why you might get repeated re-engagement emails after unsubscribing.
- Deliverability Impact: Aggressive or deceptive re-engagement campaigns, particularly those targeting unengaged or unsubscribed users, can drastically harm sender reputation, leading to lower inbox placement and potential blocklisting. Learn how to manage deliverability when re-engaging inactive subscribers.
Key considerations
- Consent and Compliance: Always prioritize explicit consent and adhere to anti-spam regulations (e.g., CAN-SPAM, CASL). An unsubscribe is a clear signal to stop sending marketing communications.
- Ethical Subject Lines: Avoid misleading subject lines that imply previous correspondence or urgency that does not exist. Transparency builds trust and improves long-term engagement.
- Define Inactivity Clearly: Before any re-engagement, define what constitutes an 'inactive' subscriber for your business, typically based on lack of opens or clicks within a defined period, not just absence of a purchase.
- Strategic Segmentation: If attempting re-engagement, segment your list meticulously. Consider sending a very limited series of re-engagement emails to only those on the cusp of inactivity, rather than deeply stale contacts. Resources like ActiveCampaign's guide on re-engagement subject lines often focus on attracting attention, but deliverability should always be the primary concern.
- List Hygiene: Regularly clean your email list by removing unengaged subscribers. This reduces bounce rates, spam complaints, and the risk of hitting spam traps, thereby protecting your sender reputation.
What email marketers say
Within the email marketing community, there's a strong drive to retain and re-activate every possible lead, often influenced by sales targets and the perceived value of an extensive contact list. This perspective can lead marketers to adopt aggressive or attention-grabbing strategies for re-engagement, sometimes without fully considering the deliverability and ethical implications of such approaches.
Key opinions
- Lead Retention at All Costs: Many marketers are reluctant to let go of old leads or inactive subscribers, often reinforced by traditional sales methodologies that emphasize lead nurturing over list hygiene.
- Subject Line Creativity: There's a constant quest for subject lines that stand out and boost open rates, sometimes leading to the use of misleading tactics like adding 'RE:' or 'FW:' to cold emails. This can be problematic, as discussed in our article on avoiding certain words and practices in subject lines.
- Re-engagement Necessity: Re-engagement campaigns are viewed as an essential part of the customer lifecycle, vital for converting dormant users back into active ones.
- ESP Blog Influence: Marketers often rely on advice from ESP blogs, which sometimes promote strategies that, while seemingly effective for engagement, can carry deliverability risks if not carefully implemented.
Key considerations
- Ethical Boundaries: Marketers should establish clear ethical boundaries for re-engagement, understanding that perceived deception can lead to negative user experiences and spam complaints.
- Long-Term Value: Focusing on the long-term health of an email list, rather than short-term open rates from aggressive tactics, yields better results and maintain a positive sender reputation. Considerations on persuading management to remove unengaged subscribers are key.
- Realistic Expectations: It is important to acknowledge that not all inactive leads can or should be re-engaged. Some are simply lost, and chasing them incurs unnecessary deliverability risks and costs.
- Value-Driven Campaigns: Successful re-engagement focuses on providing clear value, personalized content, and clear calls to action, as highlighted in strategies for re-engaging customers and preventing churn.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks observes a disclaimer stating that if recipients perceive an email as spam or deceptive, particularly one with a RE: in the subject line without prior interaction, it is their fault for missing an initial email, rather than any deceptive intent by the sender. This approach attempts to shift blame from the sender to the recipient for perceived spam.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks states that the practice of frequently changing domains, sometimes weekly, is not a legitimate way to avoid blocks. It clearly indicates an intent to be deceptive and bypass a mailing system's security measures designed to identify and block unwanted email.
What the experts say
From a deliverability perspective, experts emphasize the critical importance of maintaining a healthy sender reputation and respecting user consent above all else. Aggressive or deceptive re-engagement tactics are generally viewed as detrimental and short-sighted, leading to long-term inbox placement issues and a higher risk of being identified as a spammer.
Key opinions
- Ethical Content: Experts believe that deceptive subject lines or content, even if intended to re-engage, fundamentally undermine trust and contribute to spam complaints, damaging sender reputation. This aligns with advice on common unprofessional email marketing tactics.
- List Health: The health of an email list is paramount. Sending to very old or unengaged contacts, or reactivating old unsubscribes, is seen as a direct threat to deliverability, increasing the likelihood of hitting spam traps or being blocklisted.
- Consent Is Non-Negotiable: An unsubscribe request is a clear mandate to stop sending, regardless of whether the email is transactional or promotional. Misclassifying unsubscribes as soft bounces is a serious error.
- Decay Curve: There is a clear decay curve for email list engagement; the longer a contact remains inactive, the less likely they are to re-engage, and the higher the risk of negative feedback. For more details on this, refer to issues with sending to very old email lists.
Key considerations
- Proactive List Management: Regularly identify and remove unengaged subscribers to preserve sender reputation. This is more effective than attempting to revive extremely stale leads. Define how to define unengaged subscribers for removal.
- Ethical Re-engagement: If re-engaging, do so ethically. Use clear, honest subject lines and offer genuine value. Consider a very limited re-engagement window, and then suppress if no interaction.
- Educate Stakeholders: Deliverability experts often need to educate marketing and sales teams on the true cost of mailing old lists and the importance of list hygiene for long-term email program success. Additional insights can be found in this guide on re-engagement emails.
- Compliance First: Strict adherence to unsubscribe mechanisms and regional anti-spam laws should be a top priority, overriding any perceived marketing benefit from mailing unsubs.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks states that virtually every Email Service Provider (ESP) will have some staff member, whether young and inexperienced or older and unethical, who writes blog posts that give bad advice. This is viewed as an unavoidable part of the industry, akin to a minor nuisance in an urban setting.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks indicates they are considering writing a blog post titled 'Here are 28 subject lines that’ll cause me to hit the this-is-spam button!', directly referencing a list of problematic subject lines. This highlights the negative impact of certain marketing tactics on deliverability professionals.
What the documentation says
Official documentation, including anti-spam laws and industry best practice guidelines, provides clear directives that often stand in stark contrast to aggressive re-engagement tactics. These documents emphasize consent, transparency, and the right to unsubscribe as fundamental principles of legitimate email communication, underscoring the legal and ethical boundaries senders must observe.
Key findings
- Explicit Consent: Major anti-spam laws like CAN-SPAM (US) and CASL (Canada) mandate explicit consent for commercial electronic messages, making it illegal to send to contacts who have not opted in or have opted out. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) enforces strict rules.
- Clear Unsubscribe Mechanism: All commercial emails must include a clear, conspicuous, and functional unsubscribe link. This mechanism must be easy for recipients to find and use.
- Prompt Opt-Out Processing: Unsubscribe requests must be honored promptly, typically within 10 business days, and the sender cannot charge a fee or require additional information beyond the email address to process the request.
- No Deceptive Information: Laws strictly prohibit misleading header information, subject lines, or sender names that could deceive the recipient about the email's origin or purpose.
Key considerations
- Legal Ramifications: Violating anti-spam laws, especially regarding unsubscribes or deceptive practices, can lead to significant financial penalties and legal action from regulatory bodies. For more on unsubscribe practices, see whether it is common to reactivate old unsubscribes.
- Maintaining Trust: Adhering to legal and ethical guidelines fosters trust with recipients and inbox providers, crucial for long-term deliverability. Gmail's new manage subscriptions feature highlights the importance of user control.
- Industry Best Practices: Beyond legal minimums, organizations like the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group (M3AAWG) provide best practices for responsible sending, emphasizing transparent re-engagement and careful list management.
- Deliverability Metrics: Compliance with unsubscribe requests directly impacts key deliverability metrics such as complaint rates, which are closely monitored by inbox providers to assess sender reputation.
Technical article
Documentation from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on the CAN-SPAM Act mandates that all commercial emails must include a clear and conspicuous way for recipients to opt out of receiving future emails. This means senders cannot hide the unsubscribe link or make it difficult to find.
Technical article
Documentation from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) regarding CASL (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation) strictly requires express consent for sending commercial electronic messages. This means senders must obtain clear permission before initiating any commercial communication, including re-engagement attempts.
Related resources
10 resources
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