Summary
For businesses dealing with seasonal products, the conventional definition of an 'inactive' email contact must be re-evaluated. Instead of relying on a fixed, short-term inactivity threshold, it is crucial to adopt a flexible definition that considers natural buying cycles. This involves differentiating between truly disengaged subscribers and those who are simply in an off-season period. The most effective strategies recommend segmenting contacts based on their purchase history and seasonal relevance, tailoring re-engagement efforts to align with the start of their next expected buying cycle. This approach helps avoid premature list cleaning, maintains valuable customer relationships, and supports stronger email deliverability by ensuring that valuable annual or semi-annual customers are not mistakenly pruned from the list during their natural off-peak engagement periods.
Key findings
- Contextual Inactivity: For seasonal products, 'inactive' needs a flexible definition based on the natural buying cycle, not just time since last engagement. Inactivity during the off-season is often normal and does not equate to disinterest.
- Avoid Premature Pruning: Aggressive list pruning during off-peak times should be avoided. Prematurely removing contacts who are simply in their off-season can lead to losing valuable annual or semi-annual customers and negatively impact future sales.
- Segment by Season: The most effective approach involves segmenting inactive contacts by their purchase history and seasonal relevance. This allows for a precise differentiation between truly disengaged subscribers and those in a natural quiet period.
- Timed Re-engagement: Re-engagement campaigns should be carefully timed to align with the start of a subscriber's next expected buying cycle or relevant season, rather than initiating immediate or generic win-back efforts.
- Purchase Data Insights: Utilizing purchase history to categorize subscribers into 'seasonal active' and 'seasonal inactive' groups enables tailored communication strategies, preventing the removal of customers who are simply off-cycle.
Key considerations
- Goal Alignment: Before reducing inactive contacts, clearly define your motivation, whether it is optimizing ROI, addressing deliverability issues, or simply managing list size to avoid data hoarding.
- Purchase History Check: Always review purchase data for contacts who appear inactive. It is important to check if they made purchases significantly after previous interactions to accurately understand potential revenue costs of removing them.
- Flexible Timeframes: Adjust the definition of inactivity beyond standard 90-day windows. For seasonal products, this period might extend to 180 or even 365 days, depending on the product's typical buying cycle and the natural lull in engagement.
- Leverage Platform Tools: Utilize features in your email service provider to create dynamic segments based on customer lifecycle stages, purchase behavior, and time since last purchase to accommodate seasonal buying patterns effectively.
- Content Strategy: During off-peak seasons, maintain gentle, low-frequency engagement with 'off-season' subscribers by sending highly relevant content, such as educational materials or sneak peeks, to keep them connected without harming sender reputation.
What email marketers say
8 marketer opinions
Instead of rigidly defining 'inactive' contacts, especially for businesses with seasonal product cycles, email marketing experts advocate for a flexible, data-driven approach. This involves understanding that a lack of engagement during off-peak times is often normal, not a sign of disinterest. By carefully segmenting subscribers based on their buying patterns and product interests, marketers can avoid premature removal and tailor their communication strategy. This ensures that valuable customers are not lost, allows for low-frequency, highly relevant communication during quiet periods, and ultimately preserves both potential revenue and sender reputation by aligning re-engagement efforts with the natural return of their relevant buying season.
Key opinions
- Strategic Motivations: The decision to suppress contacts should be driven by clear objectives such as optimizing ROI, resolving delivery issues, or managing data, as these motivations dictate the appropriate inactivity threshold.
- Off-Season Engagement Value: Sending low-frequency, highly relevant content like educational materials or sneak peeks during the off-season helps maintain a connection without overwhelming subscribers, preventing full disengagement.
- Reputation Preservation: Nuanced handling of seasonal inactives, including targeted off-season content and clear re-engagement strategies, is crucial for retaining potential customers while protecting sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Refined Inactivity Definition: Re-evaluate 'inactive' based on the expected next purchase rather than solely on time since last engagement, especially for products with natural buying cycles.
- Targeted Win-Back Series: Implement specific win-back campaigns that are strategically timed to coincide with the natural approach of a subscriber's next relevant buying season.
- Cautious List Pruning: Approach outright removal of 'inactive' contacts with caution, favoring segmentation and tailored low-frequency content during off-seasons over aggressive purging.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks explains that the best way to decide which recipients to suppress depends significantly on the motivation, such as optimizing for ROI, fixing delivery issues, or managing list size, or simply not hoarding data. He cautions that a six-month inactivity threshold is likely too short if products are seasonal or if automated campaigns like birthday emails are used. He suggests that if the primary goal is optimizing for recent engagement, dropping contacts who haven't engaged in the past year is a reasonable approach, but recommends first checking for purchases made significantly after previous interactions to understand the potential revenue cost.
12 Jul 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Email marketer from Constant Contact Blog shares that for seasonal products, inactivity doesn't always mean disinterest; it can just be between seasons. They advise segmenting inactives by purchase history and seasonal relevance, then tailoring re-engagement campaigns to align with the start of their next buying cycle, rather than immediately removing them.
19 Nov 2023 - Constant Contact Blog
What the experts say
2 expert opinions
Email marketing experts emphasize that for seasonal businesses, the concept of "inactive" email contacts must be redefined to account for natural fluctuations in engagement during off-peak periods. They advise adjusting the timeframe for inactivity to align with product cycles, ensuring that only subscribers who are genuinely disengaged, and not just in their natural off-season, are identified for suppression or removal. This tailored approach is vital for optimizing deliverability and maintaining a healthy email list.
Key opinions
- Defining Inactivity: The precise definition of an "inactive" subscriber must align with your business's specific seasonal cycles and typical sending frequency.
- Accounting for Seasonal Lulls: For businesses with seasonal products, the inactivity timeframe needs to be adjusted to naturally account for off-peak periods when engagement might pause.
- Focus on True Disengagement: The primary goal is to identify and remove or suppress only those contacts who are genuinely disengaged, based on a context-aware definition, to enhance deliverability.
Key considerations
- Custom Inactivity Metrics: Develop customized metrics for inactivity that integrate your product's seasonal cycles, moving beyond generic time-based thresholds.
- Season-Aligned Timeframes: Set inactivity timeframes that directly correspond to your business's seasonal product cycles, rather than uniform, short-term windows.
- Strategic List Pruning: Implement list pruning or suppression only for contacts identified as truly inactive through your seasonally adjusted definition, safeguarding deliverability and relevant reach.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that logically reducing inactive email contacts requires defining "inactive" based on your business and sending frequency. For seasonal products, this means the timeframe for inactivity should be adjusted to align with the business's seasonal cycles, recognizing that a subscriber's engagement might naturally pause during off-peak periods. He advises to identify subscribers who truly fit this context-specific definition of inactivity and either suppress or remove them to improve deliverability.
4 Nov 2024 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes that the definition of an "inactive" subscriber is highly variable and depends on the specific business, including its industry and sending patterns. For businesses with seasonal products, this means the period for deeming a subscriber inactive must be thoughtfully determined to account for natural lulls in engagement during off-seasons. She highlights that effective list hygiene involves tailoring this inactivity definition to your unique context before removing truly disengaged contacts to maintain strong deliverability.
22 Nov 2023 - Word to the Wise
What the documentation says
5 technical articles
Leading email service providers like Klaviyo, Mailchimp, SendGrid, Litmus, and ActiveCampaign offer robust guidance on managing inactive email contacts within seasonal business models. Their collective advice centers on moving beyond rigid inactivity definitions to embrace a nuanced approach, which ensures that deliverability is optimized and valuable customer relationships are preserved. This involves strategically using advanced segmentation and automation capabilities to align contact management practices with natural buying cycles, thereby avoiding the mistaken removal of off-season customers who are likely to engage again.
Key findings
- Platform Guidance: Major ESPs provide specific features and advice for seasonal businesses to manage inactive contacts effectively, emphasizing tailored approaches over generic rules.
- Adaptive Inactivity Rules: The definition of 'inactive' must be dynamic, adapting to the natural ebb and flow of engagement dictated by seasonal product cycles, rather than a fixed time frame.
- Purchase Behavior Insights: Leveraging customer purchase history and typical buying cycles is critical for segmenting audiences, distinguishing truly disengaged contacts from those merely in their off-season.
- Season-Driven Automation: Automated re-engagement or list cleaning sequences should be triggered based on the approach of a relevant buying season for specific segments, preventing premature contact removal.
Key considerations
- Utilize ESP Segmentation: Maximize the segmentation capabilities within your email platform to create precise segments based on customer lifecycle, purchase frequency, and seasonal buying patterns.
- Rethink Generic Timelines: Avoid applying universal inactivity rules, such as a 90-day no-engagement policy, to seasonal customers; instead, set timeframes that reflect your product's specific buying window.
- Value Off-Season Contacts: Recognize that contacts inactive during an off-season are not necessarily lost; retaining and gently engaging them can convert into future sales and protect long-term customer value.
Technical article
Documentation from Klaviyo Help Center explains how to use their platform to create segments based on customer lifecycle stages, including 'at-risk' or 'lapsed' segments. For seasonal products, this means leveraging purchase behavior and time since last purchase to define inactivity relative to natural seasonal buying patterns, allowing marketers to avoid premature list cleaning by differentiating between truly inactive and off-season customers.
7 Mar 2025 - Klaviyo Help Center
Technical article
Documentation from Mailchimp Knowledge Base outlines that for seasonal businesses, audience management should consider the natural ebbs and flows of customer engagement. They recommend segmenting audiences based on purchase frequency and typical buying cycles to identify truly disengaged contacts versus those simply in their off-season, advising against premature archiving of customers who buy annually.
14 Aug 2024 - Mailchimp Knowledge Base
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