How to re-engage inactive email subscribers and when should you stop sending?

Key findings

1. Impact on Deliverability: A high volume of inactive subscribers can negatively impact your sender reputation and overall email deliverability, pushing emails to the spam folder. This is because internet service providers (ISPs) track engagement metrics closely. Consistent low engagement flags your sending behavior as potentially undesirable. Discover more about how managing inactive subscribers improves Gmail deliverability.
2. Re-engagement Campaigns: Implementing a targeted re-engagement email campaign is crucial. This is a multi-step process, not a one-off email, designed to recapture the attention of dormant subscribers.
3. Sunset Policy: Having a clear sunset policy for subscribers who do not respond to re-engagement efforts is essential. Knowing why your emails are going to spam often leads back to poor list hygiene. There comes a point when continuing to send is more detrimental than beneficial.
4. Segmentation: Segmenting your inactive list based on engagement levels or last activity (e.g., last purchase, last click) allows for more tailored re-engagement attempts.

Key considerations

1. Timing of Campaigns: Allow sufficient time between re-engagement emails. Spacing them out, perhaps 3-5 days apart, prevents overwhelming subscribers and allows time for a response. Campaign Monitor highlights the importance of this staggered approach.
2. Value Proposition: Offer clear value in re-engagement emails, such as exclusive content, special discounts, or a chance to update preferences.
3. Defining Inactivity: Establish clear criteria for what constitutes an 'inactive' subscriber for your business, typically based on lack of opens or clicks over a defined period (e.g., 6-12 months).
4. Consequence of Inaction: Understand that failing to manage inactive subscribers can lead to placement on email blocklists, which severely hinders your ability to reach any recipient.

Key opinions

1. Customer Value Focus: Marketers frequently link re-engagement to purchase activity. Some apply a strict rule, like stopping sends to those without a purchase in over 12 months, and then initiate re-engagement.
2. Segmentation is Key: Many advocate for segmenting inactive subscribers based on their last known activity, mailing the more recently inactive segments first to test responsiveness.
3. Offer Options: A common strategy is to offer inactive subscribers options, such as changing their email frequency or content preferences, before considering removal.
4. Strategic Messaging: Beyond frequency, marketers suggest experimenting with subject lines, content formats, and special promotions to grab attention.

Key considerations

1. Define Inactivity Clearly: Before starting a re-engagement campaign, marketers should define what 'inactive' means for their specific business, whether it's 3, 6, or 12 months without an open or click. This impacts how you aim to increase your email click-through rate.
2. Test Re-engagement Offers: A/B test different offers and subject lines within re-engagement emails to see what resonates best with your audience. This can include special promotions or exclusive content.
3. Automate Processes: Automating re-engagement campaigns and sunset processes can save time and ensure consistent list hygiene. Mailchimp provides guidance on how to re-engage inactive subscribers effectively.
4. Protect List Integrity: Beyond re-engagement, marketers should also consider initial list acquisition strategies, such as protecting signup forms from bots, to prevent future inactivity issues.

Key opinions

1. Deliverability Impact: Experts agree that continuing to send to highly inactive subscribers will inevitably cause response rates and overall deliverability to decline. This makes it harder for your emails to reach the inbox, even for engaged recipients.
2. Point of No Return: There's a definitive point at which the negative impact of sending to inactive users outweighs any potential benefit, signaling when it's appropriate to stop. Understanding how long it takes to recover domain reputation is key to this decision.
3. Prioritize Engagement: The focus should be on sending to an engaged audience. Inactive subscribers dilute engagement metrics, which are crucial signals for mailbox providers.
4. Proactive Segmentation: Segmenting by last activity, especially last purchase, and prioritizing more recent segments for mailings is a recommended best practice.

Key considerations

1. Monitor Key Metrics: Regularly monitor your response rates, spam complaint rates, and deliverability metrics through tools like Google Postmaster Tools to identify when engagement is truly tanking.
2. Define Your Sunset Point: Based on your specific sending patterns and audience, establish a clear threshold for when subscribers move from 'inactive' to 'to be removed' after re-engagement attempts fail. Webbula provides a good discussion on the debate around inactive subscribers.
3. Avoid Spam Traps: Inactive addresses, especially those that haven't engaged in years, can become spam traps. Sending to these will immediately damage your sender reputation and lead to being put on a blocklist.
4. Long-Term Strategy: View re-engagement and list cleaning as an ongoing, essential part of your email deliverability strategy, not a one-time fix.

Key findings

1. Sender Reputation: Mailbox providers (like Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo) use engagement as a key signal for sender reputation. Low engagement from inactive users negatively impacts this score.
2. Spam Traps: Documentation often warns that very old or unengaged addresses can be converted into spam traps. Hitting these results in immediate and severe damage to sender reputation and can lead to being placed on a blocklist or blacklist.
3. Subscriber Preferences: Providing clear options for subscribers to manage their preferences (e.g., frequency, content) can prevent inactivity and reduce churn, a concept aligned with Gmail's subscription management features.
4. Consent and Compliance: While not always explicitly about inactivity, documentation on email compliance (e.g., GDPR, CAN-SPAM) implies the need to send only to engaged recipients who have given clear consent.

Key considerations

1. Automated Re-engagement: Implement automated re-engagement workflows that trigger after a defined period of inactivity. This ensures consistent action to revive dormant subscribers.
2. Sunset Policy Implementation: Establish and enforce a clear sunset policy for removing subscribers who remain unengaged after re-engagement efforts. Mailgun's blog provides insights into re-engagement best practices, including sunsetting.
3. Regular List Cleaning: Perform periodic manual or automated list cleaning to remove hard bounces, unknown users, and long-term inactive subscribers not caught by re-engagement workflows. This is crucial for overall compliance with new sender requirements.
4. Monitor Deliverability Reports: Leverage deliverability reports and postmaster tools to track engagement rates, spam complaints, and other key indicators that signal the need for list hygiene.