How do I identify which stale subscribers are worth re-engaging?

Start by deeply segmenting your list. Look beyond email activity and consider other engagement points like website visits or purchase history. This helps identify the most engaged of the unengaged. Prioritize these segments for your initial re-engagement efforts, as they are most likely to respond positively.

What kind of emails should I send to re-engage these subscribers?

A reconfirmation message is often the safest and most effective first step. It explicitly asks subscribers if they wish to remain on your list. Follow up with a series of emails offering value or a compelling incentive. The key is to be transparent about why you are reaching out and give them a clear path to re-engage.

How frequently and in what volume should I send re-engagement emails?

You should send emails in small, controlled batches, especially to the less engaged segments. Interleave these re-engagement sends with your regular campaigns to your highly active subscribers. This helps maintain a positive sending reputation by balancing high-engagement sends with the potentially lower-engagement re-engagement efforts. Avoid sending to the entire stale list at once, as this can negatively impact your deliverability.

When should I give up on re-engaging a subscriber and remove them?

If subscribers don't respond to your re-engagement efforts after a series of 2-3 targeted emails, it's generally best to suppress or remove them from your active mailing list. Continuing to send to truly unengaged subscribers can harm your sender reputation, increase your spam complaint rate, and expose you to spam traps. It's better to maintain a smaller, more engaged list.

How to re-engage stale email subscribers after deliverability issues? - Sender reputation - Email deliverability - Knowledge base

Dealing with email deliverability issues is frustrating enough, but a common byproduct is a segment of subscribers who become stale or inactive. It's a tricky situation, because a drop in engagement might not be due to a lack of interest, but rather that your emails simply weren't reaching their inboxes. The challenge then becomes how to reconnect with these users without further harming your sender reputation or triggering spam filters.

The instinct might be to just remove everyone who hasn't opened an email in months, but if your deliverability was struggling, many of those recipients may never have had a chance to engage. Sending to a list that's accumulated a lot of spam traps, unknown users, or recycled addresses can quickly land you on a blocklist (or blacklist), making it even harder to reach your active subscribers.

My approach focuses on a cautious, data-driven re-engagement strategy that prioritizes improving your sender reputation while attempting to win back genuinely interested subscribers. It’s about taking it slow and being smart.

Understanding the 'Stale' state

The first step is to redefine what stale means for your list, especially after periods of poor deliverability. You can't simply look at zero opens or clicks, because those metrics might be skewed. Instead, consider the broader context of their interaction with your brand, not just email.

Start by segmenting your entire list based on their last known engagement. This could be their last open, click, website visit, purchase, or even recent form submissions. The goal is to identify a most engaged of the unengaged group. These are subscribers who showed some activity recently but haven't engaged with email, perhaps because your messages weren't getting through.

Engagement tiers: Divide your inactive segment into smaller groups. Prioritize those who engaged more recently or who have a strong offline or web engagement history with your brand.
Data analysis: Use any available data beyond email opens. Website activity, purchase history, customer service interactions, or even recent app usage can indicate continued interest, even if emails aren't being opened.
Time since last engagement: Create segments based on the duration since their last interaction, for example, 30-60 days, 61-120 days, 121-180 days, and so on. This helps in tailoring your re-engagement efforts.

The core idea is to differentiate between subscribers who are truly no longer interested and those who simply haven't seen your emails due to past deliverability problems. Don't punish them for your own sending issues.

Preparing for re-engagement

Before you even think about sending a re-engagement campaign, you need to ensure your underlying deliverability issues are addressed. This means checking your authentication records (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), cleaning your primary active list, and slowly rebuilding your sender reputation with consistent, high-engagement sends.

Once your core deliverability is stable, the next critical step is aggressive list hygiene. Remove any hard bounces and obvious invalid email addresses from your list. Even if your deliverability has improved, sending to bad addresses can still negatively impact your sender score and potentially get you on a blacklist (or blocklist).

List cleaning: Use a reputable email verification service to remove invalid or risky addresses before you even consider re-engaging them. This is non-negotiable.
Sender reputation monitoring:Continuously monitor your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS. This helps you catch new issues before they escalate.
Engagement segmentation: Based on the analysis above, create specific segments for your re-engagement campaigns. Do not send to the entire stale list all at once.

Remember, the goal is to show mailbox providers that your emails are valued and desired, even if some haven't been opened recently due to past deliverability hurdles. A strong foundation of list hygiene and proper authentication is paramount for warming up an old email list.

Executing the re-engagement campaign

When you're ready to launch, implement a multi-step re-engagement campaign, starting with your most engaged of the unengaged segment. This involves sending small batches of re-engagement emails, interspersed with your regular sends to highly active users.

A great first step is a reconfirmation message or a win-back campaign. This explicitly asks recipients if they still want to receive your emails. It’s a transparent way to confirm interest and can help you identify truly unengaged subscribers versus those who just missed previous emails. Be sure to provide clear value and a strong call to action to re-engage.

Phased rollout: Introduce stale segments in small batches. Send to your most active subscribers in between these batches to maintain high overall engagement rates.
Clear call to action: Make it easy for subscribers to confirm their interest, update preferences, or browse your latest content. Offer an incentive, like an exclusive discount or valuable resource.
Monitor engagement closely: Track open rates, click-through rates, and opt-out rates for these re-engagement campaigns. Adjust your strategy if you see negative trends, like an increase in spam complaints.

Patience is key. Rushing this process can lead to further deliverability issues, including landing on a blacklist (or blocklist). Gradually re-engaging your subscribers is a marathon, not a sprint.

Views from the trenches

Best practices

Always clean your list thoroughly before attempting any re-engagement, removing hard bounces and invalid addresses.

Segment inactive users based on multiple data points, not just email engagement, to identify true potential.

Send re-engagement campaigns in small, controlled batches, gradually increasing volume.

Interleave re-engagement sends with highly engaged segments to maintain positive sending metrics.

Offer clear incentives or valuable content in re-engagement emails to encourage interaction.

Common pitfalls

Sending to an entire stale list at once, risking high bounce rates and spam complaints.

Failing to clean your list before re-engagement, leading to repeated sends to bad addresses.

Not monitoring engagement metrics closely during re-engagement, missing signs of poor performance.

Assuming zero engagement means zero interest, ignoring past deliverability issues that hid emails.

Using aggressive, spammy subject lines or content in re-engagement attempts.

Expert tips

My rule of thumb is

no more than 50% of your normal daily volume

for uncertain sends.

Reconfirmation messages should be sent a couple or three times before writing off the subscriber.

Prioritize re-engaging the 'most engaged of the unengaged' first, like those with recent site visits or purchases.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks says a reconfirmation message is a good idea if there is uncertainty about subscriber interest, and suggests sending it a few times before considering them lost.

2019-04-22 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks says reconfirmation is the best approach and recommends targeting the most engaged inactive subscribers first, such as those who previously opened emails or made purchases. It is important to proceed slowly.

2019-04-22 - Email Geeks

Strengthening your email program

Re-engaging stale email subscribers after deliverability issues is a delicate but necessary task. It requires patience, meticulous list management, and a strategic approach that prioritizes rebuilding your sender reputation and only reaching out to genuinely interested contacts.

By understanding the nuances of how to manage deliverability during re-engagement, you can safely reconnect with valuable subscribers who might have otherwise been lost, ultimately strengthening your email program.