What strategies can be used for email re-engagement campaigns?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 9 May 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
6 min read
Email re-engagement campaigns are crucial for maintaining a healthy and active subscriber list. Over time, subscribers can become inactive for various reasons, from changing interests to inbox fatigue. Ignoring these disengaged contacts can lead to diminished sender reputation, higher spam complaint rates, and ultimately, lower email deliverability. A well-executed re-engagement strategy can revitalize your list, improve overall engagement metrics, and positively impact your return on investment.
The goal isn't just to win back subscribers, but to understand why they became inactive and address those issues. This process often involves a combination of smart segmentation, compelling content, and careful monitoring of your email metrics to ensure you're not doing more harm than good. It's a delicate balance between persistent outreach and respecting subscriber preferences.
Segmentation and list hygiene
Identifying and segmenting your inactive subscribers is the foundational step for any re-engagement campaign. Before you send a single email, you need a clear definition of what constitutes an inactive subscriber in your context. This definition typically revolves around a lack of engagement, such as no opens or clicks, over a specific period. The time frame can vary depending on your industry and email frequency, but common thresholds range from 90 days to 12 months.
Once identified, segmenting these inactive users further can increase your campaign's effectiveness. Consider categories like purchase history, last interaction date, or even demographic data if available. A subscriber who made a purchase six months ago but hasn't opened an email since requires a different approach than someone who signed up yesterday and never opened the welcome series. This granular segmentation allows for highly personalized messaging.
Importance of segmentation
Effective segmentation is crucial. Sending generic re-engagement emails to a broad inactive list often yields poor results and can even harm your sender reputation. Tailor your message to the specific reason for inactivity, if you can infer it, or to the segment's likely interests. This targeted approach significantly boosts your chances of success.
Deliverability impact
Re-engaging inactive subscribers requires careful consideration of deliverability. Your sender reputation can suffer if you suddenly send a large volume of emails to an unengaged list, leading to higher spam complaints or bounces. This is where a thoughtful approach to re-engagement best practices becomes critical, especially if dealing with a dormant list that may contain spam traps. Consider how to manage deliverability throughout the process.
Crafting compelling content
The content of your re-engagement emails needs to be highly compelling and relevant. Start with a subject line that clearly indicates the purpose of the email and creates a sense of curiosity or urgency. Inside the email, acknowledge their inactivity without being accusatory, and remind them of the value your brand offers. You can explore a variety of messaging options for your re-engagement emails.
Offering incentives can be very effective. This could be a discount, exclusive content, early access to new products, or even a free resource. The key is to provide genuine value that makes them want to re-engage. Additionally, make it easy for them to update their preferences, ensuring they receive content they truly want. This demonstrates respect for their inbox and can prevent future disengagement.
Generic approach
Sending a blanket "we miss you" email to all inactive subscribers. Limited personalization, often relying on a generic call-to-action.
Your re-engagement campaign shouldn't be a single email, but rather a series of emails designed to progressively encourage interaction. A common approach involves a sequence of 2-3 emails, each with a slightly different message or call to action. The first email might be a gentle "we miss you" message, followed by an incentive in the second, and a "last chance to stay subscribed" email in the third. It's crucial to give subscribers a clear path to opt-out if they wish, either via an unsubscribe link or by updating preferences, which helps maintain good list hygiene.
Automation is key to running effective re-engagement campaigns at scale. Setting up automated workflows based on inactivity triggers ensures that no subscriber falls through the cracks. This also allows you to test different timings and content variations to optimize your approach continually. Remember, the goal is to identify active subscribers, not just send more emails. If someone remains unengaged after the series, it may be time to consider suppressing them from your active mailing list.
Metric
Why it matters
Actionable insights
Open rate
Indicates initial interest and subject line effectiveness. Low opens suggest poor subject lines or lack of recognition.
A/B test subject lines. Review sender name/preheader text.
Click-through rate (CTR)
Measures how many people clicked a link after opening. Shows content relevance and CTA effectiveness.
Optimize your calls-to-action (CTAs) and email copy.
Unsubscribe rate
High rates indicate that users prefer to leave rather than re-engage, or that your messaging isn't resonating.
Respect unsubscribes. Use preference centers to allow partial opt-outs.
Spam complaint rate
Crucial for deliverability. High rates can lead to blacklisting (or blocklisting) and inbox filtering.
Clean your list rigorously. Review content for spammy triggers. Monitor Postmaster Tools.
Holistic engagement and continuous optimization
Beyond explicit email engagement, consider other touchpoints where subscribers might be interacting with your brand. Do they log into your website or app regularly? Have they engaged with your social media content? Are they opening other types of communications, like SMS? Synthesizing this data from various sources can provide a more holistic view of engagement. A user who doesn't open emails but frequently visits your product pages is far more valuable than one who does neither. This broader view helps prevent you from prematurely suppressing valuable contacts.
Finally, continuous monitoring and adjustment are vital. Regularly review the performance of your re-engagement campaigns. Look at open rates, click-through rates, and, crucially, conversion rates from these re-engaged segments. If certain strategies aren't working, don't be afraid to pivot. The email landscape is constantly evolving, and what works today might not work tomorrow. Adapting your re-engagement tactics based on data will ensure long-term success and a healthy, engaged email list.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Clearly define what
inactive
means for your specific audience and business, using consistent metrics.
Segment your inactive subscribers into smaller, more targeted groups to personalize messages effectively.
Craft compelling subject lines that encourage opens without being misleading or spammy.
Offer clear value or an incentive to re-engage, such as exclusive content or a special discount.
Provide explicit options for subscribers to update their preferences or easily unsubscribe.
Common pitfalls
Sending generic re-engagement emails to your entire inactive list, which often leads to poor results.
Failing to segment inactive subscribers, missing opportunities for personalized and relevant content.
Ignoring signs of true inactivity and continuing to send emails to disengaged users, hurting deliverability.
Not providing an easy way for subscribers to opt-out, leading to increased spam complaints.
Over-messaging inactive users with too many emails in a short period, causing frustration and unsubscribes.
Neglecting to integrate engagement data from other channels, resulting in misidentifying active users.
Failing to regularly test and optimize re-engagement strategies based on performance data.
Expert tips
Consider running different re-engagement campaigns for different segments of inactive subscribers, like those who haven't opened in 90 days versus 180 days.
Analyze engagement data from sources beyond email, such as website visits or app logins, to get a holistic view of user activity.
A small, engaged list is always better for deliverability than a large, unengaged list prone to complaints or spam traps.
If re-engagement attempts fail, proactively suppress or remove those contacts to protect your sender reputation.
Experiment with timing and frequency. Sometimes, a single, impactful email can be more effective than a lengthy series for certain segments.
Focus on reaffirming the value proposition that initially attracted the subscriber to your list.
Use a preference center to allow subscribers to choose what content they receive and how often, fostering better long-term engagement.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says a key challenge is determining the optimal number of re-engagement emails to send before suppression.
2023-10-18 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says a good strategy for the unengaged involves periodically attempting to re-engage them and evaluating the success of those efforts based on actual engagement data.
2023-10-18 - Email Geeks
Reinvigorating your email list
Re-engagement campaigns are not just about winning back subscribers, but about fostering a healthier and more responsive email list overall. By proactively addressing inactivity, you can significantly improve your email deliverability and avoid common pitfalls like being placed on a blocklist (or blacklist). The strategies outlined here, from precise segmentation to automated sequences and multi-channel data integration, are designed to give your campaigns the best chance of success.
Remember, the goal is quality over quantity. An engaged list, even if smaller, will yield far better results and protect your sender reputation more effectively than a bloated list full of disengaged contacts. Embracing a data-driven approach and being prepared to remove those who genuinely wish to disengage are vital steps in building a sustainable email marketing program. For further reading, check out why your emails fail and how to prevent it.
