eMedia Daily

Re-engaging Inactive Subscribers

Ready for a fresh, clean start to 2008 with your eMail lists? (Ok, I don’t actually encourage you to try this at this time of year because of vacation schedules, but its a good time to put together a plan…)

Start thinking about ways to re-engage your inactive email subscribers. You know, the ones who have been on your list forever, but who are not taking action.

How do you measure inactivity?
Measuring inactivity depends on what your message is, and what action you want someone to take. If your action is simply an informative email newsletter with virtually no links for the readers to click-thru (or one which relies upon a phone call or store visit), subscribers who do not open your email may be a good way to measure their engagement. For other types of newsletters (like many B2B publications that use newsletters to push traffic back to their websites for the rest of the story), opening an email isn’t enough to measure engagement - you need someone to actually click on a link. For sales-oriented email marketing, you may go all the way to conversion - does someone actually make a purchase from your email.

Why are your subscribers inactive?
Some subscribers may have subscribed to your newsletter with an email address that they rarely use. Your message may be going to their bulk mail folder or junk mail folder, so the recipient actually isn’t seeing your message at all. And then there’s the infamous image blocking - if your readers are viewing their email with images blocked, they may still be reading what you have to say, but your ESP can’t register an open for that person.

So, how do we get them re-enaged?
So glad you asked! Here are some ideas from The Inbox Advisor

• Testing different times you send your messages to see if a new time generates additional interest
• Adding the recipients’ names to the subject line
• Adjusting the number of monthly emails you send to those subscribers
• Offering a special discount to give them an even greater incentive to click on your message
• Using a scarcity clause stating that they will be removed from the list unless they select to opt-in to your list again
• Sending a survey
• Profiling and segmenting your list
• Using dynamic content to send specific content targeted to subscribers’ exact needs
• Testing different email formats, graphics, etc.