Maintaining a healthy email list isn’t as hard as you think. Since your email list is filled with “warm leads” (people who are aware of your brand and have purchased from your or who plan to do so in the near future), most of the work is already done.
If you’re taking my advice by only sending emails once or twice a month or when you actually have something to share with your audience, but you’re still noticing a small percentage of opens or email clicks? Your subscribers may be to blame. But not all of them, just the ones who probably signed up to take advantage of your awesome email opt-in, but haven’t been interested in your other offerings since. Raise your hand if you’re guilty of doing this with brands you follow (yes, I’m raising my hand, too…)
So what can you do to increase your email marketing engagement rates? This one may come as a shock, but hear me out… ask your least engaged subscribers to unsubscribe. I know, you’re probably thinking, “Isn’t the goal to grow my list, not shrink it?” Yes! But do you want subscribers on your email list taking up space that could be better occupied by people who actually want to learn more about your brand and incorporate it into their lifestyle?
Especially if you’re currently paying for an email marketing platform to manage your list, you don’t want to continue paying for people who aren’t interested in your offers, right? I thought so. Now, let’s take a deep breath and set up, what I like to call, your Email Reactivation Sequence.
Step 1: Organize Your Sequence
Your Email Reactivation Sequence should include three specific emails scheduled to send over five days. I usually like to schedule my sequence to send out at the end of every quarter (March, June, September, and December) to keep my email list as healthy as possible.
But remember, you’re not sending this sequence out to your entire list; you’re only sending it to your least engaged (or inactive) subscribers so your email segments will have to come into play here. So what should each email include?
Day 1: Email #1 - Gauge Their Interest
Let them know you’ve noticed their lack of engagement and ask if there’s anything you can do to get them excited again. This is also a good time to share links to your most popular content like social media posts, blog posts, or even popular offerings your audience has been purchasing lately. But also make sure to mention that if they’re not interested in continuing their subscription, they can unsubscribe and simply follow you on your social channels instead.
Day 3: Email #2 - Offer an Exclusive Discount
In an attempt to reactivate their engagement, offer an exclusive discount (or even a free upgrade) on a product or service. Make sure to set a deadline (the end of Day 5) to access the offer and include a countdown widget to create a sense of urgency.
Day 5: Email #3 - Unsubscription Notification
This will be your final email to your inactive subscribers. Keep this one short, sweet, and to the point. Again, make sure to share links to your social channels, just in case they don’t want to lose contact with you completely.
If you’d like to see a live example of a past Email Reactivation Sequence I sent to my subscribers, click to view Email #1, Email #2, and Email #3. Please note that all of the links in these old emails may be broken since I’ve reorganized my entire business. Focus more on the messaging and use it as a template to communicate with your subscribers.
Step 2: Clean Up Your List
Once your email sequence is completed and sent out, go through your subscriber list and manually unsubscribe the people who didn’t open any emails from your sequence.
This may be a pain to do, but it will benefit both sides in the long run: you’re able to relieve inactive subscribers of extra clutter in their inboxes that isn’t serving them and you can start to increase your email engagement by sending content to subscribers who actually want to open your emails, click the links, and eventually purchase from you.
Step 3: Don’t Beat Yourself Up About It
If people unsubscribe, don’t see if as a defeat. Reframe your perspective to acknowledge that now you simply have more room on your list for the people who want to be there. It’s also important not to get so hung up on your total numbers of subscribers.
Focus more on your engagement rates because isn’t it more valuable to have 100 subscribers who consistently engage with your content rather than 1,000 subscribers who easily scroll past your emails in their inbox?
Comment Below
Does sending an Email Reactivation Sequence to your inactive subscribers make sense to you?
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