Re-Energize Your List: Non-Responders
In the last blog, one of the list building strategies was to look at your current subscriber list for opportunities to re-engage inactive members. These subscribers know your brand and can be relatively easy to convert into more active members.
Over the next few blogs, we’ll consider a few strategies for re-activating members.
Engage the Non-Responders
People who automatically delete your emails without opening them—but won’t unsubscribe from your list—take up space and cost you money when you send to them. They also drive down your open rates.
Remember there’s a period of engagement after a customer signs up for your list. It’s within this period that they are most likely to respond to your offers. If after a month or so from signing up for your list the subscriber has not opened one of your emails, it’s not likely you’ll receive a response from this subscriber later down the road.
Try sending a “Last Chance Special Offer” email to subscribers who haven’t opened an email in the last 2 or 3 months (or whatever time frame is appropriate for your business model and your sending frequency). Delete from your list anyone who doesn’t open this email. If they don’t want your extra special offer (make sure the nature of the deal is clear in the subject line) and haven’t opened an email from you in 3 months, they probably don’t want to hear your message.
Alternatively, you could send an email to these subscribers asking if they want to remain on your list—reminding them of the value of your email communications and requesting any feedback as to what they’d like to see in your emails. A few years ago, MINI sent me an email asking if I was ‘bored’ with their emails (I hadn’t opened any in several weeks). The catchy subject line (I think the word ‘bored’ was in the subject) got me to open that email and for a while, at least, I opened their subsequent emails. Delete subscribers who don’t open this email and enjoy the slightly increased open rates.
For subscribers who do respond to an effort at re-engagement, you might consider targeting them separately from your regular list for a period of time. Now that you have them engaged, carefully get them back with the program. You might send email to them a little less frequently. You could also present them with some special deals that you might not be able to offer list-wide, but that you can offer on a more limited basis. This might require a little more strategy on your part, but it’s well worth the effort.