We’ve all been the one to subscribe to someone’s email list or download their freebie and then never open another email from them again. Why don’t we just unsubscribe?
And now our clients are doing it to us! Why don’t they just unsubscribe?
Well, sometimes they still want to get your emails. They’re just hoarding them to binge-read another time. Sometimes they just plain run out of time in their day, but know that they’ll find them valuable. Other times, yes, they just haven’t got round to hitting ‘unsubscribe’.
Turnover is natural. Normally you could expect your email list to have around 20-30% unsubscribes each year. That’s all good. People move on.
And around ⅓ of your emails may never be opened. Check out this blog from Mailchimp about industry average open rates
Why should you try and re-engage unengaged clients?
There may be value in sending emails that may never be opened, just in case they need you in the future. But ...
Having a high number of unengaged readers on your email list can cause your data to become skewed.
If you have a high number of unengaged readers then your open and click rates (which are calculated based on the total number on your list) will be unrealistically low. Not helping you monitor the effectiveness of your marketing.
Having unengaged readers means you’re more likely to have your email marked as ‘spam’ by someone. Being marked as spam influences whether email providers flag you as spam and head you straight to that folder. Not just for that person but every person you have on your email list.
The same with bounce rates. Cleaning up your email list means you’re likely to get less bounced emails from wrongly written or fake email addresses. Another factor that can affect whether your email ends up in all your readers' spam folder.
Read this blog that details more about how to stay out of the spam folder
Keeping your email list engaged is important if you want to monetise your list. In other words, you want them to buy your product or sign up for your service. Sell to those who want to hear your message.
This last point becomes even more important if you’re paying for email services, as your return on investment will be lower if you’re trying to sell to people who aren’t engaged.
And, on a similar point. If you’re paying for email services and your numbers determine how much you pay, why pay for clients who aren’t engaged?
The goal of a re-engagement email sequence is to get your reader to open the email and re-subscribe. To stick their hand up and say “Yes! I might not be opening your emails, yet, but I like what I see”.
How to set up re-engagement emails in Mailchimp
In Mailchimp I prefer to set up re-engagement emails as single emails rather than as an automation or customer journey. It’s easy to get in a tangle with Mailchimp and I find doing it this way (even on paid plans) is much cleaner, easier and less likely to increase stress-induced grey hairs!
First thing to do is to set up a re-engagement segment. You can see the steps to do it in this blog.
Once you’ve got your segment set up, click the button to the right of the black segment header box that says Send Campaign.
Choose Email Campaign.
This takes you to your usual Mailchimp email campaign section where you choose a subject line, set the ‘from’ settings and design your email.
Set up your first email to this un-engaged group.
Your goal for this email is to say “hey, I’ve not seen you in a while. This is what you’ve missed.” You could highlight three of the top selling products that you’ve sold in the past 3 months. Or highlight three really great blogs or videos.
If they open your email, they no longer conform to the segment criteria and are automatically moved out. Remember this!
Now walk away for about 3-4 days.
When you come back, your segment will only include people who didn’t open the email.
Now you’re going to send out another email to this group. This time you’re going to ask them to unsubscribe if they don’t want to hear from you.
Do this by dragging and dropping a button. For the button link type *|UNSUB|*. If they click the button this will take them to the unsubscribe page.
Again, if they open your email, they no longer conform to the segment criteria and are automatically moved out.
Now, send up to 2 more emails, about 2-3 days apart, reminding them of the value you bring and asking them to unsubscribe.
If they don’t open the last email, go to the segment list, click on the check box to the left of the email names. Click actions, and choose unsubscribe.
Because the segment automatically refreshes if people open their email, all these emails you can set up as individual email campaigns and schedule the send date for 2-3 days apart!
It is far easier to do it this way, by setting up individual emails that are scheduled to send to the segment rather than by using customer journey or automations (in my humble opinion)!
How to set up re-engagement emails in MailerLite
In MailerLite, it’s a lot easier to set up an email sequence. You can do it exactly the same way as in the Mailchimp example, by setting up individual emails scheduled to go out to the segment that also automatically updates as people open their emails.
Or, you can use this automation.
First, create the re-engagement segment. You can see the steps to do it in this blog.
Use this segment to create a group.
Click from your dashboard to the Automation tab across the top green banner.
Then select Create Workflow.
Give your workflow a name in the far right column.
Choose the trigger When Subscriber Joins Group, and choose the group you just created for your un-engaged segment. Click save.
Set up your first email to this un-engaged group.
Your goal for this email is to say “hey, I’ve not seen you in a while. This is what you’ve missed.” You could highlight three of the top selling products that you’ve sold in the past 3 months. Or highlight three really great blogs or videos.
If they open your email, they no longer conform to the segment criteria and are automatically moved out. Remember this!
Now set a delay on the workflow for 3-4 days.
When you come back, your segment will only include people who didn’t open the email.
Now you’re going to add another email to the automation. This time you’re going to ask them to unsubscribe if they don’t want to hear from you. For the button link type {$unsubscribe} . If they click the button this will take them to the unsubscribe page.
Again, if they open your email, they no longer conform to the segment criteria and are automatically moved out.
Now, send up to 2 more emails, about 2-3 days apart, reminding them of the value you bring and asking them to unsubscribe. Set this up by adding a delay and then adding the new email.
The last step of the workflow is to set an action. Choose Mark as Unsubscribed. This means that anyone remaining on the list, who hasn’t opened the emails will be unsubscribed if they haven’t done it themselves.
After your re-engagement sequence
Usually you can expect around 2-5% of your unengaged list to re-engage with you. So expect to lose some. Remember, 20-30% natural decline in your email list over a year is normal. Now run this sequence quarterly to keep your email list fresh and enthusiastic!
What to write in your re-engagement sequence?
Download a fully personalized email re-engagement sequence template right here and clean up your list today.