According to Marketing Sherpas, every year, email list decay can cost you about 22.5% of your total subscribers. 

But email unsubscribes aren’t the only way you’re losing subscribers. 

An op-ed argued that you actually lose 10%–25% of your subscribers every year – not because they unsubscribe from your mailing list, but because they ignore you. They stay subscribed to your list but stopped interacting with your emails.

One great way to reconnect with these subscribers is by sending re-engagement emails. Re-engagement emails are a great tool to win back customers who’ve gone cold or those who haven’t opened your emails in a while.

In this blog post, we’ll discuss why you need re-engagement emails, and how you can get started on your campaign.

What Exactly Are Re-Engagement Emails?

Re-engagement emails are sent to subscribers who haven’t interacted with your brand in a while to get them interested again. They are sometimes called reactivation or win-back email sequences.

Sending re-engagement emails can be an effective way to win back inactive subscribers and keep them engaged with your brand. 

Why You Need Re-Engagement Emails

Reactivation campaigns can be extremely valuable because they provide an opportunity to win back customers who have already shown an interest in your product or service. 

According to Invesp Consulting, acquiring a new customer is five times more expensive than retaining an existing customer. Moreover, the success rate of selling to a customer that a business has already acquired is 60%–70%, while the success rate of selling to a new customer is 5%–20%.

Re-engagement emails will help you keep customers you’ve already won. 

They can also help you clean up your contact list by removing subscribers who are no longer interested in hearing from you, thus improving your deliverability. 

Best Practices in Creating Effective Re-engagement Emails

Now that we know what re-engagement emails are and why they’re important, let’s discuss some best practices for creating them. 

Create a segmented list of inactive subscribers.

Before sending a re-engagement email, you’ll want to segment your list and create different email sequences depending on the subscribers’ behavior. Maybe they haven’t opened any emails for a few months, or they do open your emails but don’t click anywhere.

Keep your copy light and personal.

Emails shouldn’t feel like something that has been blasted to a large group; they should feel like a one-to-one conversation. Use the subscriber’s first name, and find a way to personalize your copy so that it feels more like a friendly message and less like a mass marketing campaign.

Pull at their heartstrings. 

Make them feel something – Use language that evokes positive emotions like happiness, excitement, or relief. Better yet, make them remember how you’ve helped them solve a problem that they had before.

Throw in a special offer.

Give them something for free – a discount coupon, a freebie, an upgrade, or first dibs on your new product.

Help them review their subscription status.

Offer a different way to stay in touch by letting your subscriber update their email preferences. You can also invite them to sign up for a different automation sequence that is more relevant to their interests.

Remind them that they’re in control.

Make it easy for your subscribers to opt out and unsubscribe from your emails if they’re no longer interested.

If you’re not already using re-engagement emails as part of your email marketing strategy, now is the time to start. These campaigns can be an extremely effective way to win back customers and clean up your contact list—two things that are essential for any successful email program.