The relationship you have with an email subscriber is not too different to one you'd have with one of your best friends. For it to work there must be a two-way street of give and take to nurture the bond and make it long-lasting.

If there's a bump in the road and communication breaks down, it's advised to nip it in the bud before deafening silences make it super awks for everyone. Rectifying this kind of situation in email marketing terms is known as the subscriber re-engagement campaign.

Why you need to re-engage

People on your mailing list may have become disinterested with your communications but haven't unsubscribed, or they may have changed email address. There are tons of reasons but it's up to you to find out why. Once you've established this, think of the dosh you'll save from the jaws of the inbox incinerator by not mailing to non-responders.

Keeping it clean

Good data hygiene is really important otherwise you run the risk of diminished deliverability rates. There's also the potential problem of inactive subscribers marking your email as spam and, y'know just to throw an extra spanner in the works, if internet service providers (ISPs) get wind of your low open rates this can often lead to your mail being delivered - to the junk folder. Hubspot bid adieu to 250,000 of its silent subscribers and its experience is definitely worth a read.

The hit list

An email list is typically 70% inactive - by 'eck that's huge - but hold your horses, this doesn't give you the green light to blitz all lapsed subscribers in one fell swoop. The aim is to win people back, so the first step is to decide what your definition of an inactive subscriber is.

These types of campaign are usually based on action factors such as open rates, click throughs and purchase behaviour. One thing to keep in mind is that if you're a frequent email sender, it's likely you'll be more focused on a shorter inactivity period of say 3 months, compared to a company which sends occasionally throughout the year where 12 months+ may be more appropriate.

Sending out an olive branch

Before you get started, take a retrospective look at your emails and to ask yourself whether the content was even engaging. What was your offer? What were the benefits to the end-user? Was the CTA persuasive? Using a checklist provides a great opportunity to try something completely new, attention-grabbing, but on-brand. If you have a preference centre, double check that you've been sending what the subscriber requested.

This gives you a strong base to work from, and an opportunity to do some A/B split testing on offers and incentives such as personalised promo codes, hyper personalisation using merge tags for added clout to a 'we miss you' note, or plain text surveys to gain some insight.

It's often advised that a re-engagement campaign should be carried out over 2-3 emails. Let your subscribers know what has been happening without them and follow this up with a gentle reminder to opt-in again if you're still met with silence. Finally, inform militant inactives that they'll be unsubscribed within an allotted time frame while still giving them that all-important last chance to remain on your sender list.

Does it actually work?

We won't beat about the bush. The average win-back rate is 5-6% for a really good campaign. However, just to put things into perspective, a study done by Return Path yielded some really interesting results, 45% of recipients who received win-back emails read subsequent messages. However, of that 45%, just over half had actually read the win-back email.

It's easy to look at re-engagement campaigns and dismiss them because of the effort required to carry it out, but over time the benefits will become more evident with improved delivery rates and a list of active, highly-valuable subscribers.

If you're thinking 'out with the old, in with the new' and would like some more top tips and advice then the BLINK team is on hand if you'd to like to send us a message.

BLINK is the email sending service powered by the team at INK Digital.