Summary
Your list of email subscribers is precious, but some contacts no longer respond to your messages? This common problem in emailing can seriously impact your open rate and your deliverability. MailSoar, an expert in email deliverability, explains how to intelligently re-engage these inactive subscribers.
Why do your subscribers become inactive?
An inactive subscriber is someone who no longer reads your emails. They no longer click on your links. They have not replied to your messages for some time.
But why does it come to this? Several factors may explain this loss of engagement:
Too many emails sent, a feeling of lassitude
Receiving an email a day (or more) can quickly become invasive. When a subscriber feels overwhelmed, they ignore your messages, then end up marking them as spam or unsubscribing.
Solution? Set up an option to manage sending preferences. Let your subscribers choose how often they receive emails and the type of content they want to receive.
Irrelevant or generic content
Content with no added value or that is poorly targeted leads to a gradual loss of interest among subscribers.
The solution: Regularly analyze your open and click rates to identify your subscribers’ expectations. Segment your audience and adapt the content to their preferences.
Change in the needs or context of your subscribers
Some subscribers become inactive due to personal or professional changes.
Solution: Update your segments and send your subscribers content tailored to their current situation.
Technical deliverability problems
Your emails may be blocked by spam filters or end up in junk folders.
Solution: Check your sender reputation, balance the text/image ratio, and avoid terms often associated with spam.
Why do your subscribers become inactive?
Inactive subscribers directly affect your deliverability:
Lower opening rate
increased risk of being classified as spam by email providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo).
Increase in spam reports
negatively affects your reputation as a shipper.
Risk of Spam Traps
By continuing to send marketing emails, for example, to lists of inactive subscribers, you can be trapped and penalized by ISPs.
How to identify and segment your inactive subscribers
Identifying and segmenting inactive subscribers are crucial steps in improving your engagement rate. This prevents your emails from being sent to spam. Companies generally continue to send emails to subscribers who no longer interact with them. This leads to a decline in the overall performance of campaigns and a deterioration of the sender’s reputation.
So how do you know who is inactive and what actions to take to effectively re-engage them? Here is a detailed methodology to properly segment your audience and adjust your emailing strategy.
Define inactivity according to your business
There is no single definition of an inactive subscriber. It depends on the frequency of sending and the life cycle of your emails.
- For a weekly newsletter: A subscriber is considered inactive after 3 to 4 months without opening.
- For an e-commerce site, a subscriber who does not open an email is a problem. If they have not made a purchase in 6 months, it is even more worrying.
- For a B2B company, a subscriber can be inactive after 6 to 12 months without interaction. This is due to a longer decision cycle.
Analyze the signs of inactivity in detail
Take into account: opening rate, clicks, conversions, and replies.
Create specific segments
- Recent inactive (3-6 months): offer attractive, light content.
- Moderately inactive (6-12 months): use emotional reminders and limited offers.
- Long-term inactive (more than 12 months): final reminder with a clear choice (“Would you like to remain registered?”).
Regularly clean your contact database
Identify and remove invalid addresses, spam traps and subscribers who have marked your emails as spam to protect your deliverability.
- Use your email marketing routing tool (MailChimp, Brevo, HubSpot, Klaviyo, etc.) to track interactions.
- Google Postmaster Tools allows you to monitor email deliverability and engagement rates.
- Segment your audience in your CRM to create lists based on these criteria.
Create sequences to re-engage inactive subscribers
Advanced segmentation makes it possible to send messages tailored to each level of inactivity.
Segment 1: Recently inactive (3-6 months without interaction)
Who are they?
Subscribers who used to open your emails regularly, but have slowed down. Objective? To gently revive them with attractive content.
Examples of actions:
- Test more engaging email subjects.
- Offer exclusive content (guide, video, podcast, etc.).
- Offer a small incentive to get them to come back.
Segment 2: Moderately inactive (6-12 months without interaction)
Who are they?
Subscribers who have not responded for a long time, but who could still be won back. Objective? To create a campaign specifically aimed at re-engaging them, using a more directive tone.
Examples of actions:
- Send an email along the lines of “We want to hear from you”.
- Test emotional emails (e.g. “We miss you!”).
- Include a time-limited offer to encourage action.
Segment 3: Long-term dormant (12+ months without interaction)
Who are they?
Completely disengaged subscribers who have not read your emails for more than a year. Objective? A final attempt before permanently deleting your database.
Examples of actions:
- Offer a final reminder, with a simple question: “Do you still wish to receive our emails?”
- Add a “I remain subscribed” button to test their commitment.
- If there is no response, remove them from your regular campaigns to preserve your deliverability.
Segment them and adapt your re-engagement strategies according to the level of inactivity.
Too many emails sent, irrelevant content, change of needs or technical problems.
Delete subscribers and inactive accounts, those reported as spam and those that have not responded after a final reminder.
Optimize your emailing strategy with MailSoar
Too many inactive subscribers can have a significant impact on your deliverability and your business results. Adopting re-engagement campaigns allows you to recover part of your contact list and protect your reputation as a sender.
Need an audit to boost your email campaigns? Contact MailSoar now!
