The Power of Reactivation Emails: How to Re-engage Subscribers and Increase Revenue?
Reactivation emails help re-engage inactive subscribers with interesting email content. Learn the tricks and look at examples.
Campaign Refinery Team
Email Marketing Experts
What you'll learn
Reactivation emails are sent to inactive subscribers to rekindle their interest and get them back in the business.
Do you have thousands of subscribers but little to no engagement? Inactive subscribers could mean stagnant business growth. These people have shown interest in your products but suddenly go cold.
Reactivation emails are not just a tool but a strategic weapon that can rekindle the spark and turn your inactive subscribers back into engaged recipients.
We’ll explore reactivation email best practices, reasons why subscribers become inactive and look at examples to help you craft better email campaigns.
What are Reactivation Emails?
A reactivation email, also known as a win-back email, is a final attempt to re-engage inactive subscribers. These people haven’t opted out but do not open and interact with your emails either.
The goal is to send interesting and valuable information and engage them with your email content and products. These emails are usually triggered by a subscriber behavior, which means you’ll need to rely on automation for reactivation campaigns to ensure they reach recipients on time.
Why Subscribers Become Inactive?
You may notice high open and click rates at one point and none at the other. This could mean subscribers are likely weighing their options or don’t have the need for your product right now.
However, there are more reasons why recipients may not engage with emails, such as:
- Email overload: Sending emails too frequently with similar information can lead to email fatigue and make recipients unsubscribe from your content.
- Poor timing: When you send emails at irrelevant times, recipients may overlook or ignore them, leading to lower engagement rates.
- Technical issues: Emails may not reach recipients because of email deliverability or throttling issues, decreasing email engagement.
- Change in preferences: Subscribers’ preferences may change over time, causing them to lose interest in your content.
- Irrelevant offers: Most subscribers tune out because of irrelevant offers and promotions.
- Unmet expectations: Did you promise to send a weekly newsletter but never do? Unmet expectations can cause recipients to leave without second thoughts.
- Lack of personalization: Sending generic and mass-produced content can make recipients switch to brands that value their interests and preferences.
Understanding the reasons behind your customers’ inactivity makes it easier to create reactivation emails. Ultimately, retaining an existing customer may cost less than acquiring a new one. Let’s review the general costs for both.
The Cost of Getting a New Subscriber vs. Retaining an Old One
Acquiring new customers for businesses, especially SaaS, can cost four to five times more than retaining the existing ones. This happens because customers usually buy from brands they trust.
It could take a lot of resources and time to get to this point, which means an increase in advertising and marketing costs.
Here’s a breakdown of costs for acquiring a new customer vs. retaining a loyal one.
| Factor | Cost of Acquiring a New Subscriber | Cost of Retaining Existing Customer |
|---|---|---|
| Direct costs | Advertising spend (PPC and social media)Affiliate marketing feesReferral program awardsContent creation costs for acquisition campaigns | Email marketing platform feeContent creation for retention emails |
| Indirect costs | Time and resources spent on running a new campaign Lost sales opportunities while trying to nurture new leads | Time and resources spent on win-back email campaigns |
| Risk | No guarantee of conversion | Higher chances of conversions due to established trust |
| Return on Investment (ROI) | Typically low ROI due to higher acquisition costs | Likelihood of higher ROI because existing customers are willing to spend more |
| Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) | The CLV is unknown for new customers | Existing customers have a track record of spending |
In addition to marketing costs, you may require extra resources to acquire new customers, such as a dedicated marketing team to identify leads. Generally, a new customer needs to be with a company for one to five years before your product can earn profit through them.
While keeping customers from leaving may be impossible, data, a.k.a. reactivation email metrics, can help you understand their needs and preferences.
Important Reactivation Email Metrics to Track
The average email read rate for win-back emails is 12%. But this metric isn’t the only one you must rely on. 45% of subscribers who don’t read the first reactivation email subsequently engage with the upcoming messages.
Along with the read rate, there are other important metrics to get to know your customers in-depth.
| Email Metric | Description | Importance For Reactivation Campaigns |
|---|---|---|
| Deliverability rate | The percentage of emails successfully landed in recipient inboxes | Ensures emails reach the intended audience on time |
| Open rate | The percentage of recipients who open your reactivation email | Shows the effectiveness of your email subject line and preheader text |
| Click-through rate | The percentage of recipients who clicked on a link in your reactivation email | Indicates engagement with your email content and the effectiveness of CTA |
| Conversion rate | The percentage of recipients who complete the desired action, such as signing up for an offer or purchasing a product | Measures the overall success of reactivation emails |
| Unsubscribe rate | The number of people who unsubscribe from your mailing list after receiving your reactivation email | Helps identify if your reactivation email strategy is right |
A/B test different email elements to determine what resonates with your audience.
The Importance of a Well-crafted Reactivation Email
A well-crafted reactivation email can help keep your email list clean, improve email deliverability, and increase sales.
In the long run, you want to keep customers engaged with your content and encourage them to continue doing business with your brand. You can achieve this by sending the right content at the right time.
For example, you can send an email coupon to customers who haven’t been active in a while. Or give them appropriate industry information based on their technical background.
A proper re-engagement campaign helps you:
- Maximize marketing ROI: Reactivation emails are cost-effective and make it easier to target existing customers.
- Preserve customer lifetime value: By sending targeted re-engagement campaigns, you can keep valuable customers, and retain their lifetime value.
- Improve email list health: Regularly cleaning and identifying inactive subscribers will improve email list health and increase email deliverability rates.
- Enhance brand loyalty: Sending customized reactivation campaigns shows customers you care about their satisfaction and engagement levels.
- Gather valuable feedback: Reactivation emails can create opportunities to understand the reasons for disengagement and help tailor future campaigns.
- Increase the likelihood of sale: Reminding inactive customers about new products or brand updates increases the likelihood of a sale.
By adjusting your re-engagement campaign strategies, you can nurture leads with the right information and increase brand value.
But before we examine the right methods to send a reactivation campaign, let’s review the potential mistakes you can make.
Common Reactivation Email Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
Keep this handy checklist before you send another reactivation email campaign.
| Mistake | How to Avoid It |
|---|---|
| Generic subject lines | Write personalized information in the subject lines, including recipient names and past purchase behavior |
| Irrelevant content | Segment your audience and tailor email content based on their past behavior and preferences |
| No clear CTA | Tell them what you want them to do next. For example, “Download the guide” |
| Overly promotional tone | Maintain a friendly and casual tone and provide value in emails |
| Ignoring mobile-friendliness | Re-check if your emails are mobile-responsive with a clean structure |
| Forgetting the unsubscribe option | Offer options to adjust the frequency and other email communication preferences |
| Neglecting A/B testing | Ensure to test different parts of an email to see which version your audience likes the most |
Re-engagement Campaign Best Practices
Your re-engagement strategy must be highly specific to garner good results. It’s a tricky zone — you’ll be targeting subscribers who are on your list but are inactive at the moment.
To help you take the right approach, here are the re-engagement campaign best practices:
- Segment and identify inactive subscribers instead of blasting generic messages to the whole list.
- Tailor your messages based on how long they have been inactive and understand their past purchase behavior.
- Use a clear and concise subject line to entice recipients to open your emails.
- Keep the email body clean and visually appealing.
- Remind customers about their last purchase date and give them an incentive to continue purchases.
- Use clean-looking fonts and whitespace to help customers distinguish the important parts.
- Ensure your reactivation emails are responsive to different devices, especially mobiles.
- Experiment with sending times and adjust the frequency depending on when your recipients are the most active.
- Give subscribers control over communication, including frequency and opt-out options.
It’s best to start with a series of reactivation emails instead of sticking to one email. If subscribers don’t respond after 5-6 emails, it’s time to let them go.
But don’t give up just yet — here are steps to writing compelling reactivation campaigns that will win back their love.
How to Write Clear Reactivation Emails to Win-back Customers
Some subscribers may need 2-3 reactivation emails to get back on track, while others may require more. Be patient and send them relevant content with well-timed emails.
You can use the following tips to craft personalized re-engagement campaigns that will get their attention:
- Divide active and passive subscribers: Track important email campaign metrics to differentiate active and inactive subscribers. Identify the length of customer inactivity — typically, a subscriber is considered inactive if there’s no engagament for more than 6 months.
- Know who you’re talking to: Once you segment the email list, you can understand which group of subscribers needs more nurturing. Analyze their past purchase history, research their lifetime value, and other attributes that will help send tailored messages.
- Understand their engagement levels: Surf through the data and look at how recipients engage with your emails. At which point do the engagement levels drop? Identifying this will help you send unique email content relating to their specific needs.
- Offer incentives and benefits: Valuable email content alone will not be enough; you must encourage recipients with personalized discounts and offers.
- Create a sense of urgency: Highlight limited-time offers and create urgency to instill the fear of missing out (FOMO).
- Send follow-up emails: Consider implementing a follow-up sequence to gently nudge subscribers to take the desired action.
Avoid being sales-driven or pushy to make subscribers purchase. Your core focus must be to solve their existing challenges and elevate their lifestyles.
Let’s review some examples to help you put together a great-looking and functional reactivation email campaign.
5 Reactivation Email Examples For Inspiration
Your email list could consist of diverse buyers — some may shop seasonally and others could be casual shoppers. Then, there’s a third category of people (the indecisive shoppers) who doesn’t know what to buy and when.
Analyze your email list and split inactive shoppers into different categories. Here are real-world examples of how brands have regained the trust of different audiences.
1. The ‘What You’ve Missed While You Were Gone’ Email
Sometimes customers may choose a trial period and forget to upgrade their accounts even though they like it. You can send them reactivation emails about the latest news or product updates and ask them to continue from where they left off.
2. The ‘Stick Around For Rewards’ Email
Depending on why subscribers are inactive, you can send them rewards and special offers to get them back. Ensure your subject lines reflect the offers inside your reactivation emails. This can increase the likelihood of recipients opening the messages.
3. The ‘We Missed You’ Email
Rather than telling users why they are inactive, show them ways to reconnect with your brand. Give them compelling content and ask them relevant questions to understand why they stopped engaging with your brand.
4. The ‘Did You Still Want to Hear From Us’ Email
Having disengaged subscribers on your list could mean lower engagement rates and, in turn, lower email deliverability. Ask subscribers if they would like to receive emails from you. Doing this gives them time to think and makes them feel valued.
5. The ‘Do You Want to Unsubscribe’ Email
Sending opt-out reactivation emails doesn’t mean you’re ending the relationship. In fact it puts the users in the spotlight and shows you value their time and preferences. You can give them options to unsubscribe from a particular type of email or from the whole content.
You can also send other types of reactivation emails such as new feature or request for feedback emails.
While sending these emails is easy, the real challenge lies in getting them delivered to recipient inboxes. For the most part, your email deliverability rate, sender reputation score, and your email service platform’s sending practices determine the success of reactivation emails.
That’s why it’s vital to choose a reliable ESP to automate and send re-engagement email campaigns.