Dead List Redemption: A Walkthrough On Re-Engaging Dead Email Subscribers

August 30, 2021

If you're like most eCommerce firms, you've got a lot of email lists in your database: lists of emails gathered through specific lead capture efforts, lists of consumers who just made one purchase and never came back. Redemption of dead lists like these is never easy. But then again, nothing great comes easy.

graphic portraying email subscriber network
Image from Freepik by @natanaelginting

Because you haven't emailed the disengaged subscribers in months, some of these email lists are undoubtedly outdated and useless. Perhaps you've sent an email once or twice a month.

In any case, the problem is that these lists lack any kind of quality control or monitoring of user engagement.

However, if you want to expand your email marketing efforts and potentially transfer to a new email service provider that can handle high-volume email marketing, you may need to start using those old email lists again.

Unfortunately, sending emails to these old lists is more difficult than sending them ordinary emails. So if you’re interested to learn how dead list redemption can help you reengage your inactive subscribers, keep reading.

Table Of Contents

Why You Should Resurrect Your Dead Email List

Your email list, dead or alive, is a very significant resource when it comes to lead generation. Therefore, you should not only re-engage but also try to reclaim your subscribers.

Here are a few reasons to do so.

Each Subscriber Is Part Of a Profit Stream

Each of your subscribers provides you with an opportunity to monetize them. If you don't make an effort to reclaim them & their interest, you're throwing money away. And that is a bad business decision.

It's a good idea to re-engage your email list

Marketers who are successful measure, optimize, and repeat their tactics. It's merely smart marketing. Re-engagement emails, when done effectively, may minimize list turnover while simultaneously increasing incremental engagement.

Your subscribers joined your email list for a reason

Your offer(s) and messages were initially well-received. You're cutting your business short if you take their attention for granted. Moreover, it is more cost-effective to try and re-engage old subscribers rather than giving up and trying to recruit new ones.

Now that you understand why you should re-engage your list, it’s time to consider what went wrong in the first place.

Why Your Subscribers Aren’t Engaged

The discovery phase is the initial stage in the resurrection process. You need to figure out why your subscribers aren't responding to your emails.

Is it just because you stopped sending them emails?

We understand that life gets hectic, and email marketing often takes a backseat to other “hot” marketing trends. Your consumers, on the other hand, have short attention spans, and if they haven't seen you in their email in a while, they could have forgotten about you.

While there isn't a single cause, there are a few possibilities as to why your subscribers stopped responding. Let’s explore those reasons.

There Was A Problem Somewhere In Your End

You may be facing a single or multiple email marketing issues on your end. It's probable that you didn't acquire high-quality, focused leads. Perhaps your lead capture offer wasn't well-suited to your company. This indicates you may have attracted folks who were simply interested in your free offers but not in your brand & its products/services.

Your Email Content Approach Was A Flop

Most people don't even have an email content plan. They just send out emails once in a while. The problem is that you can't send identical material to every email recipient.

They don't have the same requirements. They all got into contact with your company uniquely. It involves segmenting your audience based on their previous experiences with your company and providing personalized content to each segment.

You should also adjust the frequency of your emails so that you don't send too many emails to your list. It's most likely the cause of your disengagement if you haven't done any of these.

Your Emails Aren’t Being Delivered

The problem may be technological. You might be landing in spam folders. Besides, email addresses change all the time. Alternatively, emails may not be delivered at all. There's a lot that may go wrong, so be sure your email management system's back end is solid.

screen showing an error message
Image from Freepik by rawpixel.com

You Haven't Been Completely Honest And Open With Your Subscribers

It's all about being consistent in your approach to providing value to your subscribers. Inconsistency erodes trust, which is essential for maintaining a strong email list. You are, after all, appearing in people's inboxes. That's personal, and you can't afford to take it for granted.

Now that that's out of the way, it's time to get down to business. What methods do you use to re-invigorate your subscribers? Here are some powerful tips to help you get started.

7 Ways To Re-Engage Your Subscribers And Resurrect Your Email List

1. Define “Inactives” & Adjust Accordingly

Before you can send re-engagement emails, you must first define what it means to be "inactive". Users may accomplish this with most email service providers by creating list segmentation.

After you've established the section, you may export it to see every email that fits into the "inactive" category. The way you categorize “inactive” subscribers may include the following -

  • Subscribers that have never purchased a product from you yet regularly visit your website and consume your material. These are onlookers. You've already had their attention, so converting them shouldn't be tough.
  • Customers that have previously purchased from you but have not engaged with your site or content subsequently.
  • Users who just gave you their email addresses downloaded your free material and then vanished. They're not in the least bit interested.

Any names on the list that remain inactive after you've sent your re-engagement emails can be deleted. You just need to return to your list segmentation and create a new segment.

You'll be able to completely eliminate inactive subscribers from your lists by building this new list. Remember that eliminating outdated contacts is an important aspect of keeping a healthy email list, even if it hurts at first.

One of the best ways to find inactive subscribers is to use an email verification tool like VerifyBee. It verifies your emails and phone numbers by connecting to your existing CRM, or through a list upload.

verifybee homepage

Stop wasting time by chasing fakes and get started with VerifyBee today!

2. Target “Dormant” Subscribers With A Series Of Emails

It's time to target your subscribers with relevant email sequences after you've split your subscribers. You'll know how to approach your emails based on the nature of each part.

Let's create a scenario.

You decide to go after spectators. They're interested but haven't taken advantage of your offerings. These low-hanging fruits are your subscribers. You only need to look at their previous engagements.

What kind of content has piqued their interest? What elicits the most reaction in them? You may then take advantage of their content choices to convert them.

Something has been keeping these subscribers from purchasing. Determine what these blocks are and eliminate them from the email sequences to which they are exposed. The same procedure applies to the rest of your email parts. Analyze their previous activity and customize your communications to fit their needs.

3. Survey Subscribers

This is a straightforward yet powerful method of reconnecting with your followers. Make a personalized survey for them and ask a few important questions. It will be difficult to persuade a disengaged email list to complete a lengthy form.

Create a one-question survey as a solution. This is where you send an email to your subscribers asking them a specific question. If you directed them to a form with several questions, your response rate would be much greater.

The hard thing is that you only get one question to answer, so you'll have to think outside the box.

Alternatively, you may conduct a comprehensive survey. Subscribers may need to be encouraged to react.

4. Start A Campaign

The goal of an engagement campaign is to get your subscribers to connect with you. The first thing you should do is come up with a marketing goal. Consider the following inquiries.

  • To you, what defines engagement? Email open rates, email replies, and email traffic are all possibilities. It's all up to you.
  • What level of involvement do you want to achieve? Make careful to quantify it in words that can be measured. You may determine, for example, that one out of every 10 subscribers should react to your emails.
  • What other channels would you like to use in your campaign in addition to email?

These will offer you some ideas for what your goal(s) should be. After you've set a measurable objective, you can figure out what kind of campaign will help you get there. Here, promotions, competitions, crowdsourcing, and user-generated content campaigns all play a role.

5. Have A Series Of Re-Engagement Events

Keep your audience in the loop. Inform them that you're organizing a series of online events for them to foster an engaged community. You have plenty of alternatives, thanks to your website and social media outlets.

Moreover, remember that it's critical to provide your receivers a cause to become active again when sending re-engagement emails. The bad news is that no matter how appealing the deal is, some customers may decide that they no longer want anything to do with your company.

This re-engagement campaign should be viewed as a final opportunity to tell your audience why they should stay on your mailing list.

Remember that effective marketing—particularly effective email marketing—communicates the value you provide to your audience. Consider the following suggestions:

  • Coaching sessions.
  • Webinars.
  • Interviews on Facebook Live Q&A.
  • Online courses and workshops.
  • Features.
  • Online Competitions.
  • Coupons & Promo codes.
  • Polls & Surveys.
  • Product recommendations.

When you hold these sessions, it is advised that you establish an official event on Facebook or publish it on other social media sites where your target audience hangs out.

6. Offer A Freebie

You want to revive your email list once and for all. Of course, it needs to be spectacular. Don't overthink things, though. You could already have something stashed away that you hadn't considered.

offer a freebie
Image from Freepik by rawpixel.com

To put it another way, you want your freebie to be so useful that people will question why it's available for free. Simply put, if you already have a paid product (not a multi-thousand dollar course, but something useful), you may utilize it as your "freebie".

It's a one-time promotion and you may find it to be a great strategy for retaining as many genuine members as possible. Don't worry if you don't have a paid product yet. You can quickly create something really valuable.

7. Trim The Fat

Your efforts to re-engage subscribers will not reach every single one of them. It is what It is. Use it as an excuse to slim down your to-do list and make some adjustments.

Remove subscribers that are completely uninterested in your brand. They aren't your ideal clients. Because of this, your list will be more focused, and your engagement rates will increase.

Final Takeaway

It might be tough to let go of inactive subscribers when it comes to re-engaging them. It's natural for your list to lose some of its vigors over time.

It can happen to anyone. What you do about it is the decisive element. Make the most of your subscriber's disengagement by rethinking your email approach. Also, keep in mind that just because you have a large email list doesn't guarantee it's active.

It’s also important to make sure you’re not wasting your time on unverified contacts. If you don't want to be penalized or tagged as spam, make sure your email list is healthy by sending a re-engagement email every now and then to delete the "inactive" contacts.

Make an effort to offer subscribers a memorable experience & the results will follow.

Looking for an intuitive, feature-rich, and affordable verification software to clean your email lists? Get started with VerifyBee for free today!

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