I’d never really thought about it from the subscribers’ point of view so had a think about it.  The newsletters in question were a couple of large online record stores that I subscribed to years ago when I used to buy a lot of vinyl.

Since then though, I have moved away from that and don’t really need the emails anymore.  Then I started to question why I hadn’t actually unsubscribed myself from the list.  Granted, a big part was due to laziness but there was a part of me that thought that I may be interested in it at some point and therefore didn’t want to unsubscribe at the moment.

The problem is, I’ve been like that for quite a while and they still haven’t sent anything which has reignited my interest in their newsletter.

If you’re reading this and think that a big proportion of your mailing list could be in the same category as me, it might be time to start a re-activation campaign.

I personally think this is something which should be carried out at least twice a year.  This keeps you staying fresh with your email marketing campaigns and stops you falling into a rut of the same formulated emails each time.

Instead of just one re-subscribe email though, I propose a quick series of emails.  This way as well you can carry out a bit of passive segmentation on your mailing list.

A few ideas for you –

A promotional offer to get non openers back is always a good start.  Who do you know who doesn’t like discounts, vouchers or special offers?

It could be worth going down the personalised subject header route if you’re not doing it already.  Try to grab their attention again in a cluttered inbox.

Using a current topic as the basis for your email could ignite your apathetic subscribers’ interest again.  Try to keep it relevant to your target market though.  Once opened, hit them with a re-subscribe offer.

Some of these people though just may not require your products/services anymore.  This doesn’t mean they won’t open your email still.  In this situation, it is worth a prominent forward this offer to a friend button to try and counter that inactive subscriber with potential new subscribers.

If you get no response from these people after your series, it may very well be time to call a day on them and remove them from your list.  Though your list will deflate, in essence they were never there anyway.  Furthermore, it will allow you to get more accurate statistics from your active subscribers