A typical mailing list has more than 50% of inactive recipients (shown in grey from the Recipient analysis chart). Marketers face a big challenge in terms of recipient engagement. In most cases, having a cleaner (albeit smaller) mailing size is preferred, if the goal of your email communications is to increase engagement, as shown in this case study by Marketing Sherpa.

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Things to know before creating a re-engagement campaign

The first step is to recognize how many recipients in your mailing size are inactive (i.e. those recipients who have not opened and/or clicked on your emails in the last 3 months or longer). This information can be found under the Statistics tab.

Step 1: Filter and group inactive recipients

Under Marketing+ > Filters > Activity, create an activity filter with the following conditions: Filter recipients who did not read any emails from the last 90 days.

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Now apply this filter to your mailing list in Recipients > Channels > Email and copy the recipients into the Inactive recipients group:

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Step 2: Plan a re-engagement email campaign

The goal of the campaign is to win-back and try to engage the inactive recipients. Effective "win-back" emails include:

• Connect & join us on social media
• Subscribe to multiple mailing lists or a different mailing list
• One-time promotions (e.g. sweepstake), offers, or price discounts
• Download marketing material (e.g. whitepaper) or sign-up to a webinar

The objective of your emails should be to provide a compelling reason for your recipients to keep subscribed to your mailing list(s). The timing and number of emails is up to you to decide. Relevant and back-to-back (2 times a week) emails are a good start. Don't be afraid to send those emails!

Step 3: Evaluate your re-engagement campaign

Re-engaging inactive recipients is not an easy task. Typically, between 5-15% recipients re-engage and remain in your mailing list.

Step 4: Unsubscribe the remaining inactive recipients

The remainder of the inactive recipients are of little value and over time should be unsubscribed from your mailing list. This can be done automatically through the Inactive recipient management toolThe relationship between a company and the subscribers in its database has dynamics very similar to any relationship between people: it starts with a lot of interest and enthusiasm, followed by a growth phase and then a period of stagnation where interactions decrease and the level of engagement loosens.

This disinterest occurs for various reasons. Over time, commercial offers, content, and even the subject lines of emails begin to seem unappealing to the user. As a result, the very users who were once wildly enthusiastic start to lose interest, stop opening the emails we send them, no longer click on our call-to-actions, and effectively become “dormant”.

The importance of a Reactivation campaign

A study conducted by Return Path estimates that, on average, every database has a percentage of inactive customers equal to or greater than 25% of total subscribers. This is certainly a high number, but it holds potential worth leveraging – especially considering that re-e

ngaging an existing contact in the database is cheaper than acquiring a new one.

Any company has a strong interest in rekindling the bond with their inactive users, reigniting the interest shown during the registration phase.

“Re-engaging a contact already in the database is more cost-effective than acquiring a new one.”

Not just reactivating, but also avoiding the spam folder

Google, Yahoo, Libero, and other major mail servers are closely monitored by our deliverability experts. We know that they are constantly evolving to more accurately determine whether to deliver messages sent by a certain sender to the main folder or the spam folder, considering, among various crucial aspects, the level of activity of the recipients.

This is because mail servers look for clear evidence that the recipient wants to receive the messages, and use these proofs as decisive factors in categorizing the message. However, determining the level of activity is becoming more sophisticated, and the details are not disclosed to preserve the accuracy and fairness of the evaluation.

“Google, Yahoo, and Libero look for clear evidence that the recipient wants to receive the messages, and use these proofs as decisive factors in determining if the message is spam.”

From our Deliverability experts, we know that there are multiple factors that contribute to establishing the “level of activity”, such as the type of behavior, the frequency of receiving and interacting, and the length of the customer lifecycle as a whole.

Furthermore, if mail clients consider the inboxes, ISPs (Internet Service Providers) focus on another aspect: the quality of the entire database. In cases where the ratio of active to inactive users leans towards the latter, the ISP begins to regard the sending company as unreliable and of poor quality, relegating the communications sent to the spam folder, and in some cases, leading to a total block of access to the mailbox.

What to do?

The best solution is to try reactivating your contacts with a plan of re-engagement campaigns targeted based on the level of activity, carefully weigh the number of messages sent to dormant recipients, and properly manage your database.

Tools in MailUp

Analyzing the activity level of your database

In MailUp, you can view the composition of your database based on the level of engagement by accessing the “Recipients engagement history“ report (which also includes details over a specific period) in the Statistics > List overview > Analysis and benchmarks section. (You might not see data in these charts because you haven't sent enough messages or the time frame is not suitable.)

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Sending re-engagement campaigns

In MailUp, the Manage inactive recipients feature is available for all editions, which can be found in the Recipients > List > Manage inactive recipients section.

By activating it, you initiate an automation that continuously monitors inactive recipients (considering only opens) over a certain period of time. These recipients are:

• Immediately removed from the Subscribers and moved to the Suspended list so they won’t receive any future campaigns.

• Sent a single, uniform message inviting them to reconfirm their interest in remaining subscribed.

• After x days, if the recipients do not click on the reactivation link, they are unsubscribed.

Advanced Tools

If you need to create a series of ad hoc campaigns, targeting with more sophisticated and customizable filters, the “Deliverability statistics” package is available for an additional fee, regardless of the plan you are subscribed to. It includes:

1. Engagement Filters: These are used to identify recipients based on their level of activity, integrating additional values beyond just email opens. The factors that contribute to determining the level of activity are established and continuously calibrated by our deliverability experts to give you reliable and accurate results. The details are not disclosed as they contribute to MailUp's proprietary algorithm.

2. Engagement Statistics: Based on the algorithms, these allow you to monitor the response of your contacts and plan a series of reactivation campaigns.