WHY SUBSCRIBERS GO INACTIVE
Subscribers can go inactive for a variety of reasons. Perhaps they feel the connection with your brand is poor or impersonal or they view the offers and promotions included in your emails as unattractive or of little value. Additionally, your emails might be going straight to their spam folder or their contact information has simply changed. Whatever the reason, it is important to monitor inactive subscribers and to act when appropriate.
According to HubSpot, email marketing databases naturally decrease by about 2.1% per month, which equates to approximately 22.5% each year. With the unavoidable decrease in subscribers, it is crucial for brands to not only consider the adoption of a reactivation series early on, but also to ensure the reactivation series becomes a continued tactic of the brand’s email marketing strategy.
WHY HAVE A REACTIVATION STRATEGY
The bottom line is existing customers can provide a lot of value for your brand. As noted by Retention Science, the probability of selling to an existing customer is 60%-70% while the probability of prospective customers buying your products for the first time is around 5%-20%. This means your brand is 40% more likely to have existing customers become repeat purchasers than you are to convert a prospective customer into a purchasing customer.
In addition to providing more sales, the cost of retaining existing customers is five times less than the cost of acquiring new ones. Increasing customer retention by only 5% can result in a 25%+ increase in overall profit.
REACTIVATION STRATEGY
There are several components to consider when creating an activation strategy. The components which are best for you will depend on your brand and your overall goals. Below are some considerations to keep in mind when creating a reactivation strategy.
Monitor Engagement
First and foremost, your brand should monitor engagement on a consistent basis. You will want to look at the open rate, click-through rate, and click-to-open rate for all of your emails. Compare them to industry benchmarks to see how your emails are comparing. If your emails are consistently falling under the benchmarks for your industry, it may be time to re-evaluate the content of your emails.
Build in Triggers
Triggered emails are automated email sends which happen when a specified action occurs. When it comes to reactivation, the specified action is likely to be when the subscriber has not engaged with your email content after a set number of emails or a specified amount of time.
Timing Factors
There are a few things to keep in mind when determining when to send reactivation emails. You should consider your customer cycle; how often do you expect your customers to engage with your brand and buy your product? For some brands it is weekly or monthly, for others it is annually or even during certain seasons. Knowing when to expect consumers will engage with your brand and purchase products will help you determine the best timing for a reactivation series.
What to Include
Your reactivation email series should include more than one email. Give your consumers multiple opportunities to re-engage with your brand before you deem them permanently inactive. Try offering a variety of incentives which may include special deals, coupons, or access to exclusive content. You may also consider the use of a creative CTA to allow customers to remain opted-in or to be removed from your email program.
If your brand is part of a collection of brands under one parent company, you may consider including content related to other portfolio brands. It is important to consider if your brand may only be suitable for specific groups while other brands within a portfolio have a broader appeal. For example, households with children have needs which change as children grow. Consider including content which provides consumers an opportunity to engage with other relative brands within your portfolio should they exist.
Permanently Inactive
It is important to remember some consumers will never re-engage no matter how enticing your reactivation series may be. Seriously consider removing inactive subscribers from your database as they can impact your engagement numbers overall.
When to remove or suppress them, like the sending of reactivation emails, depends on multiple factors. What is the expected purchase cycle for consumers? Is your product seasonal? How many opportunities have these subscribers had to re-engage? Answering these questions will help your brand determine the point at which these subscribers are not likely to re-engage.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ultimately, it is important for you to build a lasting relationship with your subscribers. The purpose of your email program, and reactivation series, should be to create valuable, long-term connections with your customers and subscribers. The content of your reactivation series should be geared toward reengaging and helping your subscribers, should include more than one touchpoint, and should consider conditions specific to your brand.
