Handling Unresponsive Email Subscribers
Not everyone in your email list will read
your message—that’s perfectly normal. You might reach an above average open rate
of 60% or higher if your email subscription is highly valued. The remaining 40%
of your subscribers, however, are either avoiding your email tracking or worse –
ignoring your message. Even less subscribers will click on your links. You might
reach a 15% or higher click-through rate (CTR) while the rest will decide that your
links are not worth a click. Learn how to win back your unresponsive subscribers,
and what do you do with those who continue to remain silent.
Identify Unresponsive Subscribers in Your Email List
Learning how engaged your subscribers are with your email
marketing efforts can help you understand what you’re doing well, and where
you can improve. Identifying your most valuable subscribers, and those sitting on
the sidelines, is the key to more efficiently target your marketing efforts.
Begin with email segmentation of your master email list. Select the recipients based
on the following criteria:
- Those who have not opened your emails or clicked your links in the past 6+ months.
Selecting the period of time that denotes an unresponsive subscriber is entirely
up to you, and will vary depending on a variety of factors, including whether you’re
marketing to a consumer or business audience, and the frequency of your email broadcasts
- Exclude recipients that bounced back as well as those who’ve unsubscribed
Email segmentation not only gives you the list of unresponsive subscribers, but
it clearly defines your engaged recipients as well. Take this opportunity to devise
a strategy that rewards your engaged segment.
Ask Again for Subscription Confirmation
Now that you’ve zeroed in on your unresponsive subscribers, you can send them an
email reminder to rejoin by reconfirming their subscription. Take this opportunity
to also ask for their feedback on the quality of your communications, and to further
describe their interests. From their responses you will gain a better understanding
about their inactivity, and learn how to transform other unresponsive subscribers
into engaged readers.
Strategic email marketers prefer to use multi-message
campaigns – usually a sequence of three emails sent roughly once a week. These email
sequences start with an initial reminder, followed by a second reminder, then a
final notice. The success of your re-opt-in campaign will greatly depend on persuasive
subject lines and compelling email copy, as well as other reputation factors, such
as using a branded FROM address.
Analyze Response From Your Email Segmentation
By analyzing this response to your re-opt-in email or email sequence, you can more
clearly determine your next steps. Those who continue to remain dormant should be
removed from your email list.
Why remove unresponsive subscribers? The quality of your email list is far more
important than its size. Data hygiene
best practices combined with regular cleansing of your unresponsive subscribers
will:
- Improve your reputation by reducing spam complaints. Unresponsive subscribers are
likely to view your email as irrelevant and report you as spam. Studies indicate
that approximately 40% of opt-in subscribers push the spam button, rather than using
the normal unsubscribe interfaces
- Reduce email marketing costs by processing less records and consuming less bandwidth
- Improve email marketing ROI by focusing on relationships that matter to your business
Reach your attentive subscribers with managed email marketing services from Single
Entry Point. Branded email marketing,
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Mike
Lascut is Principal of Single Entry Point
® Marketing, focusing on
the search, email and analytics practice and leading the development of the
Single Entry Point Email Marketing next generation product. Mike's professional
career spans over twenty years, including twelve years of intelligent search and
email marketing and over a decade and half of software architecture and development.
When he's not pointing businesses in a smarter direction, Mike spends his time pointing
his lens at wildlife. Connect with
Mike
on Linkedin, read his
Nature Research Photography
blog, or reach him via
email or phone.