Are your email subscribers as active as they could be? If you’ve got a database of people who are interested and you’re sending solid content, your subscribers will definitely open your emails…right?Well, not necessarily. You can have the best content in the world but if no one is reading it, then nothing is gained. In conjunction with a comprehensive email marketing content strategy, you’ll also need to make sure your subscribers are active or engaged.
Great email marketing is about sending high quality content to a list of people who have chosen to receive content from you, and this is measured by 'Engagement’. Engagement can be measured in multiple ways, but will most commonly be marked by the number of opens and clicks over a period of time.
If you’ve attempted email marketing, you’ll know that there are two kinds of subscribers: active and inactive. Active subscribers are just that – subscribed, opening your emails and engaging with your content. An active list means better inbox placement and ROI for your email spend. Beautiful.Inactive subscribers, however, choose to stay quiet. They don’t mark your email as SPAM or unsubscribe from your list, but they don’t engage with your content either. This might not seem like a huge problem, but having too many subscribers that don’t engage with your campaigns can not only be costly, but it can affect your deliverability over time.A recent study from Campaign Monitor found that across 18,000 subscriber lists last year, 40% of subscribers had not engaged with their senders’ content within the past 12 months. These people are perpetually “unengaged,” and subscribers in this category will usually have abandoned their email address or left a job. 40% is a reasonable number, but whilst this is concerning it also means that there is great potential to improve open rates and ROI in the process.
Then it’s time to actively re-engage subscribers. This might sound complicated, but fear not - Bang Online has a game plan.
Weed out any subscribers who haven’t opened one of your campaigns in the past 12 months (that is, assuming you’ve sent multiple campaigns during this time).
Put your best foot forward – send these subscribers a campaign asking them if they still want to hear from you. Given that they’ve previously decided your content isn’t worth their time, this is the last chance you have to impress them - send a special promo, a thank you note, or actively ask for their feedback.
Once you’ve sent your offer, it’s time to measure and analyse. If some of those subscribers have engaged with the email, pat yourself on the back! Hopefully you’ll now see engagement from those people again in the future. But if not…
It’s time to say goodbye to your unengaged subscribers who didn’t engage with your reconfirmation campaign. I know it might seem harsh – but trust me, it’s worth it. In reality, you’re not getting rid of potential customers. They’ve already decided they’re definitely not interested, and they’re doing more harm than good by remaining on your list. Delete them for good – out of sight, out of mind.In doing so, you’re pruning the dead branches, so to speak, from affecting the performance of the rest of your list. As a whole, the engagement level of your will improve which should result in better inbox placement. Your emails now have a better chance of being seen by those who are interested.
Now that you’ve trimmed your list, it’s time to make sure your content is up to scratch – you've got to prove yourself to those previously unengaged subscribers who decided you were worth their time after all. The first 90 days following a sign up are critical, so it’s crucial to make sure your content is interesting, valuable and engaging. If not, you might find yourself back to square one – and nobody wants that.
