7 Ways to Engage Those Inactive Names on Your Email List! by Women in Ecommerce™

How many of the people/names on your email list are actually engaged in your email communication? By engaged I mean responding to you with questions, comments, clicking on your links, reading the entire message, visiting sites/pages etc. you recommend, or buy anything? If they are not doing any of the above its probably time to change your email marketing tactics.

According to the American Marketing Association, a staggering 35 to 55% of your list is not opening or clicking through to your messages. You worked hard to build your list and now what? How can you reactivate those hard-won names?

According to Target Marketing Magazine, there are 7 ways to re-engage inactives. Here they are:

1. Change your mode of delivery. If you are sending HTML messages, try text. Text has a better chance of being delivered and opened.

2. Get permission again. Send them a message asking them to opt-in again. While you may loose some names in the process, you can clean up your database and do a better job at keeping your list engaged.


3. Reconfirm email addresses during the sign-up process. With the proliferation of free email accounts, many people use them as secondary addresses to receive marketing messages. After time, people will discontinue the email address – before that happens, ask them for alternate or primary email addresses.

4. Ask your list to update or submit profile information. by doing so, they can reconfirm their information, and edit or change inacurate data you may have on file for them.

5. Create a “miss you campaign” with a special incentive offer. This is a great way to reestablish loyalty with your list and reintroduce the benefits you offer.

6. Mix it up, by changing frequency – if you mail on a weekly or bi-weekly basis, send to the list on a monthly basis for a change.

7. Send them a survey, or ask for their opionion on a particular topic. People appreciate sharing their ideas and thoughts. Make the survey brief or simply ask one question to get them engaged. Surveys are also a great way to personlize future email campaigns to the recipient.

When you apply these simple email marketing tactics, track the results you should see a significant improvement in open rates, and more importantly engagement on the part of your audience. Go ahead, give it a try! And let us know how you did…

Want to up your Email marketing game? Women in Ecommerce™ recommends you check out this FREE special report on How to Create Your Irresistible Offer that will give you the confidence to get “it” done! by Kim DeYoung