How many people sign up for your mailing list but never open your emails?
I’m guessing quite a few. Most subscribers, however, are enthusiastic at the beginning but lose interest after a few communications. Often it isn't even your content that’s to blame.
It’s just the way people are.
When your newsletter or brand stops being “new” it loses some of its attraction.
And then there’s the competition. They are always out to seduce your audience and will do anything to snatch them from you. Still, you need to keep going.
Without consistency in your email communication, you are handing over the scepter to your competition without a fight.
But I’m not here to talk about competition.
I want to talk about your subscribers.
You want to keep increasing your number of subscribers. It's a powerful way to nurture and convince them and eventually convert them. But how great are your chances with all these ignorant non-openers?
All they do is clutter up your database.
And then your traffic analysis becomes inaccurate.
Think about it, you may have tons of leads but they aren’t moving down the funnel and your conversion rates appear low. Do you need them? No. You need a realistic number of leads and a high conversion rate.
That's where the re-opt-in mail comes in.
You send this mail to all recipients who haven’t opened your communication for, let’s say, three months. Or, if it’s a monthly newsletter, six months. You inform them that you’ll remove them from your mailing list.
You also tell them you value them as readers and respect their choice, and that's why they can choose to remain on the list and keep receiving your letters.
The re-opt-in mail lets you get rid of lost leads and hand-pick the valuable ones.
What do you accomplish with this?
An uncluttered database
Accurate data about who values your content
A higher conversion rate (fewer subscribers, same number of conversions)
An audience that feels respected
Better leads
More focus on valuable leads
Better open rates because you win back readers
You"ll appear generous and caring in your reader's eyes. Your audience realizes you are paying attention and their indifference doesn’t go unnoticed. You instantly stop being this needy marketer, begging for attention.
A re-opt-in mail indicates self-respect and sincerity.
Moreover, you are passing the responsibility back to the recipient.
You remind them that they choose to get something which they’ll now miss out on unless they actively choose again. And when they do, they are more likely to read your content again (at least for a while).
I want to share with you two examples of exceptionally creative and engaging re-opt-in mails.
#1 is from Hubspot. This one shows understanding and offers a solution.
Subject: Things are about to change
Hey Ruth,
I noticed that you haven't opened an email from us in a while. No problem -- I know firsthand how to-do lists can spiral out of control.
I thought you could use a little relief from the daily notifications you originally signed up for, so I'm going to bump your subscription down to a weekly cadence. As of tomorrow, you'll no longer be receiving daily emails from us. Instead, you'll get an email roundup once a week. That's it!
(If you'd like to keep getting daily emails, you can adjust your subscription here.)
But before you go, it would be helpful to learn a little more about your experience with our subscription so far. What made you stop engaging with those daily emails? Reply to this email with your feedback -- I'd love to hear it.
Take care,
Karla Cook (with an image of her)
Sr. Manager, HubSpot Blogs
#2 comes from The Hustle. I love the humor and have been reading almost all their malis.
Subject: Save our intern?
Well, well, well...look who finally opened my email. It’s nice to see you -- finally!
You see, you signed up to The Hustle, the best damn daily business newsletter on the planet.
And when you did that, our intern Kyle got very, very excited.
But then this happened... our records show that you haven’t been opening our emails.
If you don’t like us anymore, that’s fine. You can unsubscribe. But I had to give you a shout for Kyle’s sake.
See, last week when I explained that there were a few people who haven’t been opening the emails, he told me the following:
There's a screenshot of something that looks like a Slack conversation or so, with a picture of a young guy . Kyle: "I can't take it - why don't they love me?"
I don’t know Kyle, I’m sorry.
Screenshot of conversation again. Kyle: "It's like no one's listening...I'm just gonna go home and talk to my cat"
Interesting, Kyle doesn’t even have a cat…
Screenshot again. Kyle: "Maybe I'll just show up to their house and ask nicely!?"
So, here I am. Writing you an email asking if you’d be willing to give us another chance to see if you’re still interested in subscribing to The Hustle and getting all the business news you need in one digestible daily email.
If yes, that’s GREAT. Kyle will be able to see if you’re opening and he’ll be very, very happy.
If no, that’s ok too... we understand. Just hit unsubscribe from any of the emails and you’ll never hear from us again (poor Kyle).
OK, well, talk soon.
-- Sam, Founder of The Hustle
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