Regain Your Audience’s Respect With a Single Email

How many people sign up for your mailing list but stop opening your emails after the first three? (or none)

I’m guessing quite a few.

Don't be hard on yourself; it's not your content. A 20% open rate for email newsletters is pretty good. Most subscribers are enthusiastic at the beginning, but quickly lose interest or never find time to read.

And then there’s your competition seducing your audience to snatch them away. Still, you need to keep going. Without consistency, you don't count.

Why do email marketing at all?

I'll keep this short because it's a topic for a separate post:

1. Email is hype- and algorithm-change resistant (in contrast to social media)

2. Email is cost-effective

3. You can personalize messages and marketing

4. You can send highly customized and even individual offers

5. It's easy to track and measure

6. It's effective in lead generation

7. Automation lets you save on time and effort

8. ... need more? I could go on ...😉

Once you see your mailing list grow, you'll want to nurture readers into leads. You expect open rates to increase and click rates to follow suit.

But that's not what happens. It's actually the opposite. More subscribers—less opens.

How do you handle all these indifferent non-openers? 🤔

They clutter up your database.

Then they compromise your performance stats.

In the long run, they put your sender credibility on the line.

Think about it: tons of leads not moving down the funnel. Do you need them? No. You need a realistic number of quality leads that you can actually reach, influence, and convince.

The power of the re-opt-in solution

That's where the re-opt-in mail comes in.

You find all contacts who haven’t opened your communication for, let’s say, three months. Or, if it’s a monthly newsletter, six months. Don't worry, an email automation tool will filter them out in seconds.

You sent them a friendly email informing them that you’ll remove them from your mailing list. That's it, you set them free, you'll no longer bother them or inflate their inbox.

Of course, you also let them know that you value them as readers and respect their choices. After all, you want to serve their needs, not your own, 😏right?

Right! So, you let the subscriber make the choice: continue to unsubscribe, or re-opt-in.

Why do re-opt-in emails work?

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 subscriber. You make them feel in control.

They may even feel like they've missed out all this time. Suddenly, they'll remember why they signed up in the first place. It's just that "I never had time" or "I receive way too many emails, so it got lost" (sounds familiar?).

This time, when they decide to give you another chance, they are more likely to read your content.

What does the re-opt-in email accomplish for you?

The re-opt-in email lets you get rid of lost leads and hand-pick the valuable ones.

1. An uncluttered database

2. Accurate data about who values your content

3. A higher conversion rate (fewer subscribers, same number of conversions)

4. An audience that feels respected

5. Better leads

6. More focus on valuable leads

7. Better open rates because you win back readers

2 creative re-opt-in email examples

Here are two examples of exceptionally creative and engaging re-opt-in emails.

#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