Re-engagement campaign: practical guide to wake up your inactive subscribers

A re-engagement campaign aims to reactivate inactive contacts on your list, improve overall engagement, and protect your sender reputation. Here is a comprehensive step-by-step guide.

1. Identifying your inactive contacts

Before launching a re-engagement campaign, it is essential to determine which contacts are actually inactive. This allows you to focus your efforts on subscribers most likely to respond and avoids sending unnecessary emails to those who are already engaged.

Common criteria for identifying an inactive contact:

a. Lack of interaction with your emails: The contact has neither opened nor clicked your messages for several months, generally between 3 and 12 months, depending on your usual sending frequency.

b. No interaction with your pages or offers: The contact has not viewed your content, downloaded your resources, or responded to recent promotions.

c. Problematic email addresses: Certain addresses appear multiple times with repeated soft bounces or remain inactive across several campaigns, which may indicate they are no longer valid or the contact is no longer interested.

Pro tip:

To target your efforts effectively, segment your inactive contacts into a distinct group. You can create sub-segments based on:

• Duration of inactivity (e.g., 3–6 months, 6–12 months).
• Type of inactivity (e.g., opens only, clicks only, total lack of interaction).

This segmentation allows you to personalize your messages according to each contact's engagement level, increasing your chances of reactivation while reducing the risk of unsubscribes or spam complaints.

2. Cleaning your list before the campaign

A well-maintained contact list is essential to ensure your emails actually reach your subscribers and to protect your sender reputation with providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo. A neglected list can lead to frequent bounces, spam complaints, and a drop in overall deliverability.

Key steps for cleaning your list:

a. Remove invalid addresses

Use email verification tools like ZeroBounce or NeverBounce to detect incorrect or non-existent addresses. These addresses generate hard bounces, which can severely damage your sender's reputation if they are not removed.

b. Remove long-term inactive contacts

If certain subscribers haven't interacted for over 12 months, it is often best to delete them. Keeping these contacts can dilute your engagement stats and increase the risk of spam complaints. If you must keep them for any reason, change their status to "unsubscribed."

c. Avoid generic or suspicious addresses

Addresses like test@test.com   or admin@domain.com   generally do not belong to real subscribers and can generate bounces or skew your engagement data. Remove them systematically to keep your list reliable.

d. Verify your tags and custom fields

Before and after cleaning, ensure that your tags and custom fields are correctly assigned. This keeps your segmentation intact, which is crucial for targeted and personalized campaigns.

Pro tip: Regularly cleaning your list and removing inactive contacts improves overall deliverability, helping your emails land in the inbox rather than the spam folder.

3. Defining your goals and messaging

Before sending a re-engagement campaign, you must clarify your objectives and prepare your messages strategically. Each email should have a specific intent to maximize the chances of inactive contacts returning to your active list.

Questions to ask before sending:

a. What is the primary goal?

• Do you want the subscriber to open your emails and see your content?
• Are you looking for them to click a link or access a specific offer?
• Do you simply want them to stay subscribed to your list to maintain the relationship for future engagement?

Defining this goal clearly allows you to build a consistent and targeted message.

b. What tone should you use?

• The tone of your emails influences brand perception and engagement.
• You can choose a friendly tone to show you care about the subscriber.
• A humorous tone can surprise and capture attention, but must remain respectful and aligned with your brand image.
• An incentive-based approach is useful if you are offering a concrete benefit.

c. What incentives should you offer?

• To encourage re-engagement, offer a concrete benefit:
  • A special discount or promo code
  • Exclusive content (ebook, guide, checklist)
  • Early access to an offer or event

Incentives increase click-through and response rates and show your subscribers that your communication provides tangible value.

Pro tip (Personalization): Use custom fields in the email body, such as first name, purchase history, or specific interests, to make your emails more relevant. Personalization creates a sense of individual attention, which boosts re-engagement chances and reduces the risk of unsubscribes or spam reports.

4. Building your re-engagement campaign

a. Typical structure of a re-engagement email

• Powerful subject lines

The subject line is the first impression and determines whether the contact opens the message. It should be short, catchy, and personal if possible.

Examples: "We miss you!", "Are you still interested in our tips?", "Your exclusive offer is waiting".

• Email body content

The content should remind subscribers of the value of your emails and prompt them to take action:

• Highlight what your emails provide: tips, promotions, exclusive content, or useful resources.
• Mention that you noticed their inactivity, showing that you value their engagement.
• Provide a clear action: clicking a link, replying to the email, or confirming their subscription.

• Clear and visible call-to-action (CTA)

Your CTA should be impossible to miss and clearly state the next step.

Examples: "I want to stay subscribed", "Claim my gift", "View my offers".

b. Frequency and timing

• Progressive phase: Do not launch your campaign to all inactive contacts at once. Start with a small portion of the segment to gauge subscriber response and adjust as needed.
• A/B testing: Test different subject lines, content, and CTAs to identify what works best with your inactive subscribers. Even small changes can significantly improve open and click rates.
• Follow-up: To maximize re-engagement, send a second email 3 to 7 days after the first one to those who did not react. This reminder can often convert hesitant subscribers.

Pro tip: Combining a powerful subject line, personalized and relevant content, and a clear CTA, while respecting a gradual sending schedule, is the key to an effective re-engagement campaign. This also protects your sender reputation and improves long-term deliverability.

5. Automations and tracking

Once your re-engagement emails are sent, it is essential to set up automations and rigorous tracking. This allows you to manage your contacts efficiently and optimize future campaigns.

a. Create an automation to classify your subscribers

An automation allows you to automatically sort contacts based on their reaction to your campaign:

• Re-engaged
  • Subscribers who opened your emails and/or clicked your links can be moved back to your active list.
  • They will once again be eligible for your regular campaigns and targeted communications.
• Still inactive after 2 emails
  • Contacts who showed no interaction after two follow-ups should be considered for removal.
  • Keeping them can harm your overall engagement rate and sender reputation, especially if you continue sending them emails.

b. Performance tracking

After sending, monitor key indicators to evaluate the campaign's effectiveness and adjust your strategy:

• Open rate: Indicates how many contacts opened your emails. A low rate may suggest an unappealing subject line or a poorly targeted segment.
• Click-through rate: Measures actual engagement and interest in your offers or content.
• Unsubscribes: Monitor if your emails lead to opt-outs, which may indicate a problem with relevance or frequency.
• Bounces: Note invalid or inactive addresses to keep your list clean and protect your sender reputation.

Pro tip: Use this data to refine your next campaigns:

• Optimize your segments based on reactions.
• Adapt your email content and frequency.
• Identify truly inactive contacts to avoid unnecessary sending.

6. Reducing deliverability risks

When launching a re-engagement campaign, it is crucial not to restart your entire list at once, especially if you are using a new platform like systeme.io. A progressive approach preserves your sender reputation and optimizes deliverability.

a. Start with a small sending volume

• Initially, send your emails to a restricted segment of inactive contacts, such as 10% to 20% of your list.
• This approach allows you to test the subscribers' reaction and adjust your messages if necessary before reaching the entire list.
• ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo monitor new sender activity. A gradual send helps "establish your sender footprint" and build a reliable sending reputation.

b. Gradual volume increase

• After a successful initial send, gradually increase the number of recipients over several days or weeks.
• Monitor open, click, and bounce rates at each stage to ensure no issues arise.
• This progressive ramp-up reduces the risk of being blocked or landing in the spam folder.

c. Best content for initial follow-ups

• Avoid starting with content that is too promotional or aggressive.
• Focus on value and personalization: tips, guides, exclusive content, or reminders of benefits for the contact.
• A soft approach re-engages subscribers without being intrusive, while signaling high quality to ISPs.

Pro tip: Combine gradual sending + relevant content + performance tracking. This combination protects your reputation, improves deliverability, and maximizes your chances of reactivating inactive contacts.

7. Analysis and optimization

After your re-engagement campaign ends, review the results and draw lessons for future communications. Post-campaign analysis allows you to maximize engagement, refine segments, and maintain optimal deliverability.

a. Identify reactive subscribers

• Analyze which contacts opened your emails and/or clicked your links.
• These subscribers must be reintegrated into your active segments to continue receiving regular campaigns.
• Identifying engaged subscribers allows you to further personalize future campaigns and create even more relevant content for them.

b. Analyze successful subject lines and content

• Note which subject lines sparked the most opens and which content generated the most clicks.
• Compare formats: promotional offers, practical tips, guides, or exclusive content.
• This analysis helps determine what works best with your inactive subscribers and optimizes future campaigns.

c. Remove persistently inactive contacts

• Contacts who still do not engage after several follow-ups should be deleted.
• Removing these subscribers:
  • Improves the overall engagement rate of your list.
  • Protects your sender reputation and reduces the risk of future emails being filtered as spam.
  • Allows you to focus efforts on genuinely interested and responsive subscribers.

Pro tip: View post-campaign analysis as strategic feedback: it not only cleans your list but also helps you better understand your subscribers, adapt your content, and increase the effectiveness of future campaigns.