Re-Engagement Plan Case Study

A while back, I wrote a post about connecting with your subscribers:
http://runspammers.blogspot.com/2011/10/email-list-hygiene.html

Today, I wanted to SHOW you a real life example of one of the many re-engagement plans I have run for the clients at my company.

The Problem:

• We had a total list size of 94,000 opted in subscribers.
• 53% (50,100) of this list was subscribers who:
• had been in the CRM for more than a year
• and had never clicked/forwarded/opened anything
• 62% of these addresses were submitted more than 3 years ago
• This is the list we used.

 The Risk:

• Continuing to send to these addresses could easily result in:
• Hitting of spam traps and /or honeypots
• Sending to "dead" people (every year 0.7% of subscribers DIE)
• Sending to people who have left their emails (20-33% of addresses churn each year)
• High complaints / unsubscribes
• Damages to our sender reputation
• Email blocked/deleted by ESP
• Email filtered to junk by ESP
• Decrease in opens / clicks
• Decrease in ROI

The Plan:

• 4 weeks out we met with the client to plan the dates and content.
• We crafted 3 emails:

Email #1: sent 1 week after our initial client meeting













 Email #2: Sent 2 weeks after our initial client meeting

Email #3: Sent 3 weeks after our initial client meeting

Each message gave the subscriber a clear way to opt in or out and the benefits of continuing to hear from us. Those who clicked on the opt in link were send to a thank you page on the website and those who clicked opt out were removed instantly by our ESP. For those who didn't click on anything, they received all 3 emails.   

One week after the last email was sent, we pulled all the remaining inactive subscribers and reimported them as held/supressed list members.

The Results:

• 220 (0.4%) subscribers clicked to opt back in
• 2,576 (5.1%) subscribers clicked to opt out
• 42,522 (84.9%) didn't click on anything
• 2.1% Average open rates

90 Days After:

We have seen the metrics for this list continue to improve, post re-engagement:

• 13% improvement in received rates
• 48% improvement in open rates
• 58% improvement in click through ratios
• 98% lower soft bounces
• 46% lower hard bounces
• 72% improvement in forwards
• 81% fewer unsubscribes
• 52% less spam complaints