As we enter the new season, it's a great time to clean up our surroundings and email lists. The best way to clean your list is to remove invalid or inactive email addresses.
This will help your email marketing work more effectively and ensure the right people get your messages. So, use the change of seasons to clean up your email list and make your digital life easier.
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Spring Cleaning: Steps
To optimize costs and have better click rates, you only want to market to and pay for interested contacts. Using Omnisend automation and segmentation, you can re-engage or unsubscribe inactive subscribers with minimum effort.
To keep your contact list clean, you must first set up a segment for unengaged contacts. Depending on your business, you should define it under different conditions.
Step 1. Identify inactive contacts: Within Audience, using Segmentation, filter out contacts who haven't opened or clicked on your emails recently. These are your inactive contacts.
In Omnisend, we have created pre-built segments of inactive contacts for you. Go to your Audience → Segments → Create segment → Pre-built segment → Filter: Disengaged contacts → Inactive contacts or Lapsed email subscribers → Click Create Segment.
We advise you to review both of these segments and pick the one that fits your needs best.
The inactive contacts segment contains contacts who subscribed earlier but haven't been engaging with your messages.
The lapsed email subscribers segment includes the subscribers who've received several promotional campaigns, haven't clicked any of them, and haven't made a purchase in the last 90 days.
Important! It would be best to use the segment that suits your marketing needs, like At Risk to churn, Inactive contacts, or Lapsed email subscribers.
Decide whether to re-engage or remove: Determine whether you want to try and re-engage your inactive contacts or remove them from your list. Below, you will find instructions on how to send a re-engagement email or unsubscribe contacts based on your choice.
Step 2. Option 1. Send a re-engagement email.
If you decide to try and re-engage your inactive contacts, send them a re-engagement email campaign. In this email, offer an incentive to re-engage, such as a special discount or resource just for subscribers.
For the re-engagement email, we can suggest two options:
If you want to send a one-time re-engagement email to the segment, you can send a simple campaign.
If you want to automate this process to continuously automatically send the re-engagement flow of emails to all the newly inactive customers, create an automation workflow.
One-time Re-engagement Email
To create a one-time Email campaign, proceed to the Campaigns tab → click to create a New campaign → Email Campaign. Below, you can find a detailed guide on how you can build your email campaign.
💡Remember, the subject line is the first thing your subscribers will see, so make sure it's attention-grabbing and relevant to the content of your email.
We miss you! Come back and see what's new.
It's been a while... want to catch up?
Is it over between us? Let's rekindle our relationship!
Take advantage of our latest offers.
Your inbox has been quiet without us.
We're sorry we've been neglecting you.
You're too important to lose touch with.
Here's a special offer just for you!
Let's pick up where we left off.
Hey there, long time no see!
Also, you can consider this type of content to include in your email campaign:
Exclusive content. Offer exclusive content, such as access to new products or blog posts that are not available to non-subscribers. This can make subscribers feel valued and keep them engaged with your store.
Customer Testimonials. Share customer testimonials or reviews to showcase the positive experiences other customers have had with your brand. This can help build trust and persuade subscribers to engage with your brand again.
Surveys or polls. Ask subscribers for their feedback through surveys or polls to understand why they stopped engaging with your brand. This can provide valuable insights and help you to improve your email marketing strategy.
Interesting blog posts or articles. Include exciting blog posts or articles relevant to your subscribers' interests or pain points. This can provide value to them and encourage them to start engaging with your brand again.
Impotant! Send this campaign to the disengaged segment only by choosing it on the Recipients step of the campaign setup.
Give your subscribers some time to engage with this email, and later on; you can build a segment based on the engagement with this one-time email and unsubscribe anyone who didn't engage. Your segment should include rules that suggest sending this re-engagement email + either clicking or opening this email.
The rules should look like follows:
Once you have built the segment, you can unsubscribe everyone in it; for this open the segment → Check the box next to Name → select all → Actions → Unsubscribe.
Re-engagement Automation
To create a more complex Automation flow, proceed to the Automations tab → click on the Create Workflow button → choose to create from scratch → select Contact enters the segment as a trigger → select your segment from the list.
💡Tip! For your business, the meaning of disengagement may vary. Therefore, it is essential to incorporate appropriate exit conditions into your workflow. These conditions could include actions like exiting the unengaged segment that the workflow is based on.
By implementing these exit conditions, you can ensure that your workflow effectively re-engages your audience and improves overall engagement with your store.
Please be aware that if you are using contact exits a segment as an exit condition, your segment should obligatory have a rule that defines engagement, for example, "have note opened the message in the last X of days." This way, if the contact opens an email from your re-engagement automation, they will exit the segment because they no longer match this rule.
You can also select Clicking/ Opening the email as your exit condition directly in the automation setup.
The flow setup depends entirely on the type of messages you send to your regular customers and your products; below, we'll present one of the ways you can build your re-engagement flow.
Our example flow begins with a delay of one hour before sending an email titled "Can we make it better? We miss you". This email should highlight the value your content provides to the reader and express your interest in improving their experience.
Some ideas for the content of your first email:
Provide an overview of the benefits and features of your products, highlighting how they can solve a problem or meet a customer need.
Share customer testimonials or reviews that showcase the positive experiences others have had with your products.
Offer helpful tips or guidance on how to get the most out of your products, including any best practices or unique uses.
Provide special promotions or discounts for subscribers, incentivizing them to try your products and see the value for themselves.
Invite customers to provide feedback or suggestions on improving your products, demonstrating your commitment to quality and customer satisfaction.
Share any product updates or improvements, showing that you continually work to enhance the customer experience.
Offer additional resources or support to help customers overcome any challenges they may be facing with your products.
After a delay of five days, send another email titled "Time to say goodbye? Please click this if you want to stay subscribed". This email should include a clear call-to-action, such as a button or link, that allows the reader to indicate whether or not they want to continue receiving your emails. By giving them a choice to opt-out, you show that you respect their preferences and are committed to providing them with relevant content.
In the email, you can add this information:
Explain why you are sending this email, emphasizing the importance of having an engaged and interested email list.
Remind subscribers of the benefits of staying subscribed to your email list, highlighting the value of your content or products.
Provide an easy way for subscribers to update their email preferences or opt out of certain types of emails rather than unsubscribing altogether.
Offer an incentive or exclusive content to encourage subscribers to stay subscribed, such as a discount or access to a limited-time offer.
Ask subscribers to provide feedback on why they may be considering unsubscribing, showing that you value their opinion and want to improve the email experience.
Provide helpful tips or resources on managing email overload, emphasizing the value of your content and how it can help them achieve their goals.
Encourage subscribers to share your emails with others who may find them valuable, expanding your reach and bringing in new subscribers.
The content of your email can include a button like this with a personalized unsubscribe link:
If the customer still doesn't engage, wait another three days and send an email titled "Sorry to see you go...". This email should express your disappointment at losing them as a subscriber and provide a final opportunity to indicate their interest in staying on the list.
Finally, if they still do not engage, add them to the "To Unsubscribe" tag. This ensures that they will no longer receive emails from your list, but it also allows you to keep their information on file in case they decide to re-engage in the future.
Using a flow like this, you can re-engage your contacts while respecting their preferences and maintaining their trust in your brand.
As the last step, you can periodically unsubscribe everyone who falls into the segment based on the Unsubscribed tag. Build your segment based on the Tag you added at the end of the automation → Open Audience → Segments → Select the segment → Check the box next to Name → select all → Actions → Unsubscribe.
Step 2. Option 2. Remove inactive contacts without re-engaging with them.
If you decided to remove disengaged contacts without re-engaging with them again, you could do so by unsubscribing everyone in the segment in a few simple clicks.
Open the segment → Check the box next to Name → select all → Actions → Unsubscribe.
Voila! All done 🎉 Removing disengaged contacts from your list can improve your email deliverability, increase open rates, and ultimately drive more conversions. It also helps save time and resources by focusing on those more likely to engage with the content.
Automatic List Cleaning
Another way to clean your list from faulty emails (note this is not connected to disengagement) is to use our in-built email list cleaning feature.
What is list cleaning?
The success of an email marketing strategy is based on more than just the size of the contact audience. The quality of the contacts is equally important.
List cleaning is the process of removing faulty and outdated email addresses from your contact audience. This is done to ensure that your email marketing strategy targets only those individuals who are interested in your product or service.
Why is list cleaning important?
List cleaning is essential for several reasons.
Firstly, it ensures that your emails reach the intended recipients. Removing invalid email addresses reduces the likelihood of emails bouncing back or being marked as spam. This improves your overall deliverability and helps maintain a good reputation with Internet Service Providers (ISPs).
Secondly, list cleaning helps improve your open and click rates. When you send emails to a targeted audience, you are more likely to get a response. By removing inactive subscribers, you can focus on engaging with those likely to be interested in your product or service.
Thirdly, list cleaning helps reduce costs. You save money on email marketing campaigns by sending emails to a smaller, more targeted audience.
How can I clean my list?
You can clean your list in Reports→ Deliverability → Scroll down to Email list hygiene → Go to email list cleaning.
We have prepared a guide for your reference to provide further guidance on email list cleaning. Reviewing the guide ensures understanding of the process and email list cleaning benefits. Please follow this guide to ensure that your email list remains up-to-date and effective, resulting in increased engagement.
Keeping your email list clean is important for successful email marketing. Removing inactive or invalid email addresses can help save costs and boost engagement rates.
Omnisend provides an easy way to filter out inactive contacts through pre-built segments, giving you the option to re-engage or unsubscribe them. You can use re-engagement email automation or one-time re-engagement email to encourage subscribers to stay connected with your brand, and Omnisend's automation can help you create tailored workflows that align with your business objectives.
Offer valuable content, exclusive promotions, and clear calls to action to keep your subscribers engaged and subscribed. Ensure that your workflows include appropriate exit conditions to ensure that your emails effectively re-engage your audience and improve overall engagement with your store.