April 28, 2008

Handling Inactive Email Subscribers

We have all launched email campaigns and then subsequently monitored our reporting statistics to see who has or has not opened our emails. Undoubtedly not all recipients will respond to your message. Today, a typical email distribution list will contain 70-80% inactive recipients. Given this statistic, you must decide if you will focus your energy and resources on attempting to grab the attention of those recipients who fail to respond, or divert your energy to the 20-30% of your list who are actively responding.

Russell McDonald, CEO of iPost, cautions marketers that focusing only on the active respondents may mean giving up a huge opportunity. McDonald states that “you could easily increase your spending on the effort by a little and boost your return by 100% if you focus on that other segment.”

So, what factors may impact whether a recipient on your list is inactive? Here are a few common examples:

• The subscriber is no longer interested in your content, or your products and services.
• The subject line of the email does not entice them to open it.
• The subscriber email account is not in use or is checked on an irregular basis.
• Your content may be getting filtered by spam filters. Your message will continue to be sent, but will not reach your intended recipients.
• The email may be considered bulk within the recipient’s inbox.

Understanding factors that may result in inactivity allows you to focus on how to engage these subscribers.

• Offer discounts or specials not typically available from your company, or that can only be accessed via your emails.
• Provide access to white papers and other relevant content to give recipients a reason to engage with you.
• Try scheduling your emails to arrive on a different day or time. It is possible that the timeframe you have been using is not convenient for your recipients.
• Consider surveying your subscribers. This will assist you in gaining their insights on what they are interested in hearing about.
• Try using a new, creative subject line for your inactive list. If you consistently use a similar subject line, this change in approach may help to re-engage recipients.

Whether you are managing your own email solution or you are working with a service provider, be sure that both your inactive and active subscriber lists are being adequately managed. If after additional, conscience attempts you find that you are not able to get a response from an inactive recipient remove them from your list. Please contact us if you would like to learn more about email marketing.