Typically, I would applaud a marketer for looking to re-engage subscribers. Re-engagement campaigns help with list cleansing efforts and help to curb potential future deliverability issues from continuing to mail to dead/unengaged addresses. With that said, at some point the team at Smart Bargains got their wires crossed on how to execute an effective re-engagement campaign.
I have been a member of the Smart Bargains email community for over a year now and purchased from the retailer long ago. Since then, I’ve not really engaged with their email program or purchased as they tend to send me “batch and blast” messages that are not targeted to my interests. Starting at the beginning of March, they started sending me re-engagement campaign messages encouraging me to buy again.
Now, I will give them a slow clap for sending more than one message. I’m personally a proponent of sending a re-engagement series in case a subscriber missed one and to better tell your “let’s not break-up” story, but…5 is a bit excessive and it doesn’t seem to be ending any time soon. Also, you’ve probably already noted that the first three had the same subject line. Not only that, they had the exact same creative:
I will give them a back pat for looking to re-engage me as a customer and giving me an incentive to purchase immediately. But…I’m not sure what made them think that if I don’t respond to the creative the first time, they should keep sending until I do! When I think of a well-executed re-engagement campaign, I picture something very similar to a welcome series; you want to introduce them to all the reasons to stay on your list. Some effective re-engagement ideas are to:
- Make it stand out with a snappy subject line. (“We miss you!” or, if you have a mascot, something like “Tony the Tiger is feeling neglected”, etc)
- Ask what’s going on through a survey or quick poll. What could you be doing better? Why have they disengaged?, etc
- Test an incentive to shop again. Depending on your messaging and goal, this may not be necessary.
- Remind them of all the great reasons to stay on the list and shop with you again.
- Provide opportunities for them to provide profile and communication preferences to better tailor messages toward those preferences.
- Be ready to say goodbye if they don’t respond. Keeping these contacts erodes your reputation both from an end user and deliverability perspective.
Above all, determine your goal for the re-engagement campaign and your communication strategy. Sending the same message over and over again and hoping it sticks doesn’t work. Be smart and creative with your approach and you’ll likely find your disengaged subscribers are more willing to re-open the line of communication with you.
Cheers my marketing kindred,
Kelly Lorenz
Email Marketing Strategist at Bronto
@KNLorenz
Andrew Kordek
Justin Premick
Chris Wheeler
Scott Cohen
Jake Holman
AngeBarber
DJ Waldow
jacaldwell
Wendy Croissant
Luke Glasner
Scott Hardigree
Maddy Hubbard
Rory Carlyle
Kelly Lorenz
Remy Bergsma
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Jordie van Rijn
elenah13
loveofemail
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preemo55
Kelly:
Love the article. Sirus has been in a long fight to not break up – or win me back. Each of the past 5 weeks I have got emails from them telling me this is their final offer, best deal yet, and it’s not too late. I wonder how long the jilted lover will continue the barrage? I bet forever the way this is going or until I opt out… but then do they argue the existing customer relationship card on me and continue anyway?
Whilst I’m also a firm believer in email re-engagement campaigns, do you ever think there’s a danger in customers ‘abusing’ your efforts?
For example, one online retailer I work with, will, without fail, send inactives a money-saving voucher. This happens time and time again (automatic triggers).
Whilst most customers don’t deliberately wait for the money-off coupons, it’s clear that some are being ‘trained’ to shop, wait, get the coupon, shop again, wait again and so on…
Thanks Dylan. That kind of barrage also sets you up for continuing to wait for a better deal as Andrew hints at (which I will get to post-haste). This is why I’m such a huge fan of knowing more about your subscribers and customers as you can then treat them in a SMART and VALUABLE fashion versus sending all disengaged contacts the same offer. All marketers should consider an RFM type model (Recency, Frequency, Monetization) to construct their communications.
Andrew, thanks for commenting. There is absolutely that danger of abuse. That’s why marketers need to test and think carefully about whether to provide an incentive to re-engage or not. We run into this all the time with abandoned shopping cart emails as well. The bottom line for me is that if you’re consistently providing value and your re-engagement message is strong enough, you don’t need an incentive. On the other hand, if that’s all customers respond to, I’d rather cut into my margins a bit to keep them than lose them outright.
Thanks again both of you!
Kelly