EmailAn email (or electronic mail) is a method of exchanging communications through the internet. It is one of the most used features on the web and the number one mean... marketing is still considered a good marketing practice. Despite the evolution in digital marketing, marketers still continue email campaigns. A strong email copy has the power to capture your audience as well as connect with them. However, sometimes your email might not perform the magic. All of us have overflowing inboxes. Hundreds of emails flood our inbox daily. Therefore, a re-engagement email becomes very important.

Undoubtedly, email marketing is important and very useful. Emails have been one of the oldest forms of digital communication. It is cost-effective and helps reach your customers in real-time. A company can send weekly updates to its customers via email. In addition, email marketing tools also make it very easy to measure and segment customers. Finally and most importantly, who doesn’t use an email? Everyone does. It is one of the most widely used platforms. Therefore, re-engagement becomes even more important to ensure not losing customers.

Re-engagement emails play their role in the email lifecycle. They are a good tool to bring back the audience you have lost over time. Unlike your regular emails, re-engagement emails acknowledge the customer’s less interaction. Therefore, these emails almost always have an incentive in store for the customer. 

Six months is a good amount of time to know if a customer is active or not. Your first task to reactivate your customers is moving them from the main email list to a separate list. You don’t want to keep wasting your resources by sending them an email they are not going to open. Therefore, a separate list helps you send them a re-engagement email.

What if some customers don’t end up responding? Do you continue forcing this marketing campaign and wasting your resources? No. You remove them from your list.

What Is Re-engagement Email?

The word re-engagement makes the purpose of the email very clear. A Re-engagement email is exactly how it sounds. There is no detailed meaning attached to it. It is very normal for a customer to forget opening emails. It is also very normal for a customer to stop engaging with your company’s emails altogether. 

Nowadays, there are several ways to measure email engagement metrics. We often use your typical click rate and open rate. There could be several reasons for your customer to lose interest. Maybe you spam a lot. Many companies are very aggressive when it comes to marketing. They may start sending way too many emails or irrelevant ones. This tunes the customer out. Therefore, it makes the customer want to unsubscribe and not be a part of your mailing list anymore. 

Research by Marketing sherpas shows that email marketing databases see a 22.5% decrease every year. Sometimes it could just be that your customer is busy or flooded with too many emails. A re-engagement email is designed in such a way that you are able to woo your lost customer back. Therefore, this is a perfect way to get them again interested in your services. 

Companies must try to point out the reasons that may lead to this disengagement. Unopened emails have an impact on your sender’s reputation. Each unopened email is a potential loss of revenue and an existing customer. The cost of getting a new customer is higher than the cost of keeping an old customer. Several email marketing services charge you on the basis of the number of subscribers. Therefore, unopened emails become an additional cost for the company. Therefore, a re-engagement email is an important marketing tactic that companies should use.

How to Create Re-engagement Email Subjects Line 

We all look at the subject before opening any email. No one has the time to read anything if it isn’t worth their time. This is the case with emails as well. This is the same reason why coming up with a perfect subject line becomes crucial. Here are some ways to create a good re-engagement email subject line: 

• Crisp: Don’t use a long subject line. 6 to 10 words should work well. The longer it is, the more invisible it gets. You want your customer to get the gist of the email by your subject line itself.

• Creative: There are so many companies and so many emails. How is your subject line different? Therefore, leave your customer wanting to know more about it. They shouldn’t think that it is just another marketing email.

• Clear: Don’t get creative at the cost of clarity. Don’t complicate it or make it confusing. Your objective is to make your customer open the email. You are unlikely to re-engage a customer with an unclear subject line.

• Targeted: You have so much available data. Use it to your advantage. Try personalising your email. Leave your customer shocked with the level of personalisation. This strategy goes a long way. 

Just knowing how your subject line must look isn’t enough. Try using these ways to make it better:

• Let them know what they might be missing out on by being inactive. They must feel the need to open your email.
• Offer discounts or coupons. Every customer loves a good discount. This is among the most used strategies to engage customers.
• Throw a question at them or remind them why they had signed up in the first place
• Add human touch to your subject. Customers often feel that these emails are just like any other bot.

Top 5 Re-engagement Email Examples 

Some companies have mastered the art of sending a re-engagement email. Let’s look at some of them to understand this better:

• Duolingo

Duolingo is a language learning app. The entire app’s graphics as well as its re-engagement approach is very cute. Their email marketing strategy really grabs you. They usually have a simple yet impactful subject line. For instance, “We miss you!” As a customer, you are taken aback while receiving an email with such a subject line. Opening it will only show you a sad bird with a call to action. This is simple but effective.

• Urban Outfitters

This company works on its target audience. They know their customers well and it shows. They have a very funny and smart approach to re-engaging their customers. In addition, they use a texting design to make it relatable and emotional. Why would you not want to click on an email that says “Are we seriously breaking up?”

• Boden

Playing on heartache and retail therapy just sounds perfect right? That’s what Boden does. They use very simple but personalised emails to catch your attention. They often use discounts to make you check their site too. In addition, they also have links to all their social media platforms to ensure even more engagement.

• Paul Mitchell

They use an emotional appeal to re-engage its audience. Wouldn’t you want to click on an email saying “We hate goodbyes”? They ensure including the products in a very creative manner. Using hair care products to create a sad emoji? Also, adding a CTAA CTA is a phrase or word designed to get an immediate response from the reader. As the name suggests, it's usually something that involves a precise action performed by... along with the email to keep its audience going with the brand.

• Fabfitfun

This company uses FOMO to work on your mind. They remind you of the cool offers you might be missing out on by being inactive.

In Conclusion

People tend to lose interest in emails all the time. However, it is the job of the marketing team to attract customers with smart campaigns. There are several ways through which brands can re-engage their audience. This is the same in the case of email marketing too!

A re-engagement email with the correct appeal and call to action matters! It is not all money lost. You need to know why your audience lost interest. In addition, you must also understand their needs and likes better. All this research really helps figure out the content of your re-engagement email.

Therefore, a re-engagement email is not just one single email. What if your customer missed seeing it? Therefore, make it a campaign. Customers don’t enjoy spam, they don’t like being sent the same thing repeatedly. Therefore, make it easy for them to unsubscribe as well.

If a customer always shops from your store during a sale, you know what might attract her. For instance, sending a re-engagement email with a subject line like “Flat 50% off on our products!” can work. Therefore, the way you craft your email really depends on your target audience.

There are a lot of ways you can be creative with emails. You may use fear or guilt to make your customer fall back into the loop of engaging. Therefore, a customer who has stopped going to the gym could be guilt-tripped. For instance, you can send them an email with the subject line “gained a few extra pounds?” 

Therefore, try using various tips and tricks to create the right re-engagement email. There is nothing better than winning back an existing customer.

Are there any re-engagement emails that you have received? What was something you liked about them? Let us know in the comment section below.