If you have an email list, there’s one thing you should be doing regularly.
Scrub it!
Essentially, manually unsubscribe people who haven't engaged in a while.
But as these subscribers have... gone dark... it's worth an attempt to reengage them first. As they're halfway out the door already, you can even afford to be a little more aggressive with email volume, discounts, and even messaging.
You have nothing to lose and may even win back a few folk.
So how do you do it?
Your ESP should enable you to create an audience segment people drop into automatically based on the criteria you've set.
Then you send them through a sequence of emails designed to remind them why they signed up to your list in the first place and encourage them to come back into the fold.
An important point to remember at this stage is that they're not currently opening your emails, so you *really* have to pay attention to those subject lines (and preview text, or snippet, or pre-header—whatever you call them).
There are a few angles you can try (and test) before landing on the most effective.
Curiosity: Purge the disengaged... but do this first! I've heard that one somewhere...
Benefit: 20% OFF for 24 hours only!
Personalisation: [FIRST NAME GOES HERE]! Are you still struggling with this?
And then hit them with the old 1-2 with the preview text:
MORE curiosity: You never know what might happen...
MORE benefit: Grab one of my courses at a bargain price!
MORE personalisation: Don't worry. I can help...
These should perform well but test them over time against other approaches.
Now the eagle-eyed amongst you would have noticed the 20% discount. I'd offer the maximum discount you're comfortable with without making a loss. One sale tends to lead to another, so if you take a hit on the margin, it could be worth it over future sales that you wouldn't have had if they'd dropped off your list and out of your life.
But how many to send?
This is up to you, but I'd say a minimum of 3 and push you to send around 5.
A reminder of why they signed up
A discount
A few success stories from your customers
Focus on your most popular product and how it helps
LAST CHANCE - 24 hours before your discount
And if they don't open any of these emails, you can unsubscribe them without a backward glance.
Of course, as open rates are increasingly unreliable, so you could even base their "engagement" on clicking a link in your email.
The strategy is about the same, but you need to "sell the click" and focus on a great subject line.
You can put the discount code on a landing page and ask your reader to click to get it.
You can tell the reader that you noticed they haven't read an email in a while and:
I'd hate to clog your inbox with stuff you don't find useful. If you still want to receive these emails <<click this link>>, I'll keep you on my list.
If you'd rather not hang around, click Unsubscribe below, or I'll take you off my list in a few days—no hard feelings.
Remember, though, this segment of subscribers hasn't been engaging, so don't expect miracles... it's likely most will drop off your list, never to be seen again, but that's a good thing. It will increase your open rates and sender reputation and may even save you some money with your ESP through a smaller list.
But even if it picks up a few sales or re-energises a few list lurkers, it will have done its job.