How to Reactivate Old Email Addresses

You’ve spent years and untold fortunes building your email list.  It’s the heartbeat of your business.  But, over the past few months you’ve noticed your open rates and interactions have plummeted.  All of the time, energy and money you put into list-building has gone out the window…

Or has it?

Every email marketer does their best to keep their lists clean, active and producing revenue.  Even so, email names can go dormant or die off completely, costing you not only the upfront name acquisition dollars, but a loss in lifetime revenue.

But rest assured, there are ways to get them back…

Yes, you can reactivate old email addresses!

First, you need to determine what “inactive” means to your list.  Most email marketers consider an inactive name as one who has not opened or interacted with a sent email in the past 6 to 12 months or so.  If you find names inactive for just weeks, not a half year or more, they are not technically dead yet… and can be easily revived as compared to names inactive for a year or longer.

How?  -and this goes for all inactive names-  You need to be sure you’re sending your list the correct materials.  If a person subscribed to get information and offers about recreational drones, be sure they’re receiving information related to that topic, or similar, and not something from way out in left field.

If you’re operating in multiple verticals, segment, segment, segment and keep messages relevant to your segmented lists.

Have a look back at what your inactive names initially subscribed to.  What offer did they like? Send them materials relevant to their initial interaction and over time, they will begin coming back to life.

This falls into relationship re-building.  Don’t only send your list offers to buy a product.  If your subscribers view your emails as 100% commercial, 100% of the time, they’ll flee.  Free information and engaging content for your subscribers will build trust and loyalty.

Dormant names need to be treated with kid gloves.  You can reactivate old email addresses by offering content that’s free, informative, fun and in-line with the offer they initially subscribed to.

But don’t start pitching them products the moment they re-engage.  You’ll lose them once again.  Instead, bring them through a great user experience that offers them fun and engaging content without an obvious product pitch.  Yes, you’ll be able to pitch them again, but just don’t do it right away.

But don’t be afraid to use obvious call-to-actions for your inactive names.  In fact, it’s critical.

You’ll want to segment your inactive names from your openers and begin sending them an email series using CTA’s and personalized subject lines. Start with messages asking to change email preferences or updating their info (necessitating a click, of course).

Then you can send personalized surveys about the vertical they signed up for and offer free products or services (premiums) in subject lines.  The keywords here are “personalized and free.”   And, of course, be sure your “from” line is one that is familiar to them.

Create this email series specifically for inactive names using what we’ve discussed.  Over time you’ll find them coming back, engaging and ready to buy.

Now here’s the most important part of re-activating old email names:  Be sure you’re actually getting in-boxed.  If your messages are finding their way into the junk folder, nobody’s going to open.  You see, a dead name may not be dead at all, your messages just might not be seen.

Perhaps the easiest way to accomplish segmentation, in-boxing and reactivation is by using the Activity Data System, by Email Oversight.  No matter how old, or dormant your email names are, Activity Data can help sort out your lists, verify addresses, get in-boxed and most importantly… get them engaged and buying again.

You see, the key to email marketing is deliverability.  By using these techniques and increasing deliverability via Activity Data, you’ll find reactivating old email addresses is far more cost-effective than finding and paying for new subscribers.

To learn more about Activity Data, simply click HERE.