Over time, your contacts start becoming inactive. On a general note, an inactive contact is a user who is no longer opening neither clicking your emails for 6 months.
Openings: In this article, we are showing examples of filters using email openings. Please note that this metric will be impacted by the Apple Mail Privacy protection.
What - Definition & context
Actually, data analysis shows that recipients out of the 0-3 month active range don't purchase anymore. Only a few within 3-6 month would react again (open or click), while a little after 6 months.
Based on the reactivation's outcome, your contacts can be classified as follows:
- super-actives: openers, clickers and purchasers within 0-3 month date range
- actives: openers and clickers within 0-6 month date range
- asleep: purchasers without opening | clicking reactions within 0-3 month date range
- inactive: recipients who have not been opening neither clicking within 0-6 month date range
- almost dead: recipients who have not been opening nor clicking within 0-9 month date range | recipients who last purchased over 6 months ago without opening nor clicking
- dead: no openers, no clickers and no purchasers over 9 months
Remember, the more inactive an address is, the higher the risk of negative return (hard bounce, spam-trap, unsub or complaint). The main goal of any reactivation campaign is to turn inactive contacts into active ones, thus making them open or click your emails once again to help limiting churn rate.
In terms of deliverability, it is extremely important to focus continuously on active contacts and new subscribers as main population for your recurring sending.
Once the reputation curve is strong enough, at least 3 months from the first sending, you can start including a reactivation campaign within your marketing strategy.
When you are about to launch any reactivation campaign, it is important to bear in mind the below guidelines as best practice:
- enabling your reactivation scenario after you've launched the recurring campaign to openers and newly subscribed;
- ensuring that you are contacting your customers with an appealing subject line as last call, (for example: offering a coupon for a new purchase, sharing the added value of being part of the brand, presenting the new products or including a limited time discount);
- limiting the sending speed (see submission speed option in the campaign scenario);
- inserting a "category" during campaign setup, as it may be useful for future filters and follow-up messages;
- be aware that on average 3% of your inactive cluster can be reactivated successfully. If, after a second sending, the contacts do not react (open or click), you shall put them ''in quarantine'' and focus on the reactive contacts and newly subscribers only;
- stay focused on the quality, not quantity as it's harmful to your sender reputation and Splio global deliverability
Three types of inactive reactivation scenarios can be built in Splio. See below the specs of each reactivation scenario, from the widely adopted one (auto) to the less used but still recommended on punctual occasions (manual).
How to - Steps
Inactive reactivation 1: auto-reactivation campaign
Step 1: filter creation
To make your auto-reactivation campaign work effectively, first you need a filter that returns inactive contacts. The main goal of this approach is to ensure that the number of contacts in your filter is very small each day to reduce the risk of bounces.
You need to build a contact filter adding an exclusion group. First, select the contacts with last open date or last click date was 180 days ago (some time ago = variable date). This way, you are catching the portion of your database whose activity was exactly 6 months ago.
Step 2: automatic campaign creation
Create an automatic campaign and add the main filter you have created above as the selected population. This way, the scenario will be fed new contacts matching your filter on a daily basis.
After choosing your main population, add sequence and select "Periodic date" setting up the desired frequency and the hour.
Step 3: follow-up creation (optional)
If you wish, you may send another reminder to your inactive contacts. It may be the company policy to always ask again, or you may have a special incentive for your clients.
A follow-up relies on a campaign category included in your contact filter and during the setup of your scenario. We usually recommend not sending more than two follow-ups. In fact, there is a risk that a large part of these messages will never be delivered, which may damage your reputation.
Inactive reactivation 2: trigger reactivation campaign
Step 1: filter creation
A trigger reactivation campaign relies on a different approach, because you will hit the inactive part of your database only once, based on the combination of frequency, purchasing behaviour and/or reactivity of your contacts.
a) Trigger reactivation based on number of emails received and openings: create a contact filter returning all contacts who have received more than 12 emails in the last 6 months (frequency) and have not opened any email (reactivity).
b) Trigger reactivation based on last order date, opening(s) and database entry date: create a contact filter returning all contacts who have purchased within the last 3 months, have opted-in 90 days ago but have not opened any email.
Step 2: trigger campaign creation
After choosing your main population, add sequence and select "Trigger" if your data is being imported via batch (DataHub) or "Real-time trigger" if the data is being sync via API instead.
Inactive reactivation 3: manual reactivation campaign
Step 1: filter creation
The starting point of a manual reactivation campaign is to identify the portion of your database that corresponds to inactive contacts.
a) Base filter: based on the general approach of defining inactive contact, those who have not opened or clicked in your emails in the past 6 months:
b) Looping in the campaign category: if you wish to narrow down the volume and select only the contacts linked to a specific campaign category, you can choose the conditions "number of emails openings" or "number of clicks in emails" where you will have the option to insert the campaign category.
In both cases, you will be returned with a high volume of inactive recipients that you may hit gradually using a split manual sending.
Over time, whichever contact opens or clicks your emails will leave the above inactive filter(s) and join your population of openers and clickers instead.
Step 2: manual campaign creation (split type)
Split targeting 1: progressive branches (once at a time)
By choosing the split sending, you will start selecting the volume per branch (see the progress rule in capture) and add a submission speed:
The speed limit you input will be divided by the number of branches saved. For instance, if you configure 4 branches with a 20 000/hour limitation, each action will be limited to 5 000/hour.
Split targeting2 : flat branches (all splits at once)
Instead of selecting a different volume per branch each time, you can select the total number of branches at first glance and put 100% to ensure that you are splitting flat the total of your database in four branches.
That's how a split reactivation scenario looks like.
Design creation: tips for auto and manual reactivation scenarios
A design for a reactivation campaign shall deliver the "we miss you" message. You can do it in two ways: either with some strong incentive, essentially a come-back reward, or by providing some very special content that will make your contacts engage again.
Please do remember to always include the unsubscription link, which is recommended both on the top and bottom of your message, since your most "asleep" contacts may feel already annoyed about getting your emails and would like to find quick an agile way to unsubscribe (on the top) without having to scroll down the whole design.
When - Our tips to time your campaign well
The data import frequency to consider:
- Through SFTP/Data Hub: you will hit your customers the day after. We would recommend scheduling your campaign to start early in the morning (as soon as your customer checks their phone or just after breakfast. 8.00 – 9.30 AM): keep in mind that the start date of your campaigns shall be always after the data has been synced in Splio
- Through API: you can hit your customers in real time, right when the event has happened (a few seconds | minutes after they fulfilled a condition or an event).
Different strategies:
The different one:
- Who does not want to be asked their opinion? Sending a survey to your customers asking about their experience with your brand.
- Feedback emails: by asking lost customers why they stopped using/following your brand. By reaching out, this may be enough incentive to get them to re-engage or at the very least, provide valuable feedback on how you can improve your brand.
- What’s new? Tell your customers about some interesting news regarding your brand! Giving them a reason to reengage.
The organised one:
- Timing: targeting your reactivation campaigns to when they will be most productive.
- Removing your oldest/riskiest inactive contacts entirely without trying to reactivate them, using Splio or another tool.
The standard one:
- Incentive emails: offer an incentive to return and buy again such as a coupon, discount or something free.
- We Miss You: These emails appeal to consumers that want to feel recognized and their business is appreciated.
- Don’t leave preview text to chance, make it count.