Re-engagement Phase – How to Fill Your Auto-Responder (Part 5)

Re-engagement Phase – How to Fill Your Auto-Responder (Part 5)

If you’ve been following the “What to Send Series” and implementing the different phases in your auto responder, you’re probably already seeing increased engagement, if not actual sales. But even if you sell the greatest product or service in the world, there’s still bound to be subscribers who've purchased nothing, or have gone cold. For these prospects, we have the re-engagement phase.

What is Cold?

It depends on your market, but cold could be anywhere from 60 to 90 days without opening, clicking, or engaging with your mail.

Many marketer's ego’s force them to focus only on list size and they don’t think about this dead weigh since they figure everything’s automated. But problems with non-engaged subscribers go way beyond ego.

If people living on your list aren’t engaged, your list health deteriorates. In fact, because ISP’s track open rates, it can even affect your deliverability and reputation.

The bottom line is, you must take an active part dealing with these unengaged readers.

Step 1 – Try to get them Re-engaged.

Your primary goal should and the re-engagement phase be to place these prospects back into a new engagement series. That way they’ll receive your marketing and other materials and continue being led through your funnel.

If they still won’t engage after 2 or 3 mails, it's time to ask why.

Step 2 – Ask if everything is OK.

Ask your prospect if everything is ok. Ask if they are getting your emails. Ask if they’re enjoying them or if there's anything you can do differently. This mail should be a friendly nudge hoping to pull a response. Use a personal tone, text only preferably, since its possible they haven’t been able to read your mails, and that’s why they aren’t engaging. Try to get them to recommit and tell you they want to continue hearing from you.

If that doesn’t spark interest after two mails, step it up a little.

Step 3 – Ask if you’ve offended them, or done anything wrong.

This is like the last mails you it's sent, but more passive aggressive. This mail will be direct, but stay personal.

“Hey Bob, I noticed you haven’t been reading our emails. Have I offended you?”

If this doesn’t elicit response you can assume they are no longer interested, but should give them one more chance to experience your awesomeness.

Step 4 – Send a Final Warning or Two.

Your prospect hasn’t engaged with you for 60 – 90 days. They aren’t answering your questions. So it’s almost safe to assume they no longer want to see your messages. But you want to give them one or maybe 2 more warnings.

Tell them you don’t want to show up as a stalker or spammer. And if they don’t show they’re interested in talking to you, you’ll remove them from your list.

Ideally, in this last ditch effort, you’ll get them to re-opt into one of your engagement series’.

Step 5 – Drop them.

Yes, it’s painful. And yes, I'm guessing you'd rather not. But because of the reasons discussed above, you need to remove these prospects from your list. If you can’t make yourself do that, move them to a different email server and provider. Spam them from there if you want because continuing to send from your main list will damage your reputation.

It hurts, but it has to be done.

Why You Need a Re-Engagement Phase

Having an unengaged list is worse than not having a list at all. Each name on your list costs you money, and non-responsive subscribers hurt your deliverability to prospects who want to hear from you.

The re-engagement phase is a manual step in most email auto responders. But with automation tools like Infusionsoft or ActiveCampaign you can create the campaign and set it ready to run. Just kick it off manually to inactive prospects every 60 days.

Now you know what mails you should add to your email marketing campaigns. You understand how to indoctrinate your new readers, engage with them, ascend them to your highest value, segment them, and you've even learned when to end your relationship.

If you’d like help to write and architect your auto responder, or anywhere else in your funnel, I’d be happy to discuss your needs. Please contact me by clicking here and letting me know.

Listen, automating your email and lead nurturing system will skyrocket your revenue, but only if you start it, so get going today.