Confused about how to develop a long-term strategy to manage your inactive email subscribers? While it's tempting to boil down inactive strategies to a single operating principle, a more focused strategy is more effective. The question is not whether inactive subscribers have value. As a group, they certainly do. Instead, the questions to ask are: Which inactive subscribers are the most valuable and least risky to the business? And conversely, which are the most risky and least valuable for the company? When do the deliverability risks associated with inactive subscribers outweigh the value they generate? Answering these questions requires looking at the type of inactive subscriber as well as the context of your brand. Let's explore all of this. What is an inactive subscriber?
An inactive subscriber is someone on your mailing list who hasn't responded to any of your emails after a certain period of time. Engagement is usually defined by an open or a click, but may depend on your particular email marketing program. The same can be said about the best time after non-engagement before calling an inactive subscriber. Litmus State of Email Analytics Report (2nd Edition) How do your peers deal with inactivity? Check out Image Masking Service our State of Email Analytics report to find out how often your peers use re-engagement campaigns, purge inactives, and more. How do you position yourself? Get answers → Some recommendations are below depending on the type of inactive email subscriber. The various inactive email subscribers Now let's talk about the context of your inactive subscribers. They are not all in the same place along the risk-value spectrum. the risk-to-value range of inactive email subscribers There are three main types of inactive: never-active inactive customers, lapsed inactive customers, and current inactive customers.