How many emails do you receive each day? Ten? Thirty-five? Over a hundred? With so much competition for your attention, some emails will be unopened and unread. The same is true for your mailing list subscribers: Your email is competing against many others for attention! And if you aren’t sending out regularly scheduled emails, you’ve definitely fallen off your subscribers’ radar. If you didn’t maintain contact with your subscriber list, or if you’re sending out emails that haven’t been opened during the past 6 to 12 months, the experts at Web Design Relief have some tips and advice on how to re-engage a dormant email list.

How To Revive And Re-Engage A Dormant Email List

If you haven’t sent out an email in some time…

Acknowledge your absence. If you’ve been inactive and are now attempting to revive your list, you should acknowledge the elephant in the room. Be as honest as possible. Your readers will appreciate that you’re being up front with them and be more likely to read your new emails. It also gives them a reason to open and read your email—they’ll want to know the scoop!

Create engaging subject lines. Your subject line is the first thing readers see when your email arrives in their inbox, so make sure it’s informative—but also intriguing! And always deliver on what’s promised in your email’s subject line. Your readers will be more likely to consistently open your emails if they know you’re providing content they’ll enjoy reading.

K.I.S.S. (Keep it short and sparkling!) Brainstorm and come up with content topics your readers will find interesting. And keep your content short! Take out anything that doesn’t lead your reader to take action. If you have a very long article you want to bring to your readers’ attention, post an excerpt in the newsletter with a link to the full-length article on your author website. You can also preview sparkling new content, such as upcoming blog posts or social media content.

To celebrate the revival of your email newsletter, you might consider offering a freebie (like a short excerpt of your book or an e-book chapbook) or a discount on your book or other merchandise.

Stick to a schedule. Decided on a schedule that you can consistently stick to, whether it’s once a week or once a month. If you send out your newsletter too infrequently or inconsistently, you’ll lose the audience you’re trying to re-engage.

Don’t worry about unsubscribes. Since it’s been a while since the last time you connected with your email list, reaching out may result in some unsubscribes. Don’t let these unsubscribes discourage you! While you may lose some names in the short term, you’ll build up your list by focusing on delivering the best content to the subscribers who stay—and those yet to come!

If you have email subscribers who haven’t opened or clicked…

Include a strong call-to-action to boost engagement. Having a call-to-action will encourage readers to engage with your email. You can combine this with a special, exclusive offer for your subscribers to pique their interest.

Ask subscribers to confirm their contact info. Many readers will comply with a request to update their contact information. This simple action will boost the odds that they will continue to engage with your emails.

Put down the sales-pitch bullhorn. If you’re sending out emails every five minutes (or multiple times a week), your audience is going to feel overwhelmed and simply start ignoring your emails. Instead, maintain a steady, reasonable pace, and be sure that every email you send is NOT a sales pitch. Newsletters should be 90% informative and only 10% promotional.

Remove subscribers who don’t reactivate. If you have subscribers who continue to ignore your emails, send one last email asking if they want to be removed or stay subscribed. Then delete anyone who does not respond. You’ll lose the dead weight and your overall open rate will improve!

Whether you took a break from sending out emails to your subscribers or your subscribers aren’t as active as they could be, following these simple tips will help put you on the right track to re-engaging your dormant email list.

Question: How do you engage your email list?