Re-engagement email templates

Keeping your customer retention rate high is significantly cheaper than acquiring new customers. What’s more, customers you’ve already acquired are more likely to convert again and again. In fact, according to Forrester, it costs five times more to acquire new customers than to keep existing ones happy (source). However, companies often invest much more on enticing new customers than keeping current ones interested and engaged in the brand’s products.

Following this approach is a mistake that may cost your company unthinkable amounts of money. Harvard Business Review reports that the income for 65% of businesses comes from existing customers (source). The study by Forrester also states that companies lose $1.6 trillion a year due to customer churn. 

To make sure that your existing customers or subscribers are engrossed in interactions with your company, you can start a re-engagement campaign and send them re-engagement emails.

What is a re-engagement email? Why is it important?

An email re-engagement campaign is an email campaign targeting customers or subscribers who have been inactive. The goal is to remind them of the benefits that your products and services bring.

It is a specialized campaign that aims to remind your customers about your brand and to motivate them to pay for your products or services once again. This kind of communication may also seek to re-connect with email subscribers whose engagement is low or non-existent. After all, every subscriber could potentially become your customer, right?

Re-engagement email campaigns should only target inactive contacts. That’s why your first step should be identifying inactive contacts within your database. You also need to decide how long a contact should be inactive for to be included in the re-engagement campaign. The contacts you identify as inactive will be placed on a list that you will send a re-engagement email to.

There are multiple types of message that you can include in your emails to reactivate inactive contacts or previous customers:

• Asking contacts to update their communication preferences.
• Addressing possible concerns of your subscribers.
• Presenting special offers, discounts, or free items.
• Suggesting that they reactivate their subscription or unsubscribe.

Start sending your emails systematically then keep monitoring the open rate, bounce rate, and click-through rate. Continually analyze the results so that you can determine which contact groups require more attention.

5 re-engagement email template ideas

Re-engagement email template #1

Re-engagement email template #2

Addressing possible concerns of your subscribers email template

Asking a simple question re-engagement email template

Keep me on the list re-engagement email template

13 re-engagement email template subject line examples

• Still want to receive our newsletter? 
• Is this goodbye?
• We know that we messed up, but we can make it up to you!
• Hi [subscriber’s name]! Is it us, or is it you?
• Be honest with us [name]… We can’t wait any longer
• Do you miss us? Let’s reconnect!
• We need to talk
• It’s been [number of days] since we last spoke.
• It’s been a while. We’ve been counting the hours and the days
• [Percentage of discount] off your next purchase
• We miss you, [Name]
• Are we breaking up or what?
• Do you still want to hear from us?

Re-engagement emails – Frequently asked questions

When should you send a re-engagement email?

You should launch a re-engagement email campaign of 3+ emails after 30-60 days of inactivity from your subscriber. However, it all depends on how often you usually send your emails. If you only send monthly newsletters then wait a little longer, like 90 days.

How many re-engagement emails should you send before removing contacts from your subscriber lists?

As mentioned above, you should send at least three re-engagement emails. However, keep analyzing the results of each message. If many recipients unsubscribe after the second message, consider resigning from sending the 3rd email.

How long should you wait between sending the second re-engagement email?

You should wait at least 48 or 72 hours to send another re-engagement email to inactive subscribers.