Your best subscribers won’t stay loyal forever. If you don’t notice when they go quiet—you’ll miss your chance to bring them back.
If you’ve been around email marketing long enough, you know how fast subscriber behavior can change. What worked a few months ago might barely get noticed today. With crowded inboxes and divided attention, even your most loyal subscribers who used to love your emails may just fade into silence.
But here’s the thing, silence doesn’t always mean they are gone for good. Sometimes it could just mean your messages no longer match where they are now. Their priorities could have changed, or maybe they haven’t received anything that speaks to them lately.
Still, that silence isn’t just frustrating; it’s risky. If too many people stop opening or clicking, mailbox providers might start treating your messages like spam. And once you are in the spam folder, getting back out is not fun. And when that happens, continuing business as usual won’t cut it.
So, sending the same content over and over and hoping people will start engaging won’t work anymore. You need more than that to keep your engagement up and protect your reputation. That’s why it might be time to switch things up, especially for those who have gone silent. That’s where a win back strategy comes in.
In short, it’s a series of targeted, well-crafted messages aimed at re-engaging people who used to be active but have gone quiet. This is your chance to remind them why they signed up, and hopefully to show them enough value to come back.
When to send one? That really depends on your business, product, and subscriber behavior. For example, if your business has a longer sales cycle, it’s natural for people to go quiet for a bit. But for others, even a few weeks of silence could mean it’s time to check in.
If you’re not sure when to trigger a win back, 3 to 6 months of no clicks or opens is a good place to start. And don’t just send one email and hope for the best, give them a few chances to re-engage. Three messages are a good starting point. Try different strategies to see what drives the highest response.
People won’t tell you they’ve lost interest, but their behavior will. Watch engagement metrics, such as clicks, conversions, and site activity over time. Look for patterns; when did engagement drop off? That’s your cue. Use that information to build your inactive list. That’s step one.
Not all inactive subscribers are the same. Some may have purchased before and stopped engaging, while others never even made it past the welcome email. Treating them all the same won’t work.
Segment your list based on what you know, last purchase date, signup source, activity level. And remember, a one-size-fits-all message is easy to ignore, while a targeted and personalized one is far more effective in driving attention.
A generic “We miss you” email doesn’t really say much. Start with a well crafted subject line that actually grabs attention. It’s your first impression.
Don’t just say “Hi” and use their first name. What matters more is relevance. Remind them of what they liked when they signed up. Make your message feel personal, as if it were written just for them. That’s where the magic happens. And just to be clear, you don’t need to overdo it. Just keep it warm, relevant, and human.
Incentives and special offers can motivate people to re-engage. But you don’t need to offer a big discount. Consider an early access to a feature, bonus content, or loyalty points, whatever fits your brand. The point is to make it feel like a little something extra just for them.
Don’t make users guess what to do next. Use direct, simple language like “Claim your offer” or “Update your preference”. Make your CTA impossible to miss—bold buttons, clear language, and one clear next step.
List hygiene is non-negotiable, especially when reaching out to people who haven’t engaged in over 12 months. Run your list through a cleaning tool to scrub out inactive addresses and remove hard bounces and spam traps.
Poor list hygiene can lead to lower opens and clicks, more bounces and higher spam complaints. And sometimes a real hit to your reputation.
Always include a clear opt-out option that allows people to unsubscribe, pause emails, or update their preferences. Let them choose how (or if) they want to hear from you. And it’s okay if they decide to go.
Giving them the choice creates a better experience and shows respect. Besides, it helps reduce spam complaints, a metric that mailbox providers pay close attention to.
To run an effective win back campaign, it is important to test different elements, like subject lines, send times, formatting, tone, to see what works best. A quick plain text message or a visually heavy one? See what sticks. Even small changes can sometimes lead to big improvements in response rates.
Don’t wait too long before trying to win them back. People who have been inactive for a few months are more likely to return than those who have been silent for over a year. Automate a win back sequence to trigger at the right time before things go completely cold.
Your first try probably won’t be perfect. That’s fine. The goal isn’t just to bring people back; it’s to learn what works and improve over time. See how these messages perform and use the data to tweak your approach. It’s a process, not a one time fix.
At some point, you have to ask yourself: Are these people bringing any value to your brand? The truth is, some people simply won’t come back, despite your best efforts. And that’s okay.
Letting go isn’t easy, but it’s necessary. Continuing to email them can cause more harm than good. It will not only drag your metrics down but also harm your reputation. Instead, keep your focus where it belongs; on people who still want to hear from you. A smaller list of active subscribers will always perform better.
A win back campaign isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s essential to your success. If you care about keeping your list warm and your engagement high, then building a smart win back strategy is worth the time. You won’t bring everyone back. But you’ll win back some.
And even if you don’t, you’ll keep your email program healthy, which means a better chance to actually land in someone’s inbox. So maybe it’s time to check in on those who’ve gone quiet.
Hiba Khaleel is a deliverability analyst on the Inboxable team. Hiba brings her years of experience in client management and data-driven solutions to her current role, where she helps her clients achieve email marketing success. Her passion is optimizing deliverability rates for maximum impact. Hiba specializes in monitoring and optimizing email campaigns, authentication protocols, data analysis and mitigating risks related to email deliverability. She enjoys spending her free time on long walks and road trips with her family.