The Drip Method To Re-engage Your Dormant Subscribers

Email operators… we are already a week into the new year.

I hope you are starting to follow through on my “12 Expert Tips to Master Your Email Game!”

Now that I’ve divulged all the basics you have to follow to make sure you can stay in the inbox, it’s time to get into some more advanced techniques.

If you are familiar with my strategies, you should know about Re-Engagement segments.

This is a basic bulk re-engagement technique that works very well on smaller lists.

But, when your list scales and your dormant subscriber segment grows, you may want to re-think how you try to re-engage these subscribers.

Just adding all the dormant subs into your next send might be too much for the inbox to handle.

So what can you do?

Use the Drip Method to re-engage your dormant subscribers!

I will go ahead and say that this method isn’t for everyone and some people may think it’s a bit crazy, but I find it much easier to manage how much data I’m re-engaging at any given time.

Here is the 3 Step Process:

1) Export and Delete your dormant subscribers

You're going to begin by creating a dormant segment. Dormant subscribers in my newsletter world are people who have actively engaged with my newsletter in the past but have not clicked in over 30 days.

I’m looking for subscribers who have clicked multiple times but for some reason are no longer engaging.

Maybe you were dealing with deliverability issues at some point in time.

My Dormant Segment looks like this (all AND conditions):

• Has Clicked at least 3 Times in the last 365 days

• Has Not Clicked in the last 30 Days

• Has Not Ever marked Spam

• Has Not Ever Unsubscribed

• Has Not been Sent in the last 14 days

TIP: If you track subscribers who have converted or made a purchase with one of your advertisers, DO NOT INCLUDE THEM in this segment.

You can now export this segment of subscribers, and delete them from your list.

WARNING: Make sure you always export your segment/data before you delete it. Deleting the wrong data has happened to everyone myself included, so make sure you have a backup before ever deleting.

2) Import your dormant subscribers into a Lead Distribution System

In order to implement this strategy you need some sort of Lead Distribution System that allows you to store your data and feed it back to your list based on specific rules.

There are a number of systems you can use, but I won’t recommend one in particular.

If you are interested in this and you believe you have the skillset or resources to accomplish this please reach out to me and I can give you some more direction.

3) Feed your subscribers back into your email list slowly

Now your dormant subscribers are ready to start feeding back into your email list.

Set up an automated feed to send X amount of subscribers per day to your email list.

The amount you wish to feed will be determined by how big your active list size is and how many days you’ll be sending to these dormant subscribers to try and re-activate.

If you're a newsletter operator, don’t send any automated or welcome emails to the dormant subscribers, just let them start receiving your regular content again.

Remember, to make sure you are tracking these dormant subscribers with some sort of tag or field so you can report on how many of these subscribers are re-engaging with your content.

You can repeat this process time and time again as needed.

Now you know how you can drip… drip… drip… your subscribers back to the inbox.

Want more info on the Drip Method? Reply to this email and let me know how I can help.

Looks like my coffee is ready,

Chris Miquel
Co-Founder of SoVi Digital

Follow me on Twitter: @miqchris

and on LinkedIn: chrismiquel