Is Stale Bread Still Bread? A Guide To Reviving Old Email Lists

The first thing to prevent email lists from growing old is not letting them grow old. That is, however, not always possible, but hope still lingers if a list has grown stale. Tread lightly and you won’t break the ice. Take one false step and you’ll ruin the list completely.

What defines an old list?

To solve a problem, get the variables straight. A list can safely be considered old if you haven’t sent an email in three months, but the time varies greatly depending on your sending habits. The more email you sent in the past, the faster the list will have turned into a crone. If you sent an email in a week in the past, customers who receive an email after a month may become outraged when you send something.

Reviving the list

Even a 1/1000 spam complaint rate causes problems, so caution is required upon every step. Here are some ideas to get you started:

– Begin the email with an apology for stopping emails
As the relationship is social — at least if you did things right — customers are expected to understand that businesses are people, too. A brief explanation should suffice.

– Offer the users to unsubscribe or re-subscribe
Of course, keep the tone salesy, like saying ‘do you really want to miss out on our great stuff?’ between the lines, but unsubscribing from old email lists should be as easy as clicking a single button. Prune everyone who hasn’t re-applied, and you’ll have salvaged what’s possible.

– Offer a good bargain, or better still, give something free
A good bargain is always a good bargain, but people like ‘Free!’ better. Daniel Ariely argues in his Predictably Irrational that it’s highly likely that we love free stuff out of fear of making bad decisions. Whatever the rationale, your subscribers will love Free. It helps making up for past mishaps, even if those weren’t your fault really.

After the revival

If you’ve succeeded in this bit of email necromancy, try writing a series of engagement emails that re-establish you as a dependable business. Send specially-crafted emails only if it’s worth your while, though–it’s not worth to break your back for 50 subscribers. Give them the default newsletter instead. Incidentally, a response rate of 5-15% is good for old lists. Above that you can count yourself very lucky.

We, Visual Artistics, offer email marketing services tailored for your business. We’ll raise your response rates and help you make real customers. Help us help you, and request a quote now–it’s Free!

Tags: Electronic mailing list, email, email marketing, Response rate, Subscription business model

Related Post

• Succeed In Email Marketing With A Purpose-driven Design
• Email Blasting From Visual Artistics — Reliable, Secure And Fast
• Want People To Open More Emails?
• Focus on Three Areas for Improved Return on your Email Campaign
• Email “Experts”: Helpful or Lethal?

Back to News

0 Comments

Leave Comments Get a gravatar

How would you like to capture three times more clients and lock them in so securely that no one could take them away from you?

We will tell you how to do it. All you have to do is to provide us with your email address. Don’t worry, we do not spam our subscribers.

Want to read our previous blog posts? Use the drop down menu below to view our history.

20122011

NovemberOctoberSeptemberAugustJuneMayAprilMarchFebruaryJanuaryDecember

-->

www.facebook.com/VisualArtistics

Wed Oct 31 17:15:44 +0000 2012

14760 people follow us on Twitter. Do you?