Bring your email list back to life with engagement segments

By November 15, 2019 October 28th, 2020 Email, Strategy

With a $44 ROI for every $1 spent, email marketing is a no-brainer. But it shouldn’t be a “set it and forget it” strategy. To have a successful email marketing strategy, it’s important to maintain a healthy email list that targets subscribers with the content most likely to get them to act. 

 

That’s where engagement segments come into play. Engagement segments are one part of an email strategy that ensures you’re getting the right content to the right subscriber. These segments divide your subscribers into categories based on how much they’ve engaged with your email marketing in the past – so you can tailor your messages accordingly. Not to mention they improve deliverability, helping get your content in front of the eyes most likely to read it and take action. 

 

Why should you send re-engagement emails? 

Re-engagement messaging plays a key role in a healthy email system. With the use of engagement segments, re-engagement emails improve deliverability by gradually weeding out unengaged or abandoned email addresses, while still giving those interested a chance to keep hearing from your brand. This leads to higher open rates and better ROI because you’ll no longer be sending emails to people who don’t open them.

 

How are engagement segments displayed?

Bluetent’s email marketing services feature engagement tracking, with a snapshot displayed at the top of each subscriber list page, like this: 

Here’s the breakdown of each segment:

  • Active: Email subscriber last opened or clicked on email in past 30 days
  • Engaged: Subscriber last opened or clicked between 30 and 90 days ago
  • Unengaged: Subscriber last opened or clicked between 90 and 180 days ago
  • Dormant: Subscriber last opened or clicked between 180 days and 12 months ago
  • Zombies: Subscriber last opened or clicked more than 12 months ago
  • Ghosts: Subscriber never opened or clicked any email, 12 months or more since the first email was sent

Successful re-engagement email strategies

One effective strategy is to theme your re-engagement emails as a reintroduction or a welcome back message. The email will strike a “Hey, are you still around?” tone with quick messaging and calls to action to get repeat guests back to your website. This tone works well with the Dormant group, while an email targeted to Zombies and/or Ghosts can be more urgent: “Do you still want to receive our emails?”

Another strategy is to require some type of action: have your email subscribers click a link to either stay on your list or request to be removed. If someone is no longer interested in receiving emails, you’ll want them off your list as quickly as possible – they already don’t want your emails and could eventually mark them as spam. This strategy helps ensure their timely removal.

Here are some examples of emails — from Bluetent Insider, Sunset Properties — used to re-engage email addresses labeled as dormants, zombies, and ghosts:

The above email is used to re-engage with dormant subscribers.
Pictured above is an email used is to re-engage with zombie email subscribers.
The above is for ghost email subscribers. Bluetent Insiders have been experiencing 5-10% open rates for Ghosts emails.

Interested in employing this email marketing strategy for your own vacation rental brand? Learn more about how you can “engage” the unengaged and build brand awareness with travelers who are opening and clicking your emails.

 

Email Account Manager, Matt Kremnitzer, contributed to this post.