When was the last time you emailed your subscribers?
Last week? Last month? Last year? Never?
Trust me, I get it.
Emailing your list regularly can be hard.
It takes time. It takes thought. You have to figure out what to write.
And you have to do it over and over and over.
Here’s the problem.
If you stop, you’re wasting all the time, energy and money you put into building that list.
Don’t abandon those subscribers. Instead, apologize in a re-engagement email, promise to do better and move forward with a plan for a regular email cadence.
What Do You Mean By “Apologize in a Re-Engagement Email?”
I mean exactly what I said. Apologize for not writing in forever. Explain why you haven’t written. Promise to write regularly and follow through on that promise.
I know, that sounds ridiculously over-simplified.
But it doesn’t need to be more complicated than that. At least to start with.
Remember your subscribers opted into your email list for a reason. They’re interested in what you have to offer. If you don’t live up to your side of the deal, telling them about what you have to offer and reminding them of your existence, they’ll forget about you.
When they forget about you and forget why they subscribed to your email list in the first place, you run the risk of losing them entirely.
Worse yet, you run the risk of them unsubscribing from your list and reporting you as spam. If they do that, your deliverability rate plummets. So, even if you’re trying to send a welcome sequence to new subscribers, they may never receive it, because Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may consider any email coming from you to be spam.
You don’t want to be in this situation. Trust me.
Not only will you have wasted time, money and effort trying to get new subscribers, you won’t be able to communicate with them about your products or services, because their ISPs won’t let your emails through.
Don’t let this happen to you!
Instead, send a series of apology and re-engagement emails to remind your subscribers of who you are and why they opted into your list in the first place.
“Okay, how do I do that?” I hear you ask.
Like I said, start by apologizing.
Re-Engagement Email 1: The Apology
You broke a promise, whether you stopped emailing your list a month ago, a year ago or you haven’t ever sent a single email.
When your subscribers opt into your list, they’re expecting to hear from you. They want to hear from you. They want to know more about what you do and how it can help them.
If you don’t follow through, you owe them an apology.
So, apologize.
Tell them why you fell off the bandwagon. Or why you never emailed them again after they received your welcome sequence. Or worse yet, the email containing the lead magnet they opted in for.
Help them understand why they should pay attention to your emails at all.
You want them to open your emails. Which means you need to fulfill your end of the bargain by sending useful information that is of value to your subscribers. This, in turn, builds that relationship of trust and appreciation that will result in a purchase.
If you’re not sending those useful emails that give your subscribers value, why should they trust you?
For your part, you are making an effort to mend this relationship. You’re giving a genuine apology. You’re explaining why you didn’t follow through on your promise, whatever that reason may be. And you’re offering the hand of friendship to rebuild this relationship.
Yes, people will take you up on this.
But they’ll want more. Give it to them.
Re-Engagement Email 2: Here’s What I’ve Been Up To
You’ve explained to your subscribers why you disappeared off the face of the earth.
Now tell them where you’ve been and what you’ve been doing in the meantime.
If you’ve been developing a new product or service, this is a good time to tease that.
If you’ve been busy running your business and just keeping up with the day-to-day has been hard, say so.
Or, if this is just one of those things that fell by the wayside, ‘fess up.
It’s okay. Whatever your reason may be, share it with your subscribers.
Most of them will get it. We all have lives. We all get distracted. We all have finite amounts of time.
If they don’t get it, they probably shouldn’t have subscribed to your list in the first place.
Be honest. Tell the truth about what’s been going on at your end of things.
And if a lot has been going on, tell them about it. Share your story. We all thrive on stories because that’s how we share experiences.
Re-Engagement Email 3: Promise to Keep Them Updated Regularly
Recommit to that promise you made originally of staying in touch with your subscribers and letting them know how often they’ll hear from you.
Then stick to that promise! If you say you’ll email once a week, do it. If you’d prefer every other week or once a month, do that.
Whatever you commit to, make sure it’s something you can actually incorporate into your already busy life. There’s no point in making a promise if you can’t see it through.
If there is another place your subscribers can keep up with you and get information faster than via your promised email cadence, tell them about it. If it’s easier to keep up with you on a social media platform or on your website, direct them there and give them an easy way to get notified.
After all, staying in touch is the name of the game. If you know you’re better at updating information in a particular place, say so and let your subscribers choose where they’ll get their information from.
Then, thank your subscribers for their patience with you. Remind them one more time how often they can expect to hear from you. And sign off.
See, that wasn’t too hard, was it?
I know what you’re thinking.
“Does this actually work?”
Proof That Sending Re-Engagement Emails Actually Works
I’ll be honest. I have 2 separate email lists. One for my copywriting business, that I faithfully send emails to twice a week. Another for my music business which I really haven’t kept up with over the years.
For those of you who don’t know, I used to be a full-time touring musician. I have subscribers on my list from all over the country.
I haven’t toured professionally for 10 years.
Which means I haven’t had a lot to write about for the past 10 years.
I’ve sent the occasional email to my music list, telling them I was still alive and that I had an upcoming show. By occasional, I mean maybe once or twice a year. Which is a lousy track record for staying in touch.
Recently, I sent an apology sequence to my music list.
Technically, I have two music lists. One is in my standard ESP and it’s very small. The other is in my old Reverbnation account, which is the promotional and marketing platform I used when I was touring. That list is quite large, by comparison.
I sent the same emails to both lists.
On my small list, which is where I usually add new subscribers these days, my open rate was between 40% and 49%.
On my large list, where people haven’t heard from me for well over a year, my open rate was between 16% and 29%.
Bear in mind, some of these people haven’t seen me perform in over a decade.
Not only that, I actually had a few people respond to my emails and tell me how happy they were to hear from me again.
So, yes. This works. And it is totally worth your while to do it, regardless of how long it has been since you last sent an email to your list.
Need Help Crafting the Perfect Message to Apologize to Your Subscribers?
Let me walk you through the exact process I used to re-engage my own email list and win back many of my subscribers, even after 10 years of spotty communication.
Join Revive an Old, Cold Email List now to find out what I did and how you can do the same for your old email list.
This 5-module course includes everything, including templates to write your own emails, as well as guidance and review of your emails from me. You can get your email list back in as little as 5 days!
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