Pay Attention to Those Who Pay No Attention

Yesterday I attended a Webinar produced by one of the leading companies that helps large corporations optimize their e-mail campaigns. Frankly, I was trolling for new ideas. What was great about it was that it confirmed a lot of my thinking, but more importantly, it shed light on one particular area that I think is often overlooked. 

The topic that caught my attention was "re-energizing your lapsed names." In other words, if you're getting a 30% open rate each time, over some period of time there is bound to be a segment of your list that just doesn't open your e-mail ever. That may not necessarily be terrible, as some people may only want that gentle reminder in their in-box. However, there may be a way to re-engage with those who don't open your email.

First, of course, your e-mail system has to enable you to segment by "non-openers over some time-frame" and then you can mail to them. I think a survey might be the right way to address this group. I think it might be really interesting to know why they aren't paying much attention to your e-mails. Or, send this group an incentive offer, and see if that gets them to bite.

 

The bottom line is that you can't think of your list as a homogenous whole. It's got segments, and you need to pay attention to each of them, particularly the segment that isn't paying any attention to you!