041: How to Craft A Re-engagement Email to Keep Your List Fresh
Hello there!
From time to time, every online entrepreneur must look at their list of subscribers and make it as up-to-date as possible. Making sure you are sending emails to a group of engaged people is key to a successful email marketing strategy. There are many ways to do it and in the coming weeks I will share with you a content marketing angle for sending re-engagement campaigns.
But today, I want to show you how I dealt with the new EU GDPR (data protection) law. One of the things I needed to do was to get a fresh consent from my existing subscribers, asking them if they wanted to continue staying on my list. I am sharing with you the exact email and then a breakdown of that email so you can use this formula for other types of re-engagement emails.
Watch the video to see me walk you through all the steps:
The Exact Email I Sent
Below is the exact email that I sent to my list a few days before the May 25th, the date GDPR came into effect. The subject line that I used was:
Email Subject Line: [Action Needed] Do you want to still hear from me?
Of course, you can change that email subject line and make it more in line with your style of writing. All of this is just an example, an idea for you. It's by no means legal advice on how to send GDPR-compliant emails. But this will give you a formula for crafting the text, at least, so that you can have a good starting point.
The Email Breakdown
The way I crafted the email was to use each section with a specific goal in mind. Remember, I wanted to refresh the memory of my subscriber on who I am and what I do. So adding different ways to do that; using photos and links, was quite important. We need to help our readers who are often so busy and are inundated with so much information in their inbox.
So take a look at the breakdown of my email:
1. Here you can see that I added an email banner that has my photo. It's the photo associated with my brand. It really helps the reader to have a visual reminder of who you are. So consider adding a photo in your email banner. It's a wonderful way to be remembered. Names can be forgotten, but faces are remembered.
2. Add a subject line that's to the point. Before you write the body of the email, start off with a bolded subject line which goes straight-to-the-point of the matter, telling them why you are writing. In this case, I wrote, "I want to make sure you want my emails".
3. In the body of the email, highlight the main reason you are writing. In this case, asking them to click the green button if they want to continue hearing from me. And I made that part highlighted in yellow (use your brand colors) so that they could quickly see why I was writing them.
4. Share why you need to do this. I informed them that this was part of me keeping in line with the new EU GDPR laws. Your reason may be something like, "I want to be sure that my emails are adding value to my subscribers" or something in those lines.
5. Next recap what kind of content you will be sending them. This is important because the subscriber will know, "okay, she writes about content marketing as well as email marketing and I will get some tips on optimizing my website". You want them to know also the frequency of your mails as well and what type of media they can expect, for instance whether you will send them PDF checklists, blog articles, podcasts, video tutorials, etc.
6. Clearly ask for the subscriber to re-consent. You can see here that I state, "Please reconfirm your agreement by clicking the green button". Plus, I highlighted the text by putting the font color to stand out in yellow.
7. Next expressly state what happens if they don't click. This is important so the reader knows what is the consequence if they don't click the green button. In my case, I would not be sending them any more emails, which is key to point out clearly. In other re-engagement campaigns, you may not state this until it is the final email that you are sending after which you will most definitely be removing the subscriber from your list.
8. In your signature, link your website. Too often I receive emails without a link to the website where I signed up for their email. I simply want to go their website, refresh my memory of who this person is so that I can decide whether I really want to be on their list. If there's no easy way to do this, subscribers may simply hit delete and not want to even Google you. So put a link to your website in the signature and make it easy for them.
9. Here, there are two buttons. A green one to stay on the list and a black one to unsubscribe. This was recommended by MailerLite and I chose to go with it. You, on the other hand, may like to have two buttons like this as it makes the choice very clear or you may have a single link stating: "Click here to remain on the list".
10. Remind the reader of who you are, again, in the footer. You may not have to do this in all your "regular" emails. But because the goal here is to remind the reader of who you are and what value you bring to them, a short description in 2-3 sentences is a good idea.
11. Add your website link at the very bottom of the footer, again. This is yet another opportunity to give you reader the chance to look you up before they make their decision.
So those are the 11-steps I took to craft my re-consent or re-engagement email that I sent to my list. Once they clicked subscribe, I sent out another email with a "Thank You" and sent them an update on what's new.
My colleague and friend, Marta Raptis, a Squarespace Website Designer sent out a re-consent email as well. And after that she sent a wonderful email thanking everyone for staying on her list which I think is a wonderful way to express gratitude to one's subscribers, treating them like real people. Plus, she included a round-up of some of her blog posts that would come in handy for her reader. I simply love it so I asked her if I could share this email with you. Take a look at her thank you email:
Posted here with permission from its author, Marta Raptis of www.martaraptis.com
So that's it my friends. I hope that these 11 steps for crafting your re-engagement email is helpful and that you are inspired by the thank you email from my colleague Marta Raptis.
Happy crafting your emails!
As always, share your questions in the comments. Let me know what you think and if you have other video/blog tutorial topics for me.
Before we wrap up, I'd like to invite you to a live workshop that I am holding at the end of this month. It's called, "Create a Website that Converts". If you are in the process of creating a website on Squarspace that not only looks beautifully designed, but also helps you grow your list, build your credibility, and get you clients as well as sell your products and services, then this workshop is for you. I'd love for you to join me so take a look at the details on this page here.
Thank you,
Sophia
