Related terms

• Deliverability
• Unsubscribe
• Subscriber

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Inactive subscriber

An inactive subscriber is considered to have lost interest because they haven't opened emails for a certain period of time, for example, 6 months. On the other hand, an active subscriber is one who opens and interacts with emails with a certain frequency.

How do inactive users affect my email marketing?

Clearly, inactive users can negatively impact your email marketing statistics. Having active subscribers with valid email addresses who, despite receiving your communications, show no engagement with what you send will affect your open rate, causing it to decrease. Additionally, your click-through rate (CTR), the percentage of clicks in relation to all delivered messages, will also decrease.

However, the impact is not limited to statistics. Inactive subscribers will result in non-existent conversions, which can negatively affect your business. If they don't open emails, they won't engage with the calls to action, and as a result, they won't take the desired actions you expect from your subscribers.

Furthermore, if your list accumulates more and more inactive users, it will ultimately harm your deliverability, reducing your inbox placement rate. Even if your email campaigns are entirely clean, having a significant portion of your list's subscribers not interacting with your communications in any way increases the likelihood of your emails ending up in the spam folder. This, in the long run, can harm your active subscribers.

How can I reduce the rate of inactive subscribers?

User inactivity can be due to various reasons, and your approach should vary accordingly. Some subscribers may have joined your list only for a specific offer (e.g., free shipping, discount code). Others may have initially been interested in your products and services but have since lost interest. Inactivity can also result from some accounts being inactive themselves or from overwhelming some subscribers with too many emails, causing them to stop opening any.

To reduce the rate of inactive subscribers, you can take different approaches. Considering that reactivating a subscriber costs 5 times less than acquiring a new subscriber, the first step should be a reactivation campaign. Sending a reactivation campaign should be your primary choice. In this case, you can opt for various campaign strategies, such as offering discounts, asking users if they want to receive fewer emails, allowing them to unsubscribe, or updating their preferences to receive more relevant content. In any case, it's an important campaign that should be well-planned.

If this doesn't work, don't be afraid to unsubscribe inactive users yourself. If reactivation campaigns have not been successful, unsubscribing those subscribers you couldn't reactivate is the best option. This will help keep your list clean, maintain your deliverability, and ensure that subscribers with high engagement are not affected by a potentially high rate of inactive ones.

Additionally, regularly verifying and cleaning your list by removing inactive and permanently bouncing email addresses is a positive practice that will help keep your database in good health.