Warming up Email? Think About Your Car in Winter…
When it comes to email marketing, there are a not of in’s and out’s that can take clients by surprise.
But one of the areas of pushback I get over and over again?
Spending time and money on re-engagement campaigns.
(As well as “warming up an email list”)
People bark back: “Wait… why am I spending hundred of dollars NOT trying to educate or sell to my subscribers… but just to encourage them to read my emails? Shouldn’t I just start sending them my normal emails?”
And then I tell them that they should delete any of their subscribers that do not open any of the re-engagement emails…
And their heads REALLY explode!
“DELETE SUBSCRIBERS?!?! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WORK (AND MONEY) IT TOOK TO GET THOSE?!?”
Now, this is all metaphorical…
And yes I am exagerrating the responses…
But a kernal of truth remains:
Why warm up an email list? Why have a special sequence to re-engage subscribers.
Before I get into the details, allow me to illustrate the point by telling you about a very normal thing I see every single day in the winter:
My frosty Subaru parked on the street.
(yes I’m in the inland PNW and drive a subaru … I don’t care how basic it is!)
I’m in Spokane, and from about late November through the middle of March, there is a 90% chance that my car has a thin layer of ice over all the windows.
It almost never comes off with a scraper right away…
And sometimes it causes the windows to stick and not roll down…
And it is always impossible to see out from…
So what do I do?
That’s right…
I throw boiling hot water on it.
JKJKJK that would be car-windshield-suicide (yes I know the modern windows are laminated with polyvinyl butyral… its still a terrible idea).
No, I do what the sane person would do:
Turn on the car
Turn up the heater and let the car warm up
Scrape off the melted ice with my lil’ scraper
I warm up the car… and the ice comes off.
This is a perfect analogy of both what happens when you do NOT warm up your inactive or new subscriber list with a re-engagement sequence, and what happens when you DO warm them up.
You see, email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo use sophisticated algorithms to monitor sending behavior, and a sudden spike in email volume from a previously inactive sender can raise red flags.
By gradually increasing your sending volume over time, you establish a positive sender reputation, signaling to email providers that your messages are … ya know… legit and not spam from a some scammer hiding out in Cambodia.
That said, even if you slowly start sending more and more volumes, these email providers will still grow suspicious if your subscribers don’t interact with your emails.
Translation:
if your messages all BOUNCE back…
if your subscribers all UNSUBSCRIBE…
if your subscribers all BLOCK you…
Then the email providers will penalize you.
They will flag your emails as spam or promotions, and you’ll have to spend months digging yourself out of that pit to even have a chance of landing in their primary inbox again.
Not warming up and re-engaging a list threatens to BREAK your email marketing strategy.
This image has nothing to do with warming up an email list. I just find it hilarious that my stock photo site thought this was a good match for my “email warm up” search haha.
Instead of blasting their inboxes with offers, or not scanning the email list for unverified or low-engaging emails, you should carefully and slowly re-engage with the dormant/unknown list. Here are four reasons why:
1) Your email analytics will be accurate
If you are serious about your email strategy, then you are going to send a lot of emails to this list. One of the biggest benefits of email marketing is that you can so clearly track data. However, a list full of people that never wanted/no longer/will never want what you are offering are going to throw off all those numbers. When you delete email addresses that aren’t opening ANYTHING you send, you ensure that any responses to sales, events, or important information is an accurate reflection of your target audience.
2) You can curate your list
Warming up or re-engaging allows you to clean and optimize your list for better performance. Sending emails to an old or unverified list without a warm-up process can result in high bounce, unsubscribe, and block rates. You don’t lose anything by deleting these people. Instead, you are free to focus on a list full of interested people who are ready to listen to you!
3) You can remind people of how you help them
Warm up and reengagement sequences are an opportunity to reintroduce yourself and remind people that you deserve a spot in their inbox. You win people back by providing VALUE. This can be tangible, like a special one-time discount… or something social like access to an exclusive group… or informational, like content that addresses their pressing needs and interests. However you do it, you need to make some kind of offering as well as explicitly stating how you plan to help them solve their problems and achieve their goals.
4) You can win them over to listen to you far into the future
If you do the warm up/engagement process well, you will actually win over a lot of people who were previously apathetic. By intentionally reaching out and asking “Hey, do you want this special value or do you want me to delete your info?” you are showing that you actually care about not inconveniencing them (#respect). And as a healthcare email marketing expert, when you offer them something special that grabs their attention, they become more likely to open and respond to subsequent emails.
