HubSpot Workflows: Re-engagement Campaign

Primary Focus

These campaigns serve as a last attempt to capture the attention of those who may still be interested but have stopped interacting. By offering exclusive deals, reminding them of value, or highlighting new content or features, marketers hope to bring these subscribers back into the fold.

Secondary Focus

An important secondary goal of re-engagement campaigns is to help maintain a healthy and engaged subscriber list. Continuing to send emails to uninterested users can hurt email deliverability rates, affect sender reputation, and cost resources. Therefore, subscribers who do not respond to re-engagement attempts are often removed from the mailing list.

Optimize Marketing Performance:

By identifying and removing disengaged subscribers, companies can improve open and click-through rates, better targeting those who are still interested. This results in more accurate data analytics, as marketing metrics become more representative of the active audience.

Example Strategy

• Defining "Unengaged": Work with your marketing team to define what constitutes an unengaged contact. This could be based on email engagement, website visits, purchase history, or a combination of factors.
• Content Strategy:
• First Email: A gentle "We miss you" message, reminding them of your value proposition.
• Second Email: Highlight what's new or what they've missed.
• Third Email: Consider offering an incentive to re-engage (special offer, exclusive content).
• Final Email: Be direct about removing them from your list if they don't engage.
• Personalization: Use HubSpot's personalization tokens to make emails feel more individualized. Reference their past interactions or purchases if possible.
• Timing: Space out your emails appropriately. A common approach is to send emails over 2-4 weeks, but this can vary based on your business and audience.
• Segmentation: Consider segmenting your unengaged list based on factors like past purchase history, original source, or customer persona. This allows for more targeted re-engagement messaging.
• Preference Center: Include links to a preference center where contacts can update their interests or email frequency. Sometimes, re-engagement is just a matter of better-tailored content.
• Testing: A/B test different elements of your re-engagement campaign, including subject lines, email content, offers, and timing.
• Post-Campaign Actions:
  • For those who re-engage: Have a plan to welcome them back and keep them engaged.
  • For those who don't re-engage: Consider removing them from your active mailing list to maintain good list hygiene.
  • Analyze Reasons for Disengagement: Use this campaign as an opportunity to understand why contacts became disengaged. This insight can help improve your overall marketing strategy.
  • Compliance: Ensure your re-engagement campaign complies with email marketing laws in your jurisdiction.
  • Integration with Other Workflows: Consider how this re-engagement workflow fits with your other marketing workflows. You may want to exclude contacts in this workflow from other campaigns to avoid overwhelming them.

Real World Scenerio:

Re-engagement Campaign for an Online Learning Platform

An online learning platform, EduPro, has a large list of email subscribers who receive regular updates about new courses, webinars, and learning resources. However, over time, a portion of their subscribers have stopped opening emails or engaging with their content.

• Step 1: Defining "Unengaged" Contacts: EduPro's marketing team defines "unengaged" subscribers as those who haven't opened any emails or clicked on any links in the past six months. They also consider users who haven't logged into the platform or purchased a course in the same period.
• Step 2: Building the Re-engagement Workflow: EduPro sets up a re-engagement workflow in HubSpot, targeting these unengaged users.
• Step 3: First Email - A Gentle Reminder: EduPro sends a "We miss you" email to subscribers. The email reminds them of the benefits of using EduPro, such as access to exclusive learning materials and personalized course recommendations. The email is personalized with HubSpot tokens to include the subscriber's first name and references to courses they've previously shown interest in.
• Step 4: Second Email - Highlighting New Content: One week later, subscribers who haven't opened the first email receive a second one. This time, the email highlights new features on the platform, like interactive webinars and recently launched courses. It also includes a testimonial from a satisfied student to show the value EduPro provides.
• Step 5: Third Email - Offering an Incentive: For those still unengaged, EduPro sends a final email offering a 20% discount on any course if they re-engage within the next 7 days. The email includes a clear call-to-action button, making it easy for the subscriber to claim their discount.
• Step 6: Final Email - Removal Notice: After 4 weeks, EduPro sends a final email to subscribers who still haven't interacted with any of the previous emails. This email directly states that they will be removed from the mailing list if no action is taken. EduPro provides a link to update email preferences, giving the subscriber one last chance to stay engaged.
• Step 7: Post-Campaign Actions:EduPro's marketing team reviews the campaign metrics:
  • 15% of subscribers re-engaged with the platform, with most responding to the discount offer.
  • The remaining 85% are removed from the mailing list, improving the overall deliverability of future emails. EduPro plans a welcome-back campaign for those who re-engaged, offering more personalized course recommendations.

Analyzing Disengagement Reasons EduPro also surveys disengaged subscribers to understand why they stopped engaging. They discover that many subscribers found the content irrelevant or were overwhelmed by the email frequency. Based on this feedback, EduPro adjusts its email segmentation and adds more flexibility to its preference center, allowing users to opt for fewer emails or specific topics of interest.

Remember, a well-executed re-engagement campaign can not only win back inactive subscribers but also improve your overall email deliverability by cleaning your list of truly inactive contacts. Don't be discouraged if only a small percentage re-engages - this is normal, and the list cleaning aspect is just as valuable.

Best Practices:

• Should contain clear calls to action
• Remind contacts of the value you provide
• Consider asking for feedback on why they've been inactive
• Offer an easy way to update preferences or frequency of communications
• Include a clear call-to-action in each email
• Be prepared to remove persistently unengaged contacts from your list

Re-engagement campaigns often include personalized messages, clear calls to action, and sometimes special offers or incentives to motivate subscribers to reengage. In cases where subscribers do not respond, they are either marked for reduced email frequency or removed from the list altogether.