How replacing a single “do you still want to hear from us?” email lifted reactivation rates by 4% in the first month.
Welcome to Day 26 of the 30 Days of Growth.
This is a pop-up newsletter put together by Chenell from Growth In Reverse. I’ve pulled 30 creators together to help give one short, actionable way you can either grow or improve your email list.
You can view all past issues of the 30 Days of Growth here.
Cleaning your list of people who aren’t reading is a good practice. But most newsletters just send the “we noticed you haven’t been opening our emails” email. You’ve seen it before – they ask people to click a button if they still want to hear from you, and then you unsubscribe the rest.
Maybe you add in a few other emails, but there’s nothing strategic about it.
And it works, kinda. But if someone misses those emails (or if the email itself lands in spam, which is ironic), they’re gone.
Joanna at The Assist decided to give subscribers more than 1 chance. They replaced the standard single re-engagement email with a 4-email reactivation sequence, and each email has a different job.
They’ve been running a 50/50 split test for about a month: half of the unengaged subscribers get the old single email, half go through the new 4-email sequence. The new sequence is already showing a 4% lift in reactivation rate. And it’s still early.
How The Assist Did It
The sequence kicks off when a subscriber hasn’t opened an email in 30 days.
Between each email, they get 5 days to open or engage. If they do, they get pulled out of the automation. If they don’t, they move to the next step.
Email 1: “Get me out of here!” This one assumes the subscriber might actually want your emails but isn’t seeing them. The subject line refers to the spam folder, and the email walks them through exactly how to whitelist The Assist, with app-specific instructions for Gmail, Apple Mail, etc.
Email 2: A reintroduction. If someone’s been ignoring The Assist because they forgot what it is (or never fully understood it), this email gives them the full picture. What they cover, why they send 4 editions a week, what they’d be missing, etc.
Email 3: The direct ask. This is the classic re-engagement email, just positioned at step 3 instead of step 1. “We’ve noticed you haven’t been opening. Do you still want to be here? If not, we’ll unsubscribe you.”
Email 4: The final confirmation. One last chance in case they genuinely missed everything above. If they don’t act, the unsubscribe goes through.
The logic behind the order matters:
- Email 1 solves a technical problem (spam folder)
- Email 2 solves a relevance problem (they forgot why they signed up)
- Email 3 asks the direct question
- Email 4 is the safety net. Each one catches a different type of disengaged subscriber.
Why It Works
A single re-engagement email treats every unengaged subscriber the same. But people stop opening for different reasons:
- Some are stuck in spam.
- Some forgot what your newsletter is about.
- Some are genuinely done.
This sequence addresses each reason in order before pulling the plug.
The 5-day gap between emails is smart too. It gives people enough time to actually see and act on each one without dragging the whole thing out for months.
There’s also a deliverability angle here. Every subscriber you reactivate is 1 more person opening your emails, which sends a positive signal to Gmail and Yahoo. And every subscriber you cleanly unsubscribe at the end stops dragging your engagement rates down. The sequence helps on both sides.
Results
- 4% lift in reactivation rate over the single-email approach (and the test is only a month old) 🤯
- Subscribers get pulled out of the sequence the moment they engage, so active readers never get the “are you still there?” email
- Each email targets a different reason for disengagement (spam, relevance, intent, final check)
- Cleaner list on the back end, which has downstream effects on deliverability
How You Can Implement It
Step 1: Set your trigger. Pick a window of inactivity that makes sense for your sending frequency. For a daily or 4x/week newsletter like The Assist, 30 days works. If you send weekly, you might push that to 45 or 60.
Step 2: Build Email 1 as a deliverability rescue. Walk subscribers through whitelisting your email, with specific instructions for Gmail, Apple Mail, Outlook, etc.
Step 3: Build Email 2 as a reintroduction. Remind them what your newsletter covers, how often you send, and what they’re getting out of it.
Step 4: Build Email 3 as the direct ask. Keep it simple: “Do you still want these emails? Click here to stay, or we’ll unsubscribe you.”
Step 5: Build Email 4 as the last chance. If they don’t engage, confirm the unsubscribe.
Step 6: Add a few day wait between each email, and set up an exit condition so anyone who opens or clicks gets pulled out immediately.
Tools
Final Thought
Reactivation emails usually feel like a formality before the unsub. Joanna turned hers into an actual attempt to figure out why someone stopped engaging, and fix it. 4 emails, 4 different reasons, and a 4% lift so far with room to grow.
See you tomorrow,
Chenell
P.S. You can follow Joanna on LinkedIn or check out The Assist here.
