With the first quarter of 2019 behind us, now is the perfect time to take a close look at your email marketing initiatives and determine what’s working, what isn’t and the best steps to take next.

If email engagement is your top priority (and why wouldn’t it be?), here are five ideas to consider to level up the impact of your program:

1. Use an intriguing subject line. Let’s face it, subject lines are the most important factor driving engagement. Eye-catching subject lines make all the difference, so take a few minutes to reevaluate your approach with them, particularly with regard to re-engaging customers or prospects. You can be direct (e.g. “are you still interested?”) or conversational (“we miss you”) or get creative by including your contact’s name or role, pose a question, tease with a riddle, employ humor (e.g. about getting dumped or break ups,) – anything to try a different approach and remind your audience that you’re trying to reengage. Don’t be afraid to experiment or try something unconventional – you might just unlock the winning formula.

2. Ask for feedback: One of the simplest and most overlooked ways to determine why your audience may no longer be engaging with your email content is to just ask them. For example, you might want to ensure you have them in the right category so that they receive the most relevant content. (In other words, segment your audience and customize your messages accordingly.) For example, you could provide a few content examples and ask them to select the one that interests them the most or ask them to self-categorize their role in the decision process (e.g. product user, influencer or purchaser). The point is to ask a simple question to determine whether they’re still paying attention. The good news is that these kinds of “win back” campaigns should deliver results – Return Path says almost half (45%) of recipients who receive these will read subsequent messages from you.

3. Remind them who you are: In addition to asking whether your audience is still listening, remind them what they get as a subscriber or fan of your company, or summarize the value you provide. After all, they might have clicked on your CTA long ago and got distracted with the urgency of the day or lost you among the many other vendors and providers they may be juggling or considering. Remind them who you are, how you’re different, and how you can uniquely address their problem or challenge. In order to truly engage with your prospects and customers, you must provide them value.

4. Offer customers re-orders, upsell, extras, reviews or recommendations: Depending on your product or service, you might want to reach out to previous customers who bought a while ago but haven’t repurchased from you. Ask if they need a refill or replenishment, cross-sell any related products or training, or perhaps remind them of their upcoming renewal date. You might also ask your happy customers for recommendations on your social media or review sites or offer referral bonuses or coupons if they recommend your products to their colleagues and contacts. The point here is to get your existing, but perhaps dormant, customers reengaging with your company in some way.

5. Say goodbye: Despite all your creativity, and all of your engaging content and personalized offers, if you still haven’t been able to generate a response -- it may be time to say goodbye to some of your contacts. This action might spur an immediate response: it’s human psychology to not want to lose or miss out on something. You might move your disengaged contacts to a separate list, remove them from your standard message rotation, and get back to them with a truly different offer at a later time. Or simply, finally, let them go – your engagement rates will only increase once you have stopped contacting the disengaged.

Breaking up is never easy but making an effort to specifically reach out to your stagnant prospects may get them back to engaging with your company. And increased engagement can open the door to a much more successful second quarter.

Outward Media’s proven data cleansing services and targeted, accurate email data can enable you to achieve better email marketing ROI and, ultimately, convert more prospects into customers. Take a look at our case studies to find out more.