The Email Re-Engagement Journey Template lets you configure an automated sequence that reaches out to contacts who have stopped interacting with your emails. The workflow is built to catch subscribers at the point they become inactive, which supports stronger sender reputation and more consistent engagement across campaigns.
Automating this outreach cuts down the manual effort required to track subscriber engagement and follow up with inactive contacts at scale. A properly configured re-engagement journey monitors open and click activity and delivers timely prompts, which can also reduce the risk of your emails being flagged as spam by ISPs.
This template is used to create a journey that sends a sequence of re-engagement emails to contacts who have not interacted with your emails for over 90 days, and that ultimately moves non-responders to a Do Not Mail list.
Usage Scenario
Use this template when you want an automated method for maintaining a high degree of reputation with your Internet Service Provider (ISP) by sending genuine, relevant emails to inactive contacts. Increasing the click rate of your incoming messages by reaching only subscribers who are actually interested in engaging with your business helps you achieve high deliverability over time.
This template also helps you remove contacts who are no longer interested in reading your emails, since continuing to send to unengaged subscribers puts you at risk of ISPs flagging your emails as spam and lowering your reputation score.
The journey works on a "Yes / No" scenario and checks whether a subscriber has taken any action with your emails over the course of the journey. Contacts who fail to interact continue through the journey and are eventually unsubscribed. Contacts who respond promptly exit the journey and remain subscribed to your promotional sends.
Prerequisites
Before you configure an email re-engagement journey, confirm that you have:
- Segment: This action triggers the journey for specific customer groups who have been inactive with your business or your email/SMS content for some time. For more information, see Next-Gen Segment Builder.
- Branded List: This allows you to send brand-specific campaigns to contacts, so they can unsubscribe from a particular brand rather than from all lists in your account. For more information, see Brand Management.
- Email Content: Email content prepared for use in the journey's emails. For more information, see Content Builders: Overview.
Setting Up an Email Re-Engagement Journey Template
Implementing an Email Re-Engagement Journey using the template requires two steps. In the first step, you configure the journey's settings. In the second step, you configure the trigger and assign content to each email.
1. From the Journey Selection page, choose the Email Re-Engagement widget.
2. From the dialog box that opens, click Create.
3. In step 1 (Settings for Email Re-Engagement Journey), enter a name for the journey in the Journey Name field. Optionally, enter a date and time in the End Date and End Time fields. If you set these fields, the journey becomes inactive at the specified date and time.
4. Optionally, select the Enable Journey checkbox to activate the journey immediately upon creation. If you select this checkbox, you must include all required content before saving, since the journey becomes active as soon as you save it. Furthermore, you can select the Retrigger Journey checkbox to allow contacts who have already completed the journey to re-enter it if they match the trigger criteria again. Click Next to proceed to step 2.
5. In step 2 (Setup for Email Re-Engagement Journey), enter the sender's name in the From Name field and the sender's email address in the From Email Address field. These values populate as the default sender information for each email in the journey, and you can change them later within each Send Email action in the journey builder.
Tip: The domain of the "From Email Address" is, by default, your account's sending domain and appears within each email section of a journey. You can modify your existing sending domain by clicking on the "Send Email" action widget of the journey builder.
6. Set up the trigger by selecting a segment from the Select Segment drop-down list. The trigger determines when a contact enters the journey. For an email re-engagement journey, the trigger targets contacts in the selected segment who have been unresponsive to your email campaigns for over 90 days.
Important: You must select a segment to define the trigger before proceeding.
7. In the Set Up Content section, assign content to each of the four emails sent by the journey. Select content for each email using the corresponding Select Content drop-down list:
- For Email 1: Introduction, select content that reaffirms the benefits of your email program and reminds contacts why they should remain subscribed. Make sure to include a place where contacts can unsubscribe.
- For Email 2: Benefits, select content that focuses on the benefits of staying subscribed and the opportunities contacts may miss if they unsubscribe too soon.
- For Email 3: Consequences, select content that expands on the impact contacts may face if they stop receiving future emails.
- For Email 4: Last Chance, select content for the final reminder, stating the perks contacts may lose access to if they are no longer subscribed.
The following table describes the purpose of each email in the sequence:
Email | Purpose |
|---|
Email 1: Introduction | Reaffirms the benefits of your email program and explains why the contact should stay subscribed, while including an option to unsubscribe. |
Email 2: Benefits | Reminds the contact why they signed up and highlights the experiences or opportunities they are missing out on. |
Email 3: Consequences | Uses a stronger emotional appeal to explain the consequences of losing the benefits of future emails, since the subscriber has not yet responded. |
Email 4: Last Chance | Gives non-responders a final chance to engage before they are cleansed from the contact list, reminding them of what they will lose access to. |
8. Once you have finished customizing your email content, choose the DNM list type (General or Brand DNM List) as per your requirement. At the end of every email re-engagement journey, inactive contacts move to the selected DNM list. If you select the Brand Do Not Mail List option, choose the brand (DNM list) from the drop-down to which inactive contacts need to be added.
9. Click Finish to create the journey.
10. The journey template has been set up. You can access its journey flow (canvas workspace) from the index page by clicking the journey name or the Edit Journey Builder option in the Actions dropdown menu.
11. You will be redirected to the journey canvas, wherein you can customize or redesign the flow that the system created on your behalf. To learn more about developing a journey flow schematic, refer to our Creating Journeys article.
