How to save a dying email list 🩺

A couple of months ago, we were approached by a company that had collected ~150k emails over the life of their business (a subscription platform).

They were primarily sending transactional and promotional emails, and the list had gone almost entirely cold at a ~10% open rate.

They wanted to re-engage these subscribers by launching a value-focused newsletter, so they reached out to our team at Tailwind.

We turned that 10% open rate into a highly engaged list of 50,000 subscribers (and growing) with a 50% open rate 🚀

So, what's the secret?

It comes down to creating content that gives people a genuine reason to open your emails (more on this soon), and a smart, conservative “migration” strategy

Let's focus on the migration strategy piece.

Simplified, it’s a 3-step process:

1. Start by adding any contacts/emails that have engaged recently to your newsletter list (this will give you a good foundation to build on)

2. On a weekly basis, add relatively small, manageable cohorts from the dormant list to the newsletter

3. Churn non-openers aggressively

That last step is the most important, and where most operators will go wrong.

In our approach, if someone doesn't open their first four or five newsletters, they're off the list.

Sounds harsh? Maybe. 

But remember - if you’re starting from a largely dormant list, these folks weren't opening emails anyway! 

Better to protect your deliverability than keep sending to permanent non-openers.

In practice, our weekly process looked something like the following:

1. 5,000 subscribers added from the dormant list.

2. 3,000 non-openers from past cohorts removed

You’re growing by 2,000 subscribers/week, and your engagement stays consistently high because you're only keeping your openers.

The results speak for themselves. 

Not only did we achieve that 50% open rate, but these subscribers actively engage with promotions, respond to surveys, and reply to emails.

An engaged list of 50k is more valuable than 150k non-openers!

If you’re looking for support on building your own newsletter, we've assembled a team of the most experienced operators in the game, and we'll build it from scratch.

Want to see what a world-class newsletter can do for your business?

Reach out to the team at Tailwind.

And stay tuned for more tips and strategies every Thursday 🫡