I bet you have people on your email marketing list that have never opened your campaign or clicked on a link – or at least haven’t in a long time – yet they haven’t bounced nor unsubscribed. Don’t feel bad; we all have them. The question is, what do you do with them?

First, you have to get them. Many Email Service Providers offer ways to have access to them. With VerticalResponse you can either grab them by campaign in the campaign’s “download center” or create a segment called “non responders” using the list segmentation tool.

Now the Fun Begins!

Once you have them segmented into their own campaign, you can start testing things on them to get them activated.

1. Send an email and include a link to your opt-in form to re-opt-them-in. On the page where you have your opt-in form give some examples of your hosted emails so that they can see the real value you’re providing.

2. Send an email and include a coupon for your product or service. You might have to go overboard to really attract their attention and give them something for free, or just a really great offer.

3. Maybe they have a new email address but still have the one they gave you and they just don’t check it. If you have their telephone number why not a phone call asking them if they’ve got a new address and want to be re-added to your list? If you’ve got their postal address send them a postcard directing them to a page with their coupon or offer.

4. Send a survey to find out why they aren’t responding. Try a direct subject line like “Why haven’t you opened our emails? Tell us.” to pique their interest. You might want to have an open ended question box here since I’m sure you won’t be able to guess at all of the reasons in advance.

Purging these names out of your regular mailings will surely give you an increase in your open rates, the key is to try to move these non-responders to “responder” status.

If you’ve got any ideas you’re using, let’s hear them!

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