Got zombies on your email list?

Do you have people on your subscriber list who seem dead? No matter how good the campaign you send, you still get no response. They don't bounce, they don't open and they certainly don't click any links! Maybe they did once, but if they've not show any signs of life in ages, then you need to figure out what to do with them.

For starters, you need to separate them from the rest of your subscribers. All good email systems will enable you to run reports based on activity of your subscribers (or in this case, lack thereof!). Once you've run this report, create a segment of your main list that contains just these subscribers - we'll call them the "zombies"!

Re-activating your zombie subscribers!

Now that you've got the zombies into a list on their own, it's time to try wake them from their slumber, or remove them from you list. Here are some ideas on how to do that.

Reminder & unsubscribe email

Send them an email which highlights the benefits of being a subscriber, but also has a prominent unsubscribe button or link. That way you're reminding them of why they subscribed, but also making it really easy for them to unsubscribe.

Give them something free!

Send them an email with a great offer - a free coupon or gift of some sort. You may have to go overboard to attract their attention... As part of claiming the gift, you could get them to provide you with some feedback as to why they've been unresponsive for so long.

Try other ways of contact

Maybe they're now using a new email address and don't check the old one often, if at all. If this is the case, then you've got your work cut out for you. If you have any other contact details for them such as postal address, phone number or instant messaging details, you could try contacting them using those methods and asking if they still want to be on your list.

Survey the zombies

Send them an email with a very direct subject line such as "Why haven't ou opened our emails? Tell us." A direct subject line like this may just get a response! If you do provide a survey to establish why they're not reading your emails, don't forget to have an open ended question option, as I bet you won't be able to predict all the reasons people will give!

If all else fails... unsubscribe them

Ideally, you want to move the zombies from the unresponsive list, into the responsive category so they become a more active subscriber. However, if after all attempts they're still a zombie, you're better off unsubscribing them from your list - they're having a negative impact on your campaign statistics and you're wasting your time emailing them.