With overflowing email inboxes, nobody can blame the average consumer for either ignoring or mass deleting the countless messages they get daily.
For marketers, however, it's their job to stand out in those same inboxes that are crowded (to say the very least). For those responsible for creating and executing email campaigns in their enterprises, there comes a time (sooner rather than later) when unengaged audiences cannot be ignored any longer. Some brands have found success activating audiences with these email types for unengaged audiences:
Audiences may be engaged on a website - actively visiting, clicking, etc. - but if they aren't converting, email needs to help drive the sale home. One way to do so is through retargeting users with the products or services they showed interest in on a website.
Nothing gets a shopper or service seeker motivated like a discount. The promotion can either apply to items a person already showed interest in, a complementary item, or one based on a user's demographic or persona.
Products and services change and even unengaged email recipients may want to hear about the updates. If there is an update worthy of note, consider sending an email to let audiences know (like the company GiftStarter does below).
Audiences go dormant for a variety of reasons and one is that they received a bad experience or were simply unimpressed with a company's offerings. It's not only crucial to gather this information for a brand to move forward, but by asking users what they did or did not like, a company can activate an otherwise lost contact. Enterprises can also seek the opinions of certain demographics to inform product and service decisions, which allows the recipient to feel important and could get them to participate more in brand campaigns.
While the examples above came from those providing products to their audiences, it's easy to use these strategies for all business types. Actively brainstorming on how to engage inactive recipients is important for the overall health of an enterprise because those unresponsive prospective, current or past customers can provide insights into what is working and what is not.