If you've ever sent out a newsletter, you know that there are always a couple of recipients who will not open your newsletter. You may have already thought as part of your mailing strategy that sending an identical campaign to these contacts will eventually get them to open the message.
In the world of email marketing, re-sending your email campaigns is only effective in rare circumstances. Below we'll outline why it is not recommended to send the same campaign twice, but we'll also introduce you to specific situations where this practice can be used.
In the article you will learn:
Why it is not effective to send the same campaign twice
If you resend your campaign to a segment of people who didn't open it the first time (and probably had a reason to do so), there is a high probability that instead of a successful open, contacts will perceive the delivery of the same campaign negatively.
This may then trigger the following reactions from contacts:
Unsubscribing from your newsletters
Marking your mailing as spam
Not only the recipient itself can mark your mailing as spam, but also mail recipients whose spam filters can evaluate an identical-looking campaign as spam and automatically classify it in the Spam folder.
Marking a mailing as spam then negatively affects the reputation of your sending domain, but also the entire mailing
Last but not least, a potentially active contact can become an inactive contact, i.e. it does not respond to any further newsletters. After all, he or she decided not to open your newsletter for some reason, and resending identical campaigns again can feel like spam.
💡TIP: It's definitely not a good idea to resend the same campaign to the contacts who have opened the first campaign. There is no reason to resend here; otherwise, the behaviour may be considered spam (see above).
When it is okay to send the same campaign again & how to create a segment of recipients
In some specific situations, sending the same campaign twice makes sense. Specific examples include:
a. You are sending a convenient, limited-time offer
You've run a limited-time promotion on your online store, and you're sending your customers a newsletter with a universal discount coupon that expires in a few days.
If contacts don't open the email within the next few days, they could miss out on your great offer. In that case, you can tactfully remind them.
b. You send a regular newsletter mailing that recipients are used to
If your mailing is based on sending a regular newsletter, where you e.g. send world news on a specific day and time, you probably already have a base of regular readers.
You can remind contacts who haven't read your newsletter once or twice. It is advisable to resend the newsletter, for example, to those who are otherwise active and are thus more likely to have either missed the email or perhaps accidentally deleted it in the flood of others.
How to proceed when resending a campaign
Give your contacts enough space
Keep in mind that each user organises their time differently and manages their inbox at different times. It is a good idea to wait at least a few days before sending a reminder.
Make small adjustments to the campaign
The most important elements that can greatly influence an open rate campaign are the sender's name, subject line and preheader. This is also why you need to change them when you send them out again.
Similarly, resent content can be evaluated as spam. There is also a chance that recipients will end up opening both emails. This is also why it is not a good idea to use the same newsletter template. Also, try personalizing or modifying the template to include different products, for example.
Adjust the recipient segment
Resend campaigns are typically only sent to those who have not opened the previous email, and it is also possible to further condition the segment (and select only otherwise active contacts, for example).
How to create a segment of recipients
If you decide to send the same campaign a second time, it is necessary to target only a segment of your audience, i.e. contacts who did not open the original campaign.
Here are some examples:
Create a segment of contacts that did not open the email after a specific time
After the time you decided to allow your recipients to open your special campaign has elapsed, create a segment of contacts that did not open the campaign:
For example, if you want to alert you when a coupon is about to expire (see example a.), you can work only with those who have not opened the email and have not made a purchase for a long time. The segmentation options are varied.
💡TIP: Segments are automatically recalculated before the campaign is sent, so you don't have to worry about sending a campaign to a contact who has opened the campaign in the meantime.
Create a segment of active readers who may have missed your regular newsletter
The segment can look like this if you want to reach regular readers who were exceptionally inactive in the last campaign (see example b.):
Further personalisation of the resend campaign can then give the impression of more personal communication.
Recommendations and tips
Give your contacts plenty of time.
Resend campaigns in a short time interval can act as spam or cause contacts to eventually open both emails. So, depending on the content of the email, give contacts an adequate amount of time to open the original campaign.
Do not resend too often.
If the resend campaign succeeds and you see good results, don't be tempted to overuse this practice. Being active immediately doesn't mean the script will always work. Of course, it also depends on the specific situation or campaign content.
Give inactive contacts the opportunity to choose what interests them.
Are you struggling with higher unopened rates in the long term? Engage these contacts with a special campaign where you allow them to choose, for example, how often they want to receive the mailing. If a contact chooses a preference, you can then tailor other mailings to that choice, reaching them only with topics that interest them or at a frequency they choose.
There must always be an unsubscribe link in the newsletter so that contacts can show their disinterest (and not unnecessarily mark the e-mail as spam, for example).
Test things out
Rather than sending the same campaigns repeatedly, focus on adjustments that will be effective for your mailing over the long term. With A/B testing, for example, you can easily find out what type of subject line or template design your contacts are interested in.