Identify Inactive Subscribers

Inactive subscribers are opted-in contacts with valid email addresses or an SMS phone number who haven't interacted with your marketing in a while. It's helpful to identify and segment your inactive subscribers, so you can send a re-engagement email or text message to win back their interest.

In this article, you'll learn how to identify your inactive subscribers and save them as a segment.

Before you start

Here are some things to know before you begin this process.

• This article covers a task that uses segments. You may want to learn the basics of segments first.
• Perform the steps in this article before you unsubscribe inactive contacts or send a re-engagement email.

Define your inactive subscribers

An inactive subscriber is an opted-in contact with a valid email address or SMS phone number who hasn't recently interacted with your marketing. The amount of time it takes for a subscriber to become inactive depends on your sending frequency, and the type of product or service that you promote.

For example, if you use Mailchimp to market a product with a short sales cycle, an inactive subscriber might be someone who hasn't opened the last 5 emails you sent. But if you market seasonally, it might take a year or more for someone to become inactive.

It's up to you to determine how long you think an inactive period is, and segment inactive subscribers based on that criteria. If those subscribers still don't open your emails or text messages after you send a few re-engagement attempts, you may want to archive them.

Segment inactive subscribers

There are a few ways to segment inactive subscribers in your audience. Segment email contacts by contact rating to find long-term inactive subscribers, or segment all contacts by interaction to find email or SMS contacts who haven’t opened your most recent marketing emails or text messages.

Segment email contacts by contact rating

When you segment by contact rating, you'll identify subscribed email contacts who have a negative rating of 1 star. Contact ratings don't include activity from SMS, automations, ads, or landing pages, so this method is best for finding low engagement in regular emails and A/B testing emails.

To identify inactive email subscribers based on contact rating, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
2. If you have more than 1 audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
3. Click Create regular segment.
4. Click the Select or search a filter drop-down to choose your first segmenting condition.
5. In the Email, SMS & automations activity section, click Email subscription status.
6. Click is one of, then click Subscribed.
7. To add the second condition, click + Add filter.
8. In the Contact details section, set the drop-downs to Contact rating | is | 1 star.
9. Click Review segment.
10. In the Name your segment pop-up modal, enter the name of your segment, then click Review segment.
11. Review the segment, then click Use segment when you’re ready.

After you've created your inactive segment based on contact rating, you can send a re-engagement email.

Segment by email interaction

When you segment by email interaction, you identify email subscribers who received recent emails, but didn't engage with them. You can choose to show subscribed contacts who didn't open or click all of the last 5 emails, all emails within the last 7 days, all emails within the last 10 days, all emails within the last month, all emails within the last 3 months, or any of the last 5 emails.

To identify inactive contacts based on email activity, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
2. If you have more than 1 audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
3. Click Create regular segment.
4. Click the Select or search a filter drop-down to choose your first segmenting condition.
5. In the Email, SMS & automations activity section, click Email subscription status.
6. Click is one of, then click Subscribed.
7. Click + Add filter.
8. In the Email, SMS & automations activity section, click Email interaction.
9. Click did not open or did not click, then select your desired option from the drop-down.
10. Optional: To exclude new email subscribers from the segment, click Add filter, click Email Date added, click is before, then click a specific date. Choose a date prior to a recent email you sent to protect any new subscribers who haven't received an email from you yet.
11. Click Review segment.
12. In the Name your segment pop-up modal, enter the name of your segment, then click Review segment.
13. Review the segment, then click Use segment when you’re ready.

Nice! Now that you've created an inactive segment based on email interaction, you can send a re-engagement email.

Segment by SMS interaction

When you segment by SMS interaction, you identify SMS subscribers who received recent text messages, but didn't engage with them. You can choose to show subscribers who didn't open or click all of the last 5 text messages, all text messages within the last 7 days, all text messages within the last 1 month, all text messages within the last 3 months, or any of the last 5 text messages.

To identify inactive subscribers based on SMS interaction, follow these steps.

1. Click Audience, then click Segments.
2. If you have more than 1 audience, click the Current audience drop-down and choose the one you want to work with.
3. Click Create regular segment.
4. In the Email, SMS & automations activity section, click SMS subscription status.
5. Click is one of, then click Subscribed.
6. To add the second condition, click + Add filter.
7. In the Email, SMS & automations activity section, click SMS interaction.
8. Click did not open or did not click, then select your desired option from the drop-down.
9. Optional: To exclude new SMS subscribers from the segment, click Add another filter, click SMS Date Added, click is before, then click a specific date. Choose a date prior to a recent text message you sent to protect any new SMS subscribers who haven't received a text message from you yet.
10. Click Review segment.
11. In the Name your segment pop-up modal, enter the name of your segment, then click Review segment.
12. Review the segment, then click Use segment when you’re ready.

Excellent! Now that you’ve created an inactive segment based on SMS interaction, create and send a text message to re-engage.

To make the most of your re-engagement strategy, use precise segmentation criteria. You may need to create multiple, complex segments of inactive subscribers, rather than just 1. For example, create a segment for subscribers with both a low contact rating and recent purchase activity, and create another segment for subscribers with both a low contact rating and no purchase activity.

Next steps

After you identify and segment your inactive email or SMS subscribers, plan a re-engagement strategy so you can win back their interest. If subscribers don't open or click your re-engagement emails or text messages, you might want to archive or unsubscribe them.