Re-engagement campaigns: 6 tactics that recovered 15% of our dead list

We had 40k subscribers who had not engaged in 90+ days. Before sunsetting them, we ran a 6-tactic re-engagement campaign.

Tactics that worked

1. "We miss you" email with updated content preview — 4.2% re-engaged
2. Survey asking what content they want — 3.8% re-engaged
3. Exclusive discount/offer — 3.1% re-engaged
4. "Your subscription is about to expire" urgency — 2.8% re-engaged
5. Plain text personal email from CEO — 1.9% re-engaged
6. New feature announcement — 1.2% re-engaged

Combined, we re-engaged 15.3% of the "dead" list. The remaining 85% were sunsetted, which improved deliverability for the active list.