How to Get Back in Touch with Old Contacts on Your List - Story From: The Official Infusionsoft Blog

Recently, I received a rather untimely message from AutoZone, a nationwide retailer of automotive parts. It got me thinking about how businesses should follow up with their old contacts. I want to break down this example to see what could be improved and deliver advice for next time you follow up with neglected contacts.

I originally registered my Camaro with AutoZone so I can quickly look up parts without clicking through all the screens later on for my year, make, model and engine size. It’s actually very useful when using their site. After I registered, I haven’t received any email messages until 12 months later.

Sending a message to subscribers a whole year later is not risky — it’s dangerous! Sure, I did provide them my email and I did expect their emails. Sure, they had permission to email me. But it felt rather unexpected when I received it a year later. At Infusionsoft, we recommend proceeding with caution to any list above six months and discourage emailing people older than nine months without any interaction.

Here’s the email message AutoZone sent me. I have some quick feedback corresponding with the blue markers I left on the screenshot below:

Screenshot of an email from AutoZone

Subject Line – This subject line is pretty direct, apologizing for not following up. This is better than getting creative and using “Let’s spark things up again.” I personally would have enjoyed that better, but being realistic, it would be rather ambiguous.
Email Content – The entire email except the pre-header was an image. Even though they did use Alt tags, it wasn’t attractive without images on. It’s safe to assume that after a year of no contact, images would be disabled on 99% of the readers by default. To be more effective, I would definitely use a combination of text and images.
Call to Action – The offer or incentive to get a coupon off my next purchase is nice, but not effective. It’s a sales offer. Not an offer to have me confirm my interest. When rekindling the love in your old email list, you need to first re-establish permission. The link wasn’t an confirmation link, but instead, a coupon.

I praise AutoZone for at least making their message relevant and specific considering it’s the first time they followed up with me. However, two major flaws could spell disaster down the road next time they email me (and thousands of others).

So here’s my advice if you want to follow up with contacts who haven’t heard from you in quite some time.

Apologize. Don’t apologize for the interruption, because, well it’s too late. But apologize for the lack of follow-up. Be simple, genuine about it. Clearly, people provided their email addresses for a reason – tie it back to that if you can.
Make the email readable without images enabled. When emailing a people for the first or second time, you can safely assume they don’t have images enabled. Make your emails readable across all email clients with and without images enabled. Send a few tests before emailing everyone.
Your call to action should be to confirm interest. This is not the time to make an offer, or give a coupon or to sign up for something. Instead, build trust and expectations so they expect future emails from you. This means exercising discipline in making your message short and to the point.
Make your subject line memorable and direct. Don’t get clever. Being clever costs you confusion from recipients, spam filters stopping your message and the opportunity to be clever later.
Above all, know how old is too old. A year is dangerous. If I wasn’t in the email marketing industry (and a loyal customer), I’d really question why AutoZone sent me this and probably report them for spam. Six months is ideal for the oldest email interaction. Read this blog post on what to do with old email lists, if you want more information.

The point here isn’t to criticize AutoZone for this email. In fact, they made some wise choices in their message to me. The point is to be aware of the next time you email an older ...