Engagement Matters Blog

Snail mail has had the “remailing” concept for years, however it also applies to email. Essentially this means sending recipients the same (or slightly similar – but essentially the same) email after a delayed period of time (say a week).

The process looks something like this; Send an email for a campaign, wait a few days/weeks/months and then send the same, or similar, email. You can choose to send the exact same email or you can modify it to appear as a reminder (like those pesky reminder notices to pay your bills).

Remailing, if done correctly does have its place in online marketing campaigns and can often increase response rates –just look at some of the results I’ve seen using remailers:

Client A

• An email sent regarding a product update 
• Remail sent was exactly the same as the first email
• Desired result: Open email (and read of course)

First email: 1,335 opens (11% open rate)
Remail :     1,201 opens (10% open rate)
Total:         2,536 opens (21% open rate)

Client B

• An email sent encouraging people to register online for a breakfast seminar
• Desired result: open email and register (and attend of course)

First email:   105 registrations
Remail (1):   67 registrations
Remail (2):   48 registrations
Total:           220 registrations
                   105 from initial invitation, 115 from remailing

Client C

• An email sent inviting people to participant in an online survey
• Desired result: open email, complete and submit survey

First email:        136 survey responses
Second email:    130 survey responses
Total:                266 survey responses (about a 35% response rate)

(The second email was positioned as a reminder)

Almost double the response!

In all three cases response rates almost doubled between the first email and the remailer.

Why the high response rates?

I believe this is possibly due to the likelihood that subscribers are generally well intentioned but unfortunately inundated with email. Thus, when they receive email they tend to prioritise what they open and your marketing email gets pushed to the bottom of the list – maybe to be opened while they’re having a coffee or lunch... invariability they never end up getting opened.

A remail however serves the purpose of reminder the recipient to open the email which by this point they have probably even forgotten they received. Therefore, the effect is either “Oh! I completely forgot about that, I want to read it” – click, open or “Oh, this looks interesting what do they have to say?“ – click open.

The Upshot

If you want to increase your response rates for campaigns, try a remailer. If you’re concerned you may be bugging people, pitch it as a friendly reminder.