Come back, baby, please

Are inactive subscribers breaking your heart?

Today we are talking about list health and how inactive subscribers can really ruin the vibe. We started this conversation about list health 2 weeks ago when we looked at the unsubscribe rate and how to interpret it, and in this issue we’ll look at another important measure of list health, RPM, and some approaches to win back campaigns.

This issue includes:

In addition to unsubscribes, a low or declining RPM is a sign that your relationship is in trouble. So let’s talk about how to evaluate this metric.

Before you look for external validation, get a gauge of what’s happening in your own data over time. Is your RPM today significantly different than 3, 6, 9 or 12 months ago? If yes, that should motivate you to dig deeper into the data.

As a second sense check, you can compare your RPM to industry benchmarks. The data below, taken from a 2026 benchmark report from Postscript, apply to Campaign texts only.

There are scenarios where it is ok for your RPM to be on the lower side, specifically if your SMS program is not designed to drive direct response. If you are optimizing around other objectives, like longer term LTV / subscriber for example, then the RPM KPI can be secondary.

If your RPM is trending down, that’s a good reason to do a cohort analysis and sniff out when and from where the low spending or unengaged subscribers joined your list. For example, you might determine that the subscribers who joined your list during a specific past promotion are converting less and dragging down the average. Or you might see that subscribers who joined your list back when you had a different business model are ignoring your texts now.

If you determine that you have huge swaths of inactive subscribers, you gotta tell them how you feel. With a win back campaign.

Now the first thing I imagine when I hear “win back” is the ubiquitous “we miss you” text. Yes this cliched text plus a discount might give you a small bump in revenue, but if your subscriber’s emotional connection to your brand has gone stale, a we-miss-you-text is not going to help rebuild what you once had.

Instead, try showing some understanding of what’s actually going on with your subscriber. And aim for engagement, not conversion.

Supergoop acknowledged their subscribers might be interested in promotions but not their witty banter. So they gave subscribers the option to “snooze” and limit texts to just “deals and super steals.” In an interview with Marketing Brew, Supergoop’s Senior Director of DTC and CRM reported that 10% of their subscribers accepted the snooze option.

Dr. Squatch includes a similar sentiment in their welcome flow, and asked if they are sending too many texts. The question was buried among multiple messages so I would refine this a bit and make it more clear how the subscriber can take action.

This next example was executed through email but it’s still good inspiration for a win back SMS campaign. Fab proactively alerted inactive subscribers that they were being deleted and asked them to opt back in if they were still interested. This proactive move was so well received, that subscribers wrote in to say thank you and to reaffirm their love for the brand. Emotional connection renewed. Take some learnings from this to show your inactive subscribers that you notice them and take steps to make their lives easier.

Have you seen another win back campaign that you really liked or that worked for you? Please reply to this email - I would love to hear what you have seen out there.

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See you next week!