→ Dirty data is killing your CRM (scroll to blogs)
→ NEW email marketing metrics (scroll)
→ Quick win: fix the broken bridge (scroll)
Before we get into it, I need to say that I’ve tried to do my best with this week’s edition.
There is some new content in here, but no new Queen’s Court videos; the person closest to me has just had major brain surgery, and I’ve been promoted to full-time nurse.
All is okay, recovery is underway, and work is just coming last at the moment.
But if this edition feels a little more “steady” than shiny, that’s why.
Thank you, as always, for being here. Let’s get into it.
Email Disengagement Campaign
What to do, not what to do, and everything else
Eventually someone always says, “We need to re-engage them.”
Before you do anything, the most important question is this:
Should this even be on your to-do list at all?
Most re-engagement campaigns fail for the same reason:
They try to extract performance from the weakest signals in the system.
Key things to understand before you build anything:
1) “Disengaged” does not mean “no value” Email behaviour alone is a terrible proxy for intent. People can ignore emails and still buy, search for you, attend webinars, or engage elsewhere.
2) Re-engagement is usually not where ROI lives Disengaged segments are the hardest to move, the easiest to upset, and the fastest way to create deliverability problems.
3) You need a Keep or Kill decision Some contacts are too risky to email again. Others may still matter, but only in specific, low-pressure ways.
4) Deliverability comes before creativity If you haven’t audited deliverability, cleaned data, and defined what “disengaged” actually means for your business - stop. Do not pass go.
→ Inbox placement rate (requires proper deliverability tracking) → Spam placement rate (also requires real deliverability measurement) → Subscriber-to-customer rate → Time to first meaningful action
→ Time since last meaningful action → Time to stage (deal, pipeline, lifecycle stage movement) → Actions taken since subscribing (site visits, downloads, events) → Website visits from email → Website growth influenced by email → Email-assisted conversions → Replies and direct responses → Value per subscriber/customer lifetime value (CLV) → Retention over time → Average time until unsubscribing
→ Predicted value per subscriber
These metrics tell a story of impact over time, not just momentary interaction.
The bridge is the moment between why someone opened and what they see first.
People open emails because of pre-open cues (from name, subject, preheader, brand trust/experience).
When they open, their brain asks one question:
“Did I get what I thought I was going to get?”
If the first screen doesn’t answer that, you create friction and friction leads to skimming, bouncing, or deleting.
The fix: Your first screen should resolve the promise, not repeat it.
Check your last send: → Subject line = the promise → First screen = the outcome or “so what”
If those don’t match, the bridge is broken.
Plug of the week
I’m opening up new client work from Q2
If you need help with email from workshops, upskilling, training, audits and 1:1 consultancy to full email transformation programmes - that’s what I do.
(And if you’re on HubSpot, I’m a HubSpot Partner.)