Re-Permission Campaigns: Asking Dormant Subscribers to Opt Back In
A subscriber who has not opened in six months is not a subscriber anymore. They are a deliverability risk with an email address attached, and the only honest way to find out which ones still want the mail is to ask them, plainly, once.
A re-permission campaign is a short series of emails sent to subscribers who have stopped opening or clicking, with one purpose: find out who still wants the messages and remove the rest. The subscribers who click or reply move back into the active list. Those who do not respond after the last message should be removed from regular mailings and archived, keeping the history but stopping the sends. That removal is called a sunset policy, and it is the most important part of the process, because a list that is mostly inactive is a list at risk: mailbox providers watch how recipients react, and when many people ignore the mail, delete it without reading, or mark it as spam, providers learn the mail is not wanted and place more of it in the spam folder.
Decide who counts as inactive before you send anything
Choose a clear rule before acting, because the right period depends on how often the brand sends and how long customers usually need to buy again. Frequent senders, weekly or more, often use 90 to 180 days without a click. Occasional senders, monthly or less, may need 6 to 12 months. Shops can also consider the time since the last purchase or visit. A daily retailer and a yearly renewal business should not use the same rule, and no provider mandates a universal cutoff: six months is a starting example for regular programs, not an ISP rule or a consent-expiry deadline.
Be careful with open rates. Since mail apps began to pre-load images for privacy, many opens are automatic and say little about interest, and Apple Mail Privacy Protection distorts open data, so clicks, replies, purchases, and visits are more reliable. A simple disengaged segment is: can receive email marketing, received at least 5 emails, opened 0 in the last 90 days, clicked 0 in the last 90 days. If the brand sends more than once a week, tighten the window.
Segment the inactive group and keep it separate from the active audience. Do not mix the two in one send, because the inactive group will drag the engagement rates of the active send down with it, and the mailbox providers will read the blended number. Check that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC pass before sending anything to a cold list, because authentication failures on a re-engagement send are the fastest way to turn a cleanup into a deliverability incident.
Three emails, spaced out, with a real choice in each one
A sunset flow is usually a short sequence of two to four emails that gives unengaged subscribers a clear choice: re-engage or be removed. Space the messages by several days to a week. The first email should say plainly that the subscriber has not opened in a while and ask whether they still want the mail, with a link to the preference page where they can choose topics and frequency. The second should offer a reason to return: the best guide, a short summary of what they missed, or a preference update, not just a discount, because a discount alone teaches the subscriber to wait for the next one. The third is the last call, and it should say so.
Offer a choice in every message, not just an unsubscribe link: stay, change preferences, or unsubscribe. A visible unsubscribe link is both polite and protective, and it is the option that keeps the sender out of the spam folder. Do not hide the unsubscribe, do not guilt the subscriber, and do not send the re-engagement series to the whole list. It goes to the inactive segment only, and the active list never sees it.
The re-permission campaign is also the moment to fix the preference data. A subscriber who re-engages by clicking a topic link has told the brand what they want, and that click should update their preferences. A subscriber who re-engages by replying has given the strongest signal of all, because a reply is a human action no bot farm fakes at scale. Treat those signals as the new baseline, and build the next quarter's sends on them.
After the series, remove, archive, and repeat
Contacts who click or reply move back into the active list. Those who do not respond after the last message should be removed from regular mailings. Archive them in the system so the history is kept, but stop sending marketing email. That is the sunset policy, and it is the step most teams skip, because removing names feels like losing. It is the opposite: keeping proven non-readers harms deliverability for everyone else on the list, and a smaller list that opens beats a larger list that ignores.
Make it a routine. Run a similar check every quarter or half year, so inactive contacts never pile up. Combined with a confirmed sign-up method, it keeps the list healthy without large clean-ups. And document the rule: the inactivity window, the re-engagement series, the removal step, and the reason the window fits the brand's cadence. If the brand sends daily promotions, waiting a full year keeps too much uninterested mail flowing. If the brand has a long buying cycle, the reconfirmation step matters more than the exact day count. The policy is the product, and the campaign is just the moment it runs.
Frequently asked questions
What is a re-permission campaign?
A short series of emails sent to subscribers who have stopped opening or clicking, to find out who still wants the messages and remove the rest. Subscribers who click or reply move back into the active list. Those who do not respond should be removed from regular mailings and archived.
How long before a subscriber counts as inactive?
It depends on sending frequency and buying cycle. Frequent senders, weekly or more, often use 90 to 180 days without a click. Occasional senders may need 6 to 12 months. Use clicks and purchases, not opens alone, because Apple Mail Privacy Protection distorts open data.
How many emails should a sunset flow have?
Usually two to four, spaced several days to a week apart. Each one should offer a clear choice: stay, change preferences, or unsubscribe. The last email should say it is the last call.
Should inactive subscribers be deleted or archived?
Archived, not deleted. Keep the history in the system, but stop sending marketing email. Removing proven non-readers protects deliverability for everyone else on the list, and the record is worth keeping if they ever re-engage.