What To Do When You’ve “Ghosted” Your Email List
So… you went ghost. 👻
Kind of like in dating, when someone disappears and then suddenly thinks about texting back three months later. Except this time, it’s your email list.
And now you’re sitting there thinking, “I can’t just show back up like nothing happened!”
You start thinking people won’t care. Or worse, they will care and wonder where you’ve been. This negative feedback loop stops you from doing anything and keeps email in the same spot it’s been…on the backburner.
Luckily, emailing your list is much less intense than a complicated ghosting situationship. 🫠
This is the key: you have to come back to your email list with a mindset shift.
Instead of thinking you have to pick up where you left off, this is a chance to retell your story, redo what wasn’t working (so you don’t ghost your list again), and build an email strategy around your capacity as a business owner.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through four simple steps to help you reconnect with your list without overthinking it or making it a bigger deal than it needs to be.
Step 1: Re-evaluate the Role of Email in Your Business
Before you write anything, take a second to zoom out.
Ask yourself:
What is email actually for in your business right now?
Not what you think it should be or what someone online says it needs to be - the marketing bros are not running your business! What role does email really play in your business?
This is where my capacity-first approach comes in.
If you’re running your business solo, email might need to be simple and consistent. If you have more support, maybe it can be more layered. But either way, your strategy has to match what you can actually maintain.
When you get clear on that, it becomes a lot easier to figure out how to reintroduce yourself.
Think of it as a chance to reset. We often romanticize “resetting” when something isn’t working. So, reframe this in your mind as a reset and romanticize it!
You can simply show up for your email list again with a clearer sense of what you want your emails to do moving forward.
Inside my 1:1 email intensive sessions, this is where we start. We look at your business, your capacity, and figure out how email fits into that. Then we map out a way to reintroduce you that actually feels natural and doable.
Step 2: Write a Simple Re-engagement Campaign
This is the step people tend to overthink, but it doesn’t need to be complicated.
A re-engagement campaign is just a short series of emails that lets your list know you’re back and gives them a chance to decide if they want to stay.
It serves two purposes at the same time. First, it reconnects you with people who are still interested. Second, it helps you identify who is no longer engaged, so you can clean your list.
And yes, people will unsubscribe.
That’s a good thing.
Actually, repeat this affirmation: My email list only attracts those who are interested in reading what I have to say.
Good, moving on…
You want people to opt out if they’re not interested anymore. It helps your deliverability, keeps your list healthy, and makes your engagement more accurate. Plus, from a legal and ethical standpoint, it’s important to make that option clear and easy (Email service providers (ESPs) already take care of this.)
A simple re-engagement flow could look like:
Email 1: A quick re-introduction & brief explanation of your absence
Email 2: What you’ll be sharing moving forward
Email 3: A clear option to stay or unsubscribe
In all of these emails, don’t overexplain or overly apologize. Be real, be brief, and move on! People are busy and aren’t as concerned about your absence as you think they are.
If you’re not sure how to structure this or what to say, this is something we go through step-by-step in my email intensive sessions. I help you write emails that feel like you, while also making sure your list is set up in a way that supports deliverability and long-term results.
Step 3: Start Talking About Your Email List Again
This one is so simple that it almost seems dumb to bring up.
Once you’ve reintroduced yourself, you need to remind people that your email list exists.
You should mention your email list whenever and wherever possible: on social media, in blog posts, at networking events, to your friend’s mom’s brother who’s your ideal client…you get the picture.
A lot of business owners feel weird about this part, especially if they’ve neglected their list for a while. You minimize it because you think, “I should have been doing this already.”
How do I know? I did that. My emails felt directionless and I didn’t bring up my list because I felt like an imposter.
Want in on another secret? I still feel like this sometimes! But let’s change that together.
After you follow the first two steps I laid out, your email list will become easier to talk about because you’ll have renewed confidence. The less guilt you have over ghosting your email list, the more you’ll be able to talk about it with ease.
You’re running a business and marketing is just one piece of it. Let yourself off the hook and give yourself permission to rework this part of your business in a way that makes sense.
And if you want support here, this is something I help with inside both my email intensive sessions. We come up with a simple plan to keep your list growing in a way that fits your business and your capacity.
Step 4: Don’t Forget About Email Sequences
Once you write them, email sequences (automated emails triggered by a specific action) work for you in the background.
If you don’t have any written, I recommend at least writing a welcome series. This will introduce you to new subscribers and set expectations with them. That way, if you miss an email or two, you know that your list is still working for you! (We all miss an email from time to time!)
A good welcome series should introduce you and your story and take the subscriber on a mini journey into your world.
If you have email sequences written, it’s worth updating them if they have gotten stale.
You might be thinking: What if people don’t engage when I start emailing again?
This is more of a mindset issue than anything, and it’s a really common thought. On a human level, we want our efforts to be noticed and we want to “belong.” It’s a basic survival instinct.
This is where a lot of business owners get paralyzed. That basic instinct kicks in and it feels safer to do nothing at all than for the potential for a wasted effort.
But in reality, some people won’t respond or engage, and that’s good! Some people will unsubscribe…that’s also good.
You are building a list of people who are excited to hear from you and buy from you. So, you don’t need everyone to engage. You need the right people to engage.
Not to mention, when the wrong people are on your email list, that hurts your open rates, deliverability, and could possibly cost you more with your email service provider.
The only way to find out who “your people” are is to send the email.
This Is How to Plan Your Email Comeback
If you’ve been avoiding your email list, here’s your way back in:
Re-evaluate the role email plays in your business
Write a simple re-engagement campaign
Start talking about your list again
Write or refresh your email sequences
You don’t need to come back perfectly, you just need to come back in a way that makes sense for you.
When you do this, email stops feeling like this looming thing you’re avoiding and starts feeling like something you can actually use again.
And if you want help figuring out what this looks like for your business, that’s exactly what my 1:1 email intensive sessions and audits are for. We look at what’s going on, we clean things up, and build a plan you can stick to!
Your Next Step
If you want simple, realistic ways to improve your email marketing without adding more to your plate, join my email list.
I send one capacity-first email tip each week. My emails are short and structured so they won’t add to the inbox noise - I promise! 🤞🏼