Most ministries I look at put a lot of care into their welcome emails and their regular sends. What happens when someone goes quiet usually gets the least attention, and that's where I see the biggest gap.
The usual pattern
Someone signs up, gets the welcome emails, and then gets every regular send from then on, whether they read them or not.
After a while some of those people stop opening. The emails keep coming anyway. Their inbox notices they never open them, so the emails land in promotions or somewhere else they never look. Eventually they get cleaned off the list, or they're still on it and you're just not reaching them.
Somewhere along the way a win-back sequence starts. A few emails over a couple of weeks. And often those people are still getting all the regular emails on top of it, so someone who's already tuning you out gets more email than before. While someone's in a win-back sequence, that should be what they get from you.
Most win-back emails don't do much
Read a few win-back emails from the ministries you follow. A lot of them sound like nobody really wrote them. "We haven't seen you in a while!" Nobody's moved by that.
Your regular content was written by a person who cares about it, and people can tell. The win-back emails usually get far less care, and it shows. These are worth having a real person rewrite. This is one place I wouldn't hand the writing to AI.
They also rarely ask anything. There's no invitation to reply and no quick question about what changed. So the person leaves and you never learn why.
Stop the regular sends and try something else
When someone stops opening, have that trigger something. Take them out of the regular sends and write to them differently: we've noticed you haven't been opening our emails. Is this still useful to you? Here's a reminder of what we do, and we'd like to know what you need.
That can link to a short survey, and their answers decide what they hear from you next.
Offer less email
Most lists only offer two choices: everything, or unsubscribe. Add one in the middle, like a single email once a month with the best of what you've published. Something like this:
We know your inbox is full, and you may not want to hear from us every week. If you'd rather hear from us less, click here and we'll send you one email a month with our best content. You can change your mind any time using the link at the bottom of any email.
Some people who were about to unsubscribe will take that instead. They're less likely to mark you as spam, and you're not sending them a weekly email they ignore. They stay connected to you.
Send something that looks different
Another thing worth trying is an email that doesn't look like your other emails, like a short video from your founder or someone your readers know.
It doesn't need a crew, and it doesn't need to be personal to each reader. Someone holds up a phone and talks for a minute. Something like:
Hi, it's [name]. I know life gets busy. It looks like our emails might not be landing for you, and I'd like to know why. Could you hit reply and tell me? Or tell me what you could use most right now. Your reply comes straight to me.
Then test it against a rewritten text version. If the video wins, try someone else on camera, or a different subject line. Keep going.
The replies are the real value. Even if only a small group answers, you'll learn something. Maybe the emails aren't relevant to them. Maybe there are too many. Then you can fix that earlier, before the next group goes quiet. And when you know what someone needed, you can send it to them, and you might keep a few of them.
Don't remove your donors
Check one thing right away: can an engagement rule take a current donor off your list? It shouldn't.
If they unsubscribe or mark you as spam, stop emailing them, even if they give. But someone who's still giving and hasn't opened an email lately is still a donor. Offer them the once-a-month option instead.
Expect to test a lot
None of this is complicated, but you won't get it right the first time. Test the emails, the wording, how often you send and what they look like. Try things that are very different, and see what happens.
This is the kind of thing we map out with ministries: how people join your list, what they hear from you, and what happens when they go quiet. If you want to talk through yours, grab a quick intro call.