When I was living in Tampa as a young 20-something, I went on a date with this guy to a dive bar in Ybor to play darts and drink whiskey. (Ahhh to be 20-something again with a stomach for cheap whiskey.)

And during this date he told me this story about how he died one time. I forget how or why, but they brought him back to life... allegedly.

At the end of the date, he said he had a good time and would like to meet up again. Then, we parted ways.

Honestly, at this point in my dating life I'd pretty much go on a second date with anyone who wasn't terrible because I was just having fun.

Well, I sent him my standard follow-up date text.

"Had fun tonight. I'd be up for going out again. Let me know when you're free."

And then...

Nothing.

I had been ghosted.

Potentially by an actual ghost.

He said he died. I don't know if anyone else in the bar could see him.

Anyways, that's not the first or last time I've been ghosted by someone I met on a dating app. And you know what? It sucks for a hot minute and then you forget about the person as you never intend to see them again.

(Unless they show up on a different dating app and apologize for ghosting you 5 years ago. That just happened to me. 💀)

But it's different when you ghost your email list.

These are people who you want to be a part of your community. People you want to buy from you. People who are giving you permission to enter their very crowded email inbox each week and take a few moments of their precious time.

Not people who you hope to never see or hear from again.

And when you ghost them (ie. just stop sending emails), you can't just expect them to welcome you with open arms when you decide 3 months later you want to sell them something.

Like imagine if that ghost guy who may or may not actually be a ghost just sent me a text today and was like "hey, I've got this really great opportunity I'd like to tell you about..."

But here's the thing... The longer you wait in between sending emails to your list, the harder it gets to send one out.

If you're having this problem, here are 3 emails you can send out today:

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Re-engagement Email #1: Where have you been?

This email is basically your opportunity to tell your audience where you've been, what you've been up to, what's been keeping you busy. What new projects are you working on? What new opportunities do they have to work with you? Basically, anything that can give them a little insight into where you've been since you sent your last email.

This email is not meant to be a list of excuses as to where you've been. Your audience knows that life happens, and sometimes you get a little behind on emailing. However, they'll be more excited to find out what you've done during that time than to hear excuses as to why you didn't email.
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Re-engagement Email #2: Share your best content again

Find your best performing content and share it again. It could be a TikTok, Reel, or YouTube video that performed well. It could be a blog post that got a lot of traffic. You could even take a previous email that did really well and repurpose it into some content that adds value for your audience.

You can either repurpose it—extract the main points from the original content and turn it into a new piece of content in a different format. OR literally just share the existing piece of content with some context around what it is and why they should care about it.
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Re-engagement Email #3: Send out a survey

Send out a quick survey to ask questions to get to know your audience and understand what type of content they want to see in the future. Your audience may have changed since the last time you emailed them. Now, if it's only been a couple weeks, they probably haven't changed much, but if it's been a couple of months, they might have. And even if they haven't, it's always helpful to remind yourself who your audience actually is and what they actually care about, not what you think they care about.

I just did this. (If you didn't fill out the survey yet, here it is.) And I got a decent response after just one email. Here are my tips for surveys:

• Make sure it's quick. 1-5 questions max. And most of them should be multiple choice. Make sure you're only asking what's absolutely necessary to get the info you need.
• Give them some incentive. People are more likely to fill it out if they get something in return. I'm doing a drawing for gift cards, but you could also give out a freebie, a discount, or time with you.
• Tell them why. Tell your list why you're doing the survey. It's not just of benefit to you. They'll reap the benefits when they get better, more valuable content in their inbox.

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And most of all, just remember, that you notice stuff more than your audience does. You may know that it's been 96 days, 17 hours, 35 minutes and 7 seconds since your last email to your list. But your audience doesn't give AF.

They might think, "I haven't gotten an email from them in awhile" if you went from sending weekly to sending never. Or they might say, "Who is this?" when they get your re-engagement email. But no one is judging you as hard about this stuff as you.
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So give yourself some grace, and send that email.

​And don't forget to take my survey!​

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Cheers!

Sarah Jane Burt​
​ The Bad Boy of Copywriting
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