I recently received this email from Chico’s that exemplifies how to do re-engagement right. If you’re considering a re-engagement campaign to warm up inactive subscribers for the upcoming holiday season (and you really should be), you might take some tips from this effort.

First, the subject line, “Last Chance…50% Off (Confirm Your Email),” broke it to me gently. They want me off their mailing list if I plan to keep trashing their daily sends unopened, but they’d like to keep me enough to offer me an incentive to stay.

Inside, rather than being all-business, I was treated to an attractively-designed email with a style consistent with the brand (lest I’ve forgotten why I was attracted in the first place). And finally, the offer was communicated loudly and clearly and the call-to-action was prominent.

When I clicked through, a similarly-designed page enthusiastically thanked me for staying connected, re-stated the offer and gave me the code:

All of that being said, I would have liked to have seen Chico’s do one critical thing differently. Because I shop there so infrequently (only for gifts), I really do tire of seeing emails so frequently and delete them habitually.There will come another gift-giving time, however, when I will want to shop there again, so I don’t want to be cut off completely.

As it turns out, when I went back to the original email and clicked “unsubscribe” out of curiosity, I was pleased to see that I could actually opt-down to two emails a month, which is ideal. The email and landing page, as well as the standard unsubscribe link in the email, however, made it seem to me that it was going to be either Chico’s way or the highway.

So, I guess you could say we’re now on a break. We’re going to see each other much less frequently, but there’s still hope that we’ll one day get back together…

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