Many of you may think having to re-engage email subscribers is a rather icky situation.

Well, you know how important it is to build an email list regardless of where you are in your author career.

With hard work and perseverance, you finally have a decent size of an email list.

And then, this thought occurs to you – what else to talk about besides your upcoming release?

It may not be much of an issue if you publish a new book every month. But it can feel like a stretch when you only release a book once a year, at the very least.

Desperately, you reach out to ChatGPT, asking for suggestions on topics that you can write about for your email subscribers.

Funnily enough, you don’t take its suggestion seriously, thinking those topics may bore your readers to the core.

As a result, you end up leaving the email list you’ve built so hard collecting the virtual dust.

Now that you have a new release coming up, it feels awkward to get back to them when you’re not doing a good job keeping in touch with them all this time.

You don’t face the same issue as I do!

As someone who has been talking about building an email list countless times on my blog, you may assume that I never have this issue.

There’s no reason to re-engage email subscribers when I’m diligent enough to communicate with my readers frequently.

Well, here’s the thing that may come as a shock to you – I used to be in the same boat as you.

Like you, I also take the advice of building an email list seriously.

While the list may only be small as I write this, at least they’re complete strangers and I have no idea who they are.

Despite my email list’s small size, I’m thankful they’re interested in hearing from me.

But here I am, committing the same blunder as everybody else.

Rather than trying to connect with these subscribers at least once a month, I didn’t bother to connect with them at all.

It was only recently that I decided to reconnect with my readers despite how reluctant I was to do so.

Re-engage email subscribers doesn’t need to be this hard

So, what you should do to get past the awkward feeling and start reconnecting with your readers through email again?

Like it or not, the simplest thing you can do is to send them the email once again.

And yes, even if you haven’t been in touch with them for years.

Not sure what to say to them when you’re trying to re-establish the connection with your readers?

Use this guideline to craft an email that is perfect for re-engaging with your subscribers.

Jog their memory about who you are, the kind of book you write, and how they end up on your email list

Unless you’re a mega best-seller author and you’re someone who is always in the limelight, your readers may not even remember who you are.

So, give them a brief explanation about who you are and include the names of the books you write.

Even if they don’t remember you, at least they’re more likely to be familiar with your book especially if you offer a free ebook when they join your email list.

Let them know that you don’t acquire their email address through illegal means and they were the ones who chose to sign up with your email list.

Some subscribers may not have any recollection of how they ended up on your email list.

So, it’s important to remind them that they don’t end up on your email list by pure accident.

If they can’t seem to remember who you are, then let them know they can unsubscribe from your email list at any time.

Let them know why you’ve been absent for so long

Now that they already have a brief idea about who you are, then you need to let them know where you’ve been all this time.

Are you still writing a book? And if you do, are you still writing in the same genre or you already pivot to a different genre?

Regardless of your reason, be transparent about why you went radio silent for such a long time.

And if you’re pivoting to a different genre and you have a different email list, let them know about it too.

If they like your writing enough, they will join your other email list.

Make them aware of what they can expect from you moving forward

This is where you let them know about the sort of email you’ll be sending them after your first reconnect with your readers.

You can say that your next email going forward will be about the project you’re working on, your upcoming release, etc.

Of course, it doesn’t need to be specifically about your book. It can be anything that you think your readers may find interesting.

That’s what I did when I talk about this particular manga that riles me up a little in one of my emails.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to mention how frequently they expect to receive an email from you.

The email they receive can be daily, weekly, monthly, or any frequency that works for your schedule.

For my readers, I let them know that they can expect to hear from me once at the end of the month.

Stick to the frequency you mention in the email

Now that you already take the plunge to re-engage email subscribers, it’s time for you to put your money where your mouth is.

If you tell them that you’ll be sending an email on the third week of Sunday every month, then you need to be sure they do receive your email on that day every month.

Schedule the email and batch-write the email if you must.

While I don’t batch-write my emails, I do schedule my emails since I prefer to get them done at the beginning of the month.

Will this approach ever work?

To be honest, whether this approach will work for you or not will depend on your readers.

While some of them are more than happy to hear from you again, others may not respond in the way you hope for.

And that’s okay.

Just be sure you write something they find interesting and they’ll be more likely to respond to your future emails.

But what if they don’t open your emails no matter what you do?

Well, it’s time for you to clean your email list, of course.

Send them an email, asking them if they’re still interested in hearing from you.

And if they don’t even open this email, you can safely remove them from your email list.

What if they decide to unsubscribe from your email list then?

Well, let them be. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to celebrate if they decide to unsubscribe from your email list.