Falling off the email marketing wagon happens to the best of us. 

Whether life got busy, a launch took up your focus, or you just fell out of the habit – it happens. And if your list hasn’t heard from you in a while, it’s tempting to wait for the “perfect” moment to restart (eg. Monday, the start of the month, or some other arbitrary milestone) 

But the truth is, the best time to reconnect with your audience is today.

In this episode, we’re diving into how to restart your email marketing without overthinking or worrying about upsetting your subscribers. 

(Plus, we’re giving you the exact framework for the perfect reintroduction email – we call it the ‘Terrible Friend’ Campaign)

Let’s do this!

Want to get more sales from your email marketing?

Before we get started with today’s episode, we’ve put a little something together for you.

It's really cool and it's FREE (yes, it's cool and free – we're nice like that). We all know that subject lines are important to get right and are a leading measure of your open and click rates – but writing them can be a challenge.

That's why Kennedy has spent months training an AI to write powerful subject lines that is beating top copywriters' subject lines 80% of the time in A/B tests – and you can get access to it here.

Forgive Yourself and Start NOW

First things first – cut yourself some slack. 

Life happens, and nobody’s perfect. The trick is not to overthink it. And whatever you do, don’t wait for Monday or any “ideal” time – because there’s no such thing.

Starting today will make it much easier to maintain momentum moving forward.

Reintroduce Yourself with the “Terrible Friend” Campaign

Emailing your list after a break can be a little scary.

One of the big challenges you’ll need to overcome is your subscribers thinking, “Who is this person?” since they’ll have also been distracted with their own lives. Which means they’ve probably forgotten about who you are and how they got on your list.

That’s where we use our Terrible Friend Campaign.

It’s a dead-simple 1-email campaign that is designed to re-establish trust and remind your subscribers on why they joined your email list in the first place.

Here’s the full ‘Terrible Friend' Email structure:

1. Apologise (and Mean It): Start by acknowledging your absence.
   
   “Hey, it’s [YOUR NAME]. I’m really sorry – it’s been a while since I’ve been in touch.”
   
   
2. Remind Them Why They Subscribed:
   
   “You joined my list to learn about [TOPIC], and I haven’t been delivering on that promise.”
   
   
3. Set Expectations: Let them know what’s coming next.
   
   “From now on, I’ll be sharing [SPECIFIC TYPE OF VALUE] with you [FREQUENCE, e.g., every Friday or daily].”
   
   
4. Open the Door: Give them an easy way to opt out.
   
   “If you’d rather not hear from me, that’s totally fine – here’s the unsubscribe link.”
   
   
5. Finish Strong: Reassure them about the value you’re bringing.
   
   “Here’s hoping you’ll stick around. My next email will land on [SPECIFIC DAY].”
   

Stick to Your Promise

Once you’ve sent your Terrible Friend Campaign email, the real work begins.

Because now you have to show up exactly as you promised. Whether that’s weekly, daily, or somewhere in between – show up and send the emails.

Rebuilding trust with consistency is crucial here.

Subject line of the week

This week’s standout subject line is: “Totally Wrong 🧩”

Why does it work? The emoji is unusual (how often do you see a jigsaw puzzle piece in your inbox?), and the intrigue invites curiosity. Using uncommon emojis is a great way to stand out, but make sure they’re relevant to your content.

Useful Episode Resources

Related episodes

How Can I Personalise My Emails To Increase Conversions?

What Is The Ideal Frequency For Sending Marketing Emails?

If I Started Over with List Building – What Would I Do?

FREE list of the top 10 books to improve your email marketing

If you want to write better emails, come up with better content, and move your readers to click and buy, here's how. We put together this list of our Top 10 most highly recommended books that will improve all areas of your email marketing (including some underground treasures that we happened upon, which have been game-changing for us). Grab your FREE list here. 

Join our FREE Facebook group

If you want to chat about how you can maximise the value of your email list and make more money from every subscriber, we can help! We know your business is different, so come and hang out in our FREE Facebook group, the Email Marketing Show Community for Course Creators and Coaches. We share a lot of training and resources, and you can talk about what you're up to.

Try ResponseSuite for $1

This week's episode is sponsored by ResponseSuite.com, the survey quiz and application form tool that we created specifically for small businesses like you to integrate with your marketing systems to segment your subscribers and make more sales. Try it out for 14 days for just $1.

Grab The Email Hero Blueprint

Want more? Let's say you're a course creator, membership site owner, coach, author, or expert and want to learn about the ethical psychology-based email marketing that turns 60-80% more of your newsletter subscribers into customers (within 60 days).

If that's you, then The Email Hero Blueprint is for you.

This is hands down the most predictable, plug-and-play way to double your earnings per email subscriber. It allows you to generate a consistent sales flow without launching another product, service, or offer. Best news yet? You won't have to rely on copywriting, slimy persuasion, NLP, or ‘better' subject lines.

Subscribe and review The Email Marketing Show podcast

Thanks so much for tuning into the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode (all about how to kick off an email reactivation campaign and get back on the email marketing wagon) and love the show, we'd really appreciate you subscribing and leaving us a review of the show on your favourite podcast player.

Not only does it let us know you're out there listening, but your feedback helps us to keep creating the most useful episodes so more awesome people like you can discover the podcast. 

And please do tell us! If you don't spend time on email marketing, what do you really fill your working days with? We'd love to know!