The mistake almost everyone is making in email is resending to unopens. Today we're diving into resending to unopens to find out if the juice is really worth the squeeze, and if it's actually more hurtful than it is helpful.

The resend to unopened button

I want to dive into that little push notification that I know a lot of Mailchimp users get. But it's a button that exists on almost every single email service provider in existence: the resend to unopened button. I see it in Kit. I see it in ActiveCampaign.

I used to do this too when I had my own newsletter on Mailchimp. I would resend to unopens back in 2018, thinking that it would get my open rate up, thinking it would get my click rate up. I thought it was best practice, because Mailchimp used to send me a push notification. They used to tell me that I should resend it if it was within a day.

And it looked like things improved. But the more I looked and investigated and talked to friends who are actually email marketing experts, I realized that it doesn't always do what it says.

Does resending to unopens work?

Mailchimp even did a study on this back in 2016 to see if it actually made a difference. In 2016, they said resends add about 8% to your open rate.

That's not a lot.

Apple Mail Privacy Protection changed the math

That 2016 stat, and knowing that it's from 2016, is especially important now, because since then Apple's launched their MPP. MPP means Mail Privacy Protection.

What it does, in layman's terms, is that for most people who use Apple Mail, it automatically signals to your email service provider (your ESP, whether that's Mailchimp, Kit, ActiveCampaign, whoever) that anyone using Apple already opened their email as soon as it hits their inbox.

People do have to opt into this, but most people opt in. It is optional. Some people that use Apple Mail do not have this.

Resending to unopens is double texting

This would be like taking advice from before read receipts ever existed on a dating app. Imagine somebody read your message asking them to coffee and they didn't respond, and then you respond again: "Hey, bumping to see if you still want to grab coffee."

It eventually gets to a point where we're wondering: is this person really interested in me?

It's kind of the same thing when we use the resend to unopens feature. You're texting people who maybe have already read it. And even if they haven't, you're texting people who made an active choice not to read it the first time they got it.

How resending to unopens affects deliverability

Every time you resend it to people who deleted the email twice instead of once, it can potentially impact your deliverability.

I couldn't find anything online that says this directly negatively impacts your deliverability. But to my foundational understanding of deliverability, deliverability works off of inbox user habit. So if users continually are deleting your messages without ever opening them, you're gonna get moved out of that primary column in Google over to a promotions tab. You're gonna get moved to the spam inbox after a while. And that could happen a lot quicker if you're resending to unopens all the time.

I know it looks nice to see that more people opened your email than less. But the reality is it could be more harmful than it is helpful.

Unsubscribes and spam complaints

On top of that, you might start to see a spike in unsubscribes. If you're going into a high sales period and people are unsubscribing from your pre-launch content, that probably is not a good look for you.

It even goes a step further. People that start to unsubscribe, or feel pushed to unsubscribe because their inbox is inundated with emails from you, might start to report you as spam. It's not guaranteed to happen because you're using this feature, but it is more likely to happen if your opens are low and you start spiking unsubscribes because you use this feature often.

Google's bulk sender guidelines

Google has public bulk sender guidelines. The real danger in getting complaints, especially if you have a smaller list, is that Google wants your spam complaints to remain under 0.1%. If you go over 0.3% in spam complaints, then they are going to shadow ban you from the inbox. You'll get put in inbox jail. All of your emails will start going to spam for a foreseeable amount of time until you're able to resolve everything.

If you want me to dive into Google Postmaster, what it looks like to get it set up and why you need a Google Postmaster account, let me know.

What Mailchimp says about resending

Even in Mailchimp's own content around resending to unopens, they say you're more likely to get unsubscribes from using this feature. They really advise that if you're going to use a resend, you do it within the same 24 hour period that you originally sent the email. Anything longer is more likely to cause a complaint spike.

If you're sending at a really regular cadence, like 3+ times a week, and you're resending to unopens on top of all three of those emails, then you should really reconsider that strategy. Hone in on what's working in your emails, and get more people to open the emails that you are sending by figuring out what's working and making that work really well across all three emails.

Gmail's Manage Subscriptions tab

Here's something else that you need to be aware of if you're going to be using resend to unopens, or a resend type of feature, in any email service provider.

Gmail has added a Manage Subscriptions tab. What this tab does is it allows you to see who is sending you the most email, so that you can quickly and easily, in one click, unsubscribe from that email.

Frequent messages compounded with resending to unopened messages could potentially rank you higher on that list for Google. Which obviously would result in more unsubscribes.

When to use resend to unopens

This is not a one size fits all policy for me. I do use this feature occasionally. I find it really helpful in key sales windows: the last 48 hours of a sales open cart, a high intensity day like Prime Day or Black Friday where people are getting a lot of messages, Cyber Monday. This is the time to use those features.

In some tools like Mailchimp, you can actually filter and send it to people that maybe didn't click the email, instead of not opening it.

My recommendation, if you are going to use this in a high sales period, is to test it. Instead of clicking the button and resending to unopens, maybe we set up a segment that resends to people who haven't clicked in 90 days. Or maybe we send to people who haven't opened in a week. Those are things we could really refine the messaging around, and focus in on one key change that would be more likely to make those people open and click.

A last-day sales resend schedule

For example, it's the last 24 hours of the sales window:

1. 6:00am: send out the first message.

2. 3:00pm: set up a resend to go out.

3. 6:00pm: send out an evening email that's different than the first email.

4. 9:00pm: one final call to action, resend to unopens or to non-clicks.

Make sure when you're doing these resends that you're really focusing in on changing some key elements. In Kit, you have the ability to even change the message contents. If it is a high intent sales period, move the call to action up in the email. If it is a busy inbox day (Prime Day, Black Friday, Cyber Monday), really, really, really hone in on a strong subject line that translates into the email's content.

Sometimes silence is an answer

The people who you don't have a relationship with, leave them alone. Build a relationship. Don't love bomb them by continually resending to unopens.

The fix isn't in using the resend button. It's when you start thinking strategically about email and reaching your target audience with it, and using it as a means for communication.

If somebody isn't clicking your email, if they're not opening it, that is a sign that hey, maybe this isn't the right offer for them. Maybe this isn't the right topic for them. Maybe this isn't the right time for them. And maybe we need to talk about cleaning your list up a little bit, and making sure that the people that are on your list actually want to be there.

The real fix for low open rates: Dopamail

One way to build a really strong open rate is to use something I've called Dopamail. It's embedding rewards inside of your email, so that every time somebody opens it and engages with it, they get a little bit of a dopamine response.

When you start building that into your emails, you're going to see that your opens and clicks over time increase. I've implemented this strategy with clients, and in over six months we've seen their open rates almost double. All it requires is you taking a little time to focus on what you're communicating, and make it interactive and engaging.

Dopamail is a method I created at Actually Fun Email.

You're not gonna fix your email list overnight. It won't be fixed by resending to unopens. It won't be fixed by cleaning the list. It won't be fixed by getting 1,000 new subscribers. There's a real structural system that works to fix email lists, and I call it Dopamail.

Want to learn more about Dopamail? Work with me

Next, watch: my Saturday Morning Cartoon framework. It's gonna teach you how to land in the primary inbox by focusing on your deliverability and what you need to do to get out of the promotions tab. Email deliverability for beginners, explained with Saturday morning cartoons