Re-Engagement Journey

Use Act-On’s pre-built Re-Engagement Journey automated program to reconnect with inactive contacts before removing them from your active marketing lists. It’s a simple, effective way to reignite interest or, if not, keep your lists clean and focused on engaged audiences.

What This Program Does

Over time, it’s natural for some contacts to go quiet - they stop opening emails, visiting your site, or engaging altogether. Before removing them, give them one last, value-packed chance to reconnect.

This automated journey helps you re-engage inactive contacts with relevant content or offers. If they still don’t respond, you can automatically remove them from marketing lists to maintain deliverability and focus your efforts on active leads.

You can adjust this journey at any time: add or remove emails, adjust wait steps, or include more branches to match your re-engagement strategy. If you’re just getting started, this pre-built template gives you a simple, ready-to-use foundation.

Step 1: Start with the Template

To make setup easier, a ready-made template is available in your account.

1. Go to Content > Catalog > Programs.
2. Select Re-Engagement Journey.
3. Choose the folder where you want to save it.
4. Click Download.

Step 2: Set Up Your Trigger(s)

Define how contacts will enter the journey. For this program, you’ll target contacts who have gone inactive for a specific period of time. The easiest way is to create a segment based on last activity date.

Create a Segment for Inactive Contacts and use criteria such as:

• Behavior > In the last 730 days (2 years) > Opened messages > None
• And/Or Clicked messages > None
• (You can include additional behaviors like form submissions or landing page visits.)
• Optional: Exclude recent customers or high-value contacts you don’t want to remove yet.

Step 3: Create Your Emails

Prepare and approve all emails before adding them to the Automated Program. Once added, edits to the original templates won’t automatically update inside the program.

Recommended email flow:

To access matching email wireframes:

1. Go to Content > Catalog > Messages.
2. Select the templates matching the titles above.
3. Choose the folder where you’d like to save them.
4. Click Download.

These templates are unbranded so you can easily apply your own design and style.

Step 4: Build the Automated Program

Once your content is ready, open the saved template and configure your workflow.

1. Go to Automation > Automated Programs.
2. Click the Templates tab and find your saved “Re-Engagement Journey.”
3. Hover over the program name and click the paper icon (+ Create Program from Template).
4. Click Create Program.

Program Setup

• Under the Settings tab, update your program name and description if needed.
• Click Select Sources and choose your inactive contact segment.
• Ensure entrants can start immediately or on a set schedule.
• Enable Suppress entrants on suppression lists (recommended).
• Click Save.

Program Flow

• In the Build tab, select Program Messages and add your prepared emails.
• Open Program Flow to assign each message to its proper step.
• Adjust wait times between messages to match your preferred cadence.
• Add branch logic to identify Engaged Contacts who click, open, or respond during the series.
• For contacts who don’t engage, configure a final action to:
  • Remove them from a specific marketing list,
  • Add them to your opt-out list, or
  • Update their subscription preference to False.
• Click Save.

Step 5: Run & Monitor

When everything looks ready, go to Actions > Start Program.

After launch, review engagement metrics such as open and click rates to see how many contacts reconnected. Over time, use these results to refine your re-engagement timing, content, and removal criteria.