Automated Win-Back Campaign for Inactive

Automatically re-engage subscribers inactive for 90+ days

Identifies subscribers who haven't opened an email in 90 days and automatically sends them a special win-back offer to re-engage before unsubscribing.

Every Monday at midnight, Nora queries Mailchimp to identify subscribers who have not opened an email in the last 90 days. It segments these contacts and triggers a predefined win-back automation workflow. This workflow sends a re-engagement email containing a special offer. Over the next 48 hours, Nora monitors open rates for this specific segment. If a subscriber remains inactive after a follow-up message, Nora removes them from the active audience.

Marketing managers no longer manually filter audiences and build temporary segments for unengaged users. They spend their time designing the core newsletter content and deciding on the overarching promotional strategy. The manager still dictates the exact wording of the win-back offer and determines the final cutoff threshold for unsubscribing users by instructing Nora in their chat channel.

Runs weekly on monday at 12:00 am using Mailchimp, run by your Marketing Manager.

How it works

1. Run weekly audience query — At midnight on Monday, Nora connects to the Mailchimp API. It searches the audience data using filters to locate subscribers whose last open date is older than 90 days. It compiles these records into a distinct segment.
2. Trigger the workflow — Nora adds the identified subscribers to a dedicated win-back automation workflow in Mailchimp. This action immediately queues the first email in the sequence, which contains a re-engagement incentive designed by the marketing team.
3. Monitor initial engagement — For the next 48 hours, Nora pulls campaign reports for the win-back workflow. It checks the open rates and click rates specifically for the newly enrolled subscribers to see who interacted with the first message.
4. Handle partial engagement — If a subscriber opens the email but does not click the link, Nora tags their profile as a partial engagement. It leaves them in the audience but skips the aggressive follow-up, avoiding sending redundant final warnings to users who are reading.
5. Send follow-up or unsubscribe — For subscribers with zero opens after 48 hours, Nora triggers the final follow-up email. If another 48 hours pass with no activity, Nora updates their status to unsubscribed and removes them from the active audience list.

What this replaces

A marketing manager logs into Mailchimp, navigates to the audience dashboard, and creates a new segment based on campaign activity. They filter for users who did not open recent campaigns, export the list, and manually import them into a separate win-back campaign. Later, they review the campaign reports to manually unsubscribe those who ignored the emails.

• Filter the Mailchimp audience for inactive subscribers.
• Create a temporary segment for the unengaged users.
• Enroll the segment into a specific re-engagement campaign.
• Review campaign reports days later to find non-responders.
• Manually unsubscribe users who ignored the final warning.

Rough estimate rather than a measured figure: about 45 minutes a week, based on 10 minutes to build the segments and trigger the campaign, plus 35 minutes reviewing reports and manually unsubscribing unresponsive contacts across a large list.

What it needs to run

Accounts and plans

• An active Mailchimp account.
• A Mailchimp plan that supports automation workflows and audience segmentation.

Access it asks for

• Basic Auth using an API key to authenticate requests.
• Read access to audience and campaign data to identify inactive subscribers.
• Write access to audiences and automations to tag users and trigger workflows.

What Nora reads

• Audience data including subscriber join dates and last open dates.
• Campaign reports detailing open rates, click rates, and bounces.

What Nora writes

• New audience segments for inactive users.
• Tags applied to subscriber profiles.
• Status updates changing a subscriber to unsubscribed.

When it goes wrong

• Mailchimp API rate limit is reached during high volume queries. Nora pauses the operation and respects the throttling limits. It waits for the API to accept connections again, then resumes processing the audience segment exactly where it left off.
• The predefined win-back workflow is deleted or paused in Mailchimp. Nora detects that the target workflow is unavailable. It halts the enrollment process and sends a message in the chat channel asking the manager to restore or specify a new workflow.
• No subscribers meet the 90-day inactivity threshold during the query. Nora completes its search and finds zero matching records. It does nothing to the audience, creates no segments, and simply waits until the next scheduled Monday run.
• A subscriber opens a regular newsletter during the 48-hour wait. Nora reads the updated campaign report and sees the new open event. It immediately removes the subscriber from the win-back sequence and tags them as re-engaged.

Who this is for

Worth it if

• Marketing managers at e-commerce brands managing lists of 10,000 or more subscribers.
• Content creators whose email list health directly impacts their deliverability and sponsor rates.
• Newsletter operators who want to systematically prune unengaged users without manual weekly maintenance.

Not worth it if

• Businesses with very small mailing lists where manually reviewing subscriber activity takes only a few minutes.
• Sales teams using Mailchimp for highly personalized outreach where human judgment dictates when to stop emailing a prospect.

A worked example

A regional home goods retailer runs a weekly newsletter. They instruct Nora to find anyone who has not opened an email in 90 days and route them to a specific Mailchimp automation that offers a free shipping code.

Nora runs the Monday query and identifies 412 inactive subscribers. It moves them to the win-back segment and triggers the workflow. 48 hours later, Nora reads the campaign report. It finds that 84 subscribers opened the email and 12 clicked the shipping code. Nora tags these 84 as 'Re-engaged'. It sends the final warning email to the remaining 328. After another 48 hours, Nora unsubscribes the 328 non-responders and sends a brief summary to the marketing manager in WhatsApp: 'Win-back complete. 84 subscribers re-engaged. 328 unsubscribed due to inactivity.'

Frequently asked questions

How do I change the 90-day inactivity threshold?

You tell Nora in your chat channel. If you decide that 60 days is a better cutoff for your list, you just message Nora and say you want to use a 60-day window instead. Nora updates its query logic for the next scheduled run. You do not need to edit any code or adjust settings.

What happens if a subscriber accidentally gets unsubscribed?

Nora changes their status in Mailchimp to unsubscribed, which prevents future sends. If this happens in error, the subscriber can manually resubscribe through your standard signup forms, or you can ask Nora to revert their status if you have explicit permission to email them. Nora logs every status change.

Does Nora read the actual content of my newsletters?

No. Nora only pulls campaign reports and audience metadata through the Mailchimp API. It reads open dates, click events, bounce statuses, and subscriber tags to determine engagement. It does not parse the body text or images of the emails you send to your audience.

Can I review the inactive list before Nora unsubscribes them?

Yes. You can instruct Nora to pause after creating the inactive segment and sending the list to you in chat. Nora will wait for your explicit approval before triggering the win-back workflow or changing any subscriber statuses. You just tell Nora you want this approval step added to the routine.

Connects to

• Mailchimp — all 8 Mailchimp automations

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