In Hive, email engagement levels are based on how contacts interact with your email campaigns. These levels help you understand who’s most engaged with your content—and who may be at risk of disengaging.
The transition from “at risk” to “inactive” occurs after 10 consecutive campaigns of non-engagement. This helps maintain strong deliverability by ensuring you’re not continuously emailing unresponsive contacts.
If you suspect emails are landing in spam instead of inboxes, check out this help article for tips to improve deliverability.
How to re-engage inactive contacts
Inactive contacts aren’t a lost cause—they just need the right nudge to start engaging again. This article outlines strategies to win them back while maintaining healthy deliverability and staying true to your brand voice.
Strengthen the foundation
Start by reviewing your Welcome Email. Make sure it includes a clickable element—like a “Confirm Email” or “Join the List” button. This early engagement helps train inbox algorithms to recognize your messages as legitimate.
You can also include a short, branded footer note such as:
“Did this email land in your pesky spam or promotions tab? Move us to your inbox so you don’t miss the next show!”
Small touches like this remind subscribers (and inboxes) that your messages are worth keeping front and center.
Build a multi-step winback automation
Instead of sending a single “We miss you” message, create a multi-email winback automation over several weeks or months. For example:
A friendly check-in (“Still want to hear from us?”)
A follow-up with a strong incentive or exclusive content
A reminder about what they’re missing (upcoming events, insider news)
A nudge towards signing up for your SMS club
A final message giving them a chance to stay subscribed
Use “enters segment” as the automation trigger (default entry trigger in the winback automation) so only new inactive contacts enter the series, preventing repetitive emails to the same group.
Creative re-engagement initiatives
Contests and presale registration pages are fun ways to get inactive subscribers clicking again—they tend to drive higher engagement rates than standard email campaigns. You can also include a small test group of inactive contacts in targeted or genre-specific sends to gauge interest without harming your sender reputation.
Both options include shareable URLs to their respective pages, making it easy to post on social media or have partners promote your initiatives.
Include inactive contacts when it makes sense
By default, inactive contacts are excluded from campaigns because adding them to broad sends can harm your domain reputation and email deliverability. That said, there are cases where including a subset of inactives is appropriate:
Event-based emails: “Know before you go” and “post-show” updates are timely, highly relevant, and generally safe to send to inactives.
Targeted tests: Try small, genre- or interest-specific messages to a limited inactive segment to gauge engagement before expanding.
Critical service updates: If you must communicate essential changes (for example, venue updates, time changes), include inactives sparingly.
Explore Ads
Extend your reach beyond email by syncing your inactive contact list into Meta Custom Audiences. Targeted ads can reintroduce your brand to these subscribers and encourage them to re-engage with your emails.