What is a winback?
A winback email automation is designed to re-engage inactive subscribers or customers who haven’t purchased in a while. It sends an email, or a series of emails, with a compelling subject line and content aimed at bringing them back. Once you set it up, Hive automatically sends these emails whenever a subscriber or customer meets the winback conditions.
Who are inactive subscribers?
Hive automatically organizes your audience into engagement-level segments. A subscriber is considered inactive if they have not opened or clicked on any of the last 10 email campaigns they’ve received. Winback campaigns target these subscribers to re-engage them and improve the overall health of your contact list.
Why winbacks matter
Winback automations help keep your list healthy, re-engage inactive subscribers, and recover potential revenue from customers who have dropped off. By targeting only those who have disengaged, you get more value out of your audience while protecting your overall deliverability. Once set up, the automation runs in the background—saving you time and effort while continuously working to bring subscribers back.
Setting up a winback automation
Step 1: Access automations
From the left-hand navigation menu, click Campaigns > Automations.
Click + New Automation in the top right-hand corner.
Step 2: Choose your automation
Select the Email Engagement Winback option.
Click Enters Segment, type in Inactive Subscribers, and click Save Trigger.
Open the Global Rules section to determine how subscribers remain in the automation if there are multiple steps. For most winback automations, you don’t need to add extra rules since the only requirement is that subscribers have entered and remain in the inactive segment. Even if you’re not adding additional rules, you must still open the Global Rules block and click Continue to confirm this step and lock in the automation setup.
Step 3: Add delays
The default time delay is set to 1 hour, but you can adjust it to minutes, hours, or days depending on your strategy.
Step 4: Customize your emails
Click on the email step in your automation.
Choose or edit a template by going to Templates in the left-hand menu.
Select a featured template, hover and click Actions > Edit Copy of Template, or click
New Email Template to design your own.
Update details such as the subject line, preview text, “From” name, and sender address, then save your email.
Pro Tip: Include a clear call-to-action, such as a button that says “Keep me on the list.” A single click signals inbox providers (like Gmail or Outlook) that subscribers want to continue receiving your emails, which helps improve deliverability.
Step 5: Add additional steps (optional- recommended!)
To build a multi-step winback series, click the + icon to add more time delays and emails. For example, you might send follow-ups 1 week and 2 weeks after the first winback email.
You can choose to add an unsubscribe action at the end of a winback automation to keep your list clean.
For example, if a contact has received 3–4 winback emails over the course of a month and still hasn’t engaged, it'd be great to unsubscribe as they are unlikely to re-engage with your brand moving forward.
Step 6: Launch your winback automation
When you’re ready, switch the toggle in the top right from Paused to Live. Hive will automatically place anyone who enters the Inactive Subscribers segment into this automation.